Cultural Currency: Irish Traditional Music and the Making of Contemporary Irish Identity
Résumés
Cet article explore la contribution de la musique traditionnelle irlandaise à la construction de l’identité irlandaise contemporaine, tant en Irlande qu’à l’échelle internationale. Il étudie l’évolution de la musique traditionnelle irlandaise depuis les efforts de préservation et les associations nationalistes du XVIIIe siècle, le soutien de l’État et la commercialisation du XXe siècle, jusqu’à son rôle mondial par le biais de la diaspora, du tourisme, des festivals et de la diplomatie culturelle. L’étude met en évidence les tensions entre authenticité culturelle et viabilité économique, et montre comment la musique traditionnelle irlandaise est passée d’une expression locale à une tradition adaptable et reconnue de façon internationale, qui joue un rôle culturel et économique majeur dans l’Irlande du XXIe siècle.
Entrées d’index
Mots-clés :
musique traditionnelle irlandaise, identité culturelle, pouvoir de convaincre, mondialisation, tourisme, diplomatie culturelleKeywords:
Irish traditional music, cultural identity, soft power, globalisation, tourism, cultural diplomacyPlan
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Introduction
1This study examines Irish traditional music (ITM) as a key element of contemporary Irish identity and as part of a wider global dynamic where music and dance serve as cultural expression and diplomacy. In recent decades, Ireland has developed a redefined musical ecosystem in which music often assumes political and economic roles, sometimes overshadowing its community-based origins.
2In today’s unstable geopolitical climate, the paper explores how traditional music, seemingly anodyne, has been strategically used to reshape Ireland’s global image. Once informal and marginal, ITM has been elevated into a national symbol, an economic resource, and a tool of soft power.
3The article will first trace the historical preservation of heritage, the forging of Irish identity, and the role of state support. It will then analyse three further phases: the global dissemination of ITM, the influence of festivals, and the role of international links. By doing so, it will show how Ireland has both consciously and unconsciously used ITM to reposition itself nationally and internationally.
Heritage
- 1 All the collectors mentioned here were Protestants, as were John and William Neale (dates unknown), (...)
4From the late 18th century, ITM became both a cultural emblem and a practice at risk of decline. Scholars often highlight the decisive role of collectors such as Edward Bunting, George Petrie, Henry Hudson, and James Goodman, whose work preserved a vast repertoire still central today. What is sometimes overlooked in this formative phase, often idealised by later nationalists, is the fact that it was largely shaped by Anglo-Irish Protestant scholars, whose education, publishing access, and mobility enabled them to document and promote the music.1
5Equally significant was the harp revival: adopted by the United Irishmen with the motto “It is new strung and shall be heard”, it inspired a school of harping taught by Edward Bunting in Belfast between 1808 and 1813, new instruments by John Egan and Francis Hewson, who created what latter became known as the “neo-Irish harp” or “Celtic harp”, and literary works like Thomas Moore’s “The Harp That Once through Tara’s Halls”.
6These efforts to reinterpret heritage laid the foundations for later community and institutional revivals of traditional music in Ireland.
Public support and self-perception
7The post-independence era saw Ireland adopt an inward-looking posture and a preservationist stance. Music-making and dancing were regarded as a threat to an ideal and pure Irish identity, as expressed here by the Catholic hierarchy in 1927:
- 2 Plenary Council of Ireland, Acta et Decreta, Dublin, Browne and Nolan, 1929, p. 141-142; cited in J (...)
The evil one is ever setting his snares for unwary feet. At the moment, his traps for the innocent are chiefly the dance-hall, the bad book, the indecent paper, the motion picture, the immodest fashion in female dress – all of which tend to destroy the virtues characteristic of our race.2
8The first half of the 20th century can consequently be regarded as a period when official support for music and musicians was non-existent, as evidenced by the 1935 Public Dance Halls Act, which sought to regulate cultural expression within a limited framework, thereby preserving a specific moral standard of the Irish identity:
- 3 “Carrigan Report” to the Minister of Justice, 20 August 1931, section C28: “Dance Halls”.
In the course of the Inquiry no form of abuse was blamed more persistently for pernicious consequences than the unlicensed dances held all over the country in unsuitable buildings and surrounding […]. Before us the Commissioner, speaking for the Civic Guard, said these dance gatherings in many districts were turned into “orgies of dissipation, which in the present state of legislation the police are powerless to prevent”.3
As a result, this act severely curtailed the informal and community-based musical practices that had long thrived at local crossroads and in rural homes, regarded as a threat to national morality or cohesion and replacing them with licensed, commercialised venues under clerical and state surveillance. This episode highlights how Irish identity in the early 20th century was not simply inherited or organically maintained, but actively shaped by institutional interventions that defined which cultural practices were deemed acceptable, respectable, or “truly Irish” within the emerging nation-state.
9As Ireland grappled with questions of cultural identity, this introspection then extended into the realm of musicology: the relationship between ITM and European music as a whole took centre stage in the mid-20th century. The composer Seán Ó Riada explained for example in 1962 on Raidió Éireann that he wanted
- 4 Seán Ó Riada, Our Musical Heritage, Thomas Kinsella, Tomás Ó Canainn (eds.), Portlaoise, The Dolmen (...)
[…] to introduce to those not acquainted with it already, the rich and comparatively untouched pastures of Irish traditional music […]. The first thing to note, obviously enough, is that Irish music is not European. The very obviousness of that has previously clouded some of the implications.4
- 5 Breandán Breathnach, “Traditional Music”, in Encyclopaedia of Ireland, Victor Meally (ed.), Dublin, (...)
In contrast, another major specialist, Breandán Breathnach, in an article published in 1968 in the Encyclopaedia of Ireland, considered that “[f]undamentally, Irish Folk music is a branch of European Music”.5
10This lack of consensus among 20th-century experts long caused misunderstandings and confusion, and discussions about the origins of ITM were typically driven by ideological values and notions of cultural purity, highlighting how debates over traditional music were inseparable from the nation’s evolving sense of identity in the post-independence era. As Stuart Hall has shown, such debates reflect the fact that:
- 6 Stuart Hall, “Cultural Identity and Diaspora”, in Identity: Community, Culture, Difference, Jonatha (...)
[…] cultural identity is not a fixed essence at all, lying unchanged outside history and culture. It is not some universal and transcendental spirit inside us on which history has made no fundamental mark. It is not once-and-for-all. It is not a fixed origin to which we can make some final and absolute Return.6
Identity is indeed a process of negotiation, shaped by competing narratives and historical reinterpretation. Traditional music, in this light, has now become one of the sites where Irishness is constantly redefined.
11After decades of cultural control, ITM entered a phase of renewed self-assertion in the latter 20th century, as communities sought to overcome economic hardship and cultural pessimism. From the 1970s, associations and festivals multiplied, many tied to regions or musicians.
- 7 Criticism concerns competition, politics, and centralised control under Labhrás Ó Murchú, unelected (...)
12The first landmark was the 1951 Fleadh Cheoil in Mullingar, organised by Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, which grew into a major annual event attracting musicians from Ireland and abroad. Despite ongoing criticism of the association,7 the Fleadh has become central to the ITM calendar.
13Equally significant is the Willie Clancy Summer School in Milltown Malbay, founded in memory of the piper (1918-1973). Organised by Na Píobairí Uilleann, it draws thousands each year, valued for its focus on music itself rather than competition or commerce.
- 8 Sharon Shannon, Out the Gap, Solid Records, ROCD 14, 1994.
14In the early 1990s, magazines like Hot Press, once devoted to rock and pop, began covering ITM and its cultural and economic weight, reflecting a blurring of boundaries between traditional and popular music. A symbolic moment came in 1995 when Sharon Shannon won the Irish Music Industry Award for Best Traditional Folk Album,8 despite her record blending Cajun, Reggae, and Finnish influences, which puzzled some musicians.
15At the same time, producer Eoin Holmes and Hot Press launched the 1993 Jobs in Music campaign, promoting state support for all musical genres as part of a viable national industry within an increasingly globalised market:
- 9 Niall Crumlish, “Industry Special: Irish Music – The Blueprint”, Hot Press, vol. 17, no. 16, 25 Aug (...)
There is absolutely no doubt that additional wealth, and jobs, can be created in the music industry in Ireland […]. At the risk of being repetitious, music is one of this country’s greatest natural resources. South Africa has its diamonds, the Middle-East its oil, France its food – we have our music. […] Irish bands, songwriters and artists have proven that they – that we – are very good at this thing. Without any kind of government strategy, an enormous amount has been achieved. Much more can be.9
In this case, however, framing traditional music explicitly as an economic resource or “natural resource” prompts critical reflection on the potential implications for cultural identity politics, as the pursuit of commercial success may inadvertently privilege certain musical styles, performers, or interpretations that align better with global market expectations, potentially marginalising practices deemed less commercially viable, though still culturally significant.
From a threat to a promise
- 10 Reinventing Ireland: Culture, Society and the Global Economy, Peadar Kirby, Luke Gibbons, Michael C (...)
16During the 1990s, Ireland’s economic boom and social changes10 reshaped debates on cultural identity, which fundamentally interrogated the concept of a unified Irish identity, emphasising the complex and multifaceted character of Irish society, as exemplified by the very diverse nature of ITM – from the regional stylistic distinctions in flute playing or fiddling to the different sean-nós song styles, from the evolution of unison playing in sessions to the new approaches of groups on stage, from Céili to set dancing, from sean-nós dancing styles to “fíor-chéilí”, from the Willie Clancy Summer School to the Fleadh Cheoil, etc.
- 11 Donal O’Sullivan, Irish Folk Music: Song and Dance, Dublin, Cultural Relations Committee of Ireland (...)
- 12 See also Alexandra Slaby, “Ireland’s Music Policy”, in Music and the Irish Imagination: Like a Lang (...)
17In this third phase, two state-funded bodies played a central role: the Arts Council of Ireland (founded in 1951), which only embraced ITM from the late 1970s, and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (founded in 1942, and renamed in 1962). In the Republic, Donal O’Sullivan’s 1952 government-commissioned booklet11 still presented ITM as a homogeneous and patriotic tradition, excluding hybrid categories, both in form (certain ballads) and in substance (group playing).12
18Since 1969, cultural policy in the Republic has also included the Artists’ Tax Exemption, later revised in 1994 and 1997, granting resident artists of all nationalities full income-tax relief on recognised creative works.
19In the late 1970s, after ITM’s resurgence, the Irish government began to show interest: Paddy Glackin became the Arts Council’s first Traditional Music Officer in 1980, succeeded by Dermot McLaughlin in 1986. More decisively, Nicholas Carolan and Harry Bradshaw proposed creating a public archive: established in 1987, the Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA) made its collections accessible from the start, supported by both Arts Councils, in the Republic and Northern Ireland. The institution is officially tasked with the following missions:
- the collection and acquisition of all items falling within a broad definition of Irish music;
- the preservation of these items for future generations;
- their arrangement for consultation; their widest possible dissemination.
The institution boasts the most extensive collection of music, dance and song resources in Ireland, making it an invaluable resource for both amateur and professional musicians, as well as researchers in Ireland and abroad.
- 13 Pierre Bourdieu, “The Production of Belief: Contribution to an Economy of Symbolic Goods” [1977], R (...)
20The creation of the ITMA not only served archival and educational purposes but also redefined the status of ITM within Ireland’s cultural and political fields. In Pierre Bourdieu’s terms, it exemplifies symbolic capital: a once marginal folk practice gaining legitimacy, prestige, and institutional authority.13
21Through state support and ITMA’s establishment in 1987, ITM was reclassified from oral tradition to recognised national heritage, worthy of preservation, investment, and scholarship. This marked a decisive shift in cultural legitimacy, positioning ITM within the symbolic economy of Irish nationhood and reflecting a broader reconfiguration of Ireland’s cultural politics, first acknowledged by Arts Council chairman Ciarán Benson in the 1990s:
- 14 Ciarán Benson, interview with Joe Jackson, Hot Press, vol. 19, no. 21, 1 November 1995, p. 15.
It certainly is true that the area of music as understood by the Arts Council didn’t include the traditional music until the late 1970s. And it was not until the late 1980s that it included popular music. And now we’re targeting jazz […]. But let’s not forget that the Arts Council is only one element of State support. I would love to see local authorities coming in strongly in this respect.14
- 15 Finance Act 1984, Section 16; see Andy Bielenberg, Raymond Ryan, An Economic History of Ireland sin (...)
22Thanks to this renewed interest in the various forms of music, the number of studios in Ireland then expanded dramatically from the late 1980s, largely due to the introduction in 1984 of a tax-supported scheme for investment in recording studios (the Business Expansion Scheme for Music, revised in 1996).15
- 16 On music education debates, see Barry Burgess, “Irish Music in Education – A Northern Ireland Persp (...)
- 17 Donald Herron, Deaf Ears? A Report on the Provision of Music Education in Irish Schools, Dublin, Ar (...)
23A major limitation of government support lay in arts education, since the Arts Council had little influence over school curricula and on educational bodies in general.16 Real progress only began with the creation of the Department of Arts and Culture in 1982, and in 1985, the Arts Council’s report Deaf Ears17 highlighted Ireland’s backwardness in school music education within Europe, prompting one observer to note:
- 19 See Central Statistics Office, CensusAtSchool 2013, 16 October 2014, p. 2, online: https://www.cso. (...)
24Yet, a 2014 report by the Central Statistics Office showed that 45% of Irish pupils played an instrument, with the tin whistle ranking third after piano and guitar.19 Still in terms of education, the academic institutionalisation of ITM began in 1922 at University College Cork with Carl Hardebeck (1922-1923), Annie Patterson (1924-1934), and Seán Neeson (1934-1959) – an initial, tentative recognition of the tradition within university curricula. Research developed further with the Folklore of Ireland Society (1927), which became the Irish Folklore Commission (1935) and later University College Dublin’s Department of Folklore, while the National Archive of Folk Music was established in 1972.
- 20 See Making Live Music Happen – Music Network Strategic Plan 2014/2017, Dublin, Music Network, 2014, (...)
- 21 See https://www.musicgeneration.ie.
25For broader support, the Arts Council founded Music Network in 1986 to promote access to traditional, classical, and jazz music nationwide. Now independent, it supports concerts, touring, and music education.20 Since 2011, its Music Generation programme, funded in part by U2, has also encouraged children and young people to create and perform music and, though not focused specifically on ITM, the initiative has been widely successful.21
26However, when considering the overall impact of official support for ITM in Ireland, it is often noted that public policies have not given music (whether traditional, classical, jazz, or rock) the attention it deserves, reflecting a persistent bias in favour of other art forms – despite its increasing prominence in the lives of the general public. This issue was emphasised by Dermot McLaughlin in his 2004 report as Music Officer for the Arts Council, which proposed an ambitious policy acknowledging the importance of the amateur world in traditional arts, defined in a very broad way, by recognising their predominant role in Irish society:
- 22 Towards a Policy for the Traditional Arts, Dublin, Arts Council, 2004, p. 16.
The Committee considers this action necessary in order to begin to reflect the centrality of the traditional arts to Irish life, to correct the current inadequate support by the Government for these art forms, to begin to assure traditional artists that they have a place at the Arts Council table, and to affirm that they are valued as artists and contributors to the cultural life of this country.22
27Recent developments suggest a lasting shift in ITM’s status, with stronger government support. One example is PipeCraft, a training programme launched in 2011 by Na Píobairí Uilleann in partnership with the Ballyfermot College of Further Education in County Dublin, funded by the state to safeguard pipe-making skills.
- 23 “Pipe Making at PipeCraft”, The Journal of Music, 28 June 2012, online: https://journalofmusic.com/ (...)
Apart from the creation of a minimum of thirty jobs, additional exports of over €1.5 million per annum, and embedded cultural tourism, we will re-establish an important heritage craft in Ireland by re-invigorating a great tradition of pipe-making dating back to the eighteenth century.23
28In 2022, the Irish government introduced a groundbreaking pilot scheme known as the Basic Income for the Arts, aimed at offering financial security to artists and creative professionals. The initiative provides a weekly payment of €325 to 2,000 selected participants across the Republic of Ireland, for a duration of three years, concluding in 2025. Its primary goal is to acknowledge the inherent cultural and societal value of artistic work, particularly that which may not be commercially profitable. As Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and the Media Catherine Martin explained:
- 24 Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and the Media, “Groundbreaking Basic Income (...)
The Basic Income for the Arts pilot scheme is a once-in-a-generation initiative. It makes a strong statement about the value Ireland places on the arts and artistic practice, both for its intrinsic value and in terms of our personal and collective wellbeing, and also in terms of its importance to our identity and cultural distinctiveness on the global stage.24
Although not exclusive to ITM, it benefits many of its practitioners and reinforces the official support framework around the tradition and highlights its growing official role in shaping Ireland’s contemporary cultural identity.
29Finally, a third milestone came in 2023, when the government introduced income tax relief for uilleann pipe and Irish harp makers. Over the period spanning from 2023 to 2025, they will be able to claim exemption on profits up to €20,000, signalling the recognition of these instruments as vital elements of national culture.
30This complex trajectory – from marginalisation to institutional endorsement – marks a profound transformation in the status of ITM within Irish society, reflecting transformations in both political will and cultural perception: Irishness itself has been reimagined as plural, dynamic, and open to reinterpretation. In Bourdieu’s terms, ITM has gained symbolic capital, redefined as a legitimate and prestigious part of cultural life, supported by education, archives, tax relief, and performance structures. While this rehabilitation integrates once-contested traditions into the national narrative, tensions remain: commodification and cultural tourism increasingly privilege marketable expressions over popular authenticity, raising the risk that a dynamic communal practice may one day be reduced to a consumer-friendly spectacle, as visibility brings both legitimacy and economic exploitation – most notably within the booming cultural tourism sector.
Global attraction – tourism
31The fourth stage of this study involves a shift in focus from the distinctive features of ITM within its local context to its global expansion, with tourism playing an initial and crucial role in this process during the 20th century.
- 25 An Bord Fáilte, “Ireland of the Welcomes”, in Encyclopaedia of Ireland, p. 304-307.
32Since the 1970s, Ireland has attracted tourists seeking an “authentic” cultural experience, from pub sessions to festivals, thereby helping spread ITM globally. Tourism was first identified as a major revenue source from the 1950s: Bord Fáilte (now Fáilte Ireland since 2003), founded in 1955, saw its budget rise by nearly 700% in its first decade from IR£384,000 in 1956-1957 to IR£2,671,000 in 1966-1967.25, and by the 1970s it was already partnering with Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann to promote music.
- 26 See Ulster University Economic Policy Centre, Tourism on the Island of Ireland, May 2024, p. 2, onl (...)
33The economic impact has since become immense: by 2019 the tourism sector generated almost €17 billion in gross value added and over 300,000 jobs.26
34These figures not only highlight the substantial economic weight of cultural tourism, but also point to the central role that music plays in shaping Ireland’s international image. As cultural experiences became an integral part of the visitor economy, the spaces in which music is encountered also evolved.
35In the second half of the 20th century, the pub became the main venue for ITM, a development that coincided with its rise as a tourist product. A recent Arts Council report acknowledges the pub’s central role in the oral transmission of ITM:
- 27 Towards a Policy for Irish Traditional Arts, Dublin, Arts Council, 2014, p. 3.
There is a widespread perception that the practice of performing traditional arts in public houses is essential to the traditional arts. Not only does the informal nature suit many artists, but the “paid session”, in which two or three anchor musicians are paid to perform on a regular basis in a venue, can also be a welcome source of income.27
- 28 Based on personal observation: in summer, established session musicians may play 5-6 times weekly.
36Music sessions, however, were invented in London in the 1950s, and only became common in Irish pubs in the 1960s, turning them into key social spaces. These sessions soon generated income for musicians and publicans, with benefits spreading to local economies, and reflected deeper societal changes, notably the increasing urbanisation of Irish life and the parallel evolution of musical practices in diaspora communities: the adaptability of diaspora communities in Britain and the United States considerably helped ITM survive where other folk traditions declined. By the 1990s, sessions also contributed to Ireland’s economic boom, with anchor musicians paid at a music session typically earning about €100 per night.28 This financial recognition strengthened the sense that ITM was a valued national asset, a trend accelerated by EU membership and increased tourism.
- 29 Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin, Flowing Tides: History and Memory in an Irish Soundscape, New York, Oxford U (...)
37A fresh musical paradigm has thus emerged in recent decades, and economic factors have gained new weight in ITM, with pubs (especially in Dublin and the west) turning music into a tourist product. This commodification has secured visibility and income but also reshaped performance, blurring the line between local practice and staged experience. This dynamic has been explored in depth by Gearoid Ó hAllmhuráin and Adam R. Kaul in their studies of Doolin,29 where they demonstrate how tourism influences not only the presentation but even the musical form of sessions, making authenticity a contested, negotiated construct between locals, tourists, and recently arrived musicians.
38These dynamics confirm that ITM is central to the ongoing redefinition of Irish identity, not as a fixed essence but as a process of representation and negotiation. Its commercialisation places debates about value and preservation on a global stage, showing there is no single definition of ITM or of Irishness itself. Since the 1960s, ITM has embodied this fluidity, and by the 1990s it had become both a driver of renewal (for some) and a source of anxiety over cultural dilution (for others).
39Indeed, since the 1970s, traditional music has enabled the Irish to demonstrate an undeniable expertise, to raise their country’s profile, to foster social connections, to create jobs, to stimulate tourism, and to enhance self-confidence. Consequently, it appears rational to contemplate ITM from a multitude of perspectives, as underlined in 1994 by Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, in a report commissioned by ITM associations:
- a form of cultural expression which is a defining national characteristic;
- an internationally traded service;
- a provider of employment for over 10,000 people in Ireland at present;
- part of a technological revolution in all forms of data diffusion;
- based on intellectual property – creativity;
- impacting heavily on other sectors of the economy, particularly tourism;
- entertainment.30
40Although commercialisation may seem to overshadow ITM’s original role as communal entertainment and expression, the musical tradition remains a driving force in Ireland’s renewed cultural identity and economy. Yet its global commodification raises deeper questions: who defines “authentic” Irishness when cultural products are marketed and consumed worldwide, often detached from their original context?
The diaspora and beyond
- 31 The official March 2015 report is very vague: “[…] it is believed that there are up to 70 million p (...)
- 32 Cansin Arslan, Jean-Christophe Dumont, Zovanga Kone, Yasser Moullan, Caglar Ozden, Christopher Pars (...)
- 33 See Donald Harman Akenson, The Irish Diaspora: A Primer, Belfast – Toronto, The Institute of Irish (...)
41As we step into the 21st century, estimates of the Irish diaspora vary,31 but an OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development) report in 2014 found that about 17% of people born in Ireland lived abroad.32 Unsurprisingly, ITM is deeply rooted in diaspora countries such as England, the United States, Canada, and Australia, where it has become a cultural ambassador for Ireland.33
42Yet its transmission abroad raises questions of ownership, representation, and identity, since diaspora practices often diverge from those in Ireland, shaped by hybrid influences and local contexts. This complexity was already evident in the 1990s, epitomised by Bill Clinton’s 1995 remarks during his visit to Northern Ireland:
- 34 Speech by US President Bill Clinton, during his visit to Belfast, 30 November 1995, official press (...)
Here in Northern Ireland, you are making a miracle – a miracle symbolised by those two children who held hands and told us what this whole thing is all about. In the land of the harp and the fiddle, the fife and the Lambeg drum, two proud traditions are coming together in the harmonies of peace.34
Similarly, in an official statement issued by Tony Blair’s office in June 1997 regarding the Irish Famine, the very recently appointed British Prime Minister of the United Kingdom remarked:
- 35 Tony Blair Famine statement, Millstreet, 1 June 1997, later revealed as drafted by aides and not ap (...)
Britain in particular has benefited immeasurably from the skills and talents of Irish people, not only in areas such as music, the arts and the caring professions but across the whole spectrum of our political, economic and social life.35
Such statements, though largely diplomatic gestures, show how Irish music has been used as symbolic capital in politics – celebrating culture while also serving as a diplomatic tool that can reduce complex identities to simplified symbols.
43In recent decades, intensive ITM and dance courses have also flourished outside the Irish diaspora, among musicians with no Irish ancestry. Sessions and summer schools now exist across Europe, Asia, and South America, where local musicians only seek to perfect their technical knowledge and practice.
44This globalisation raises questions of identity: while commodification risks reducing ITM to tourist-friendly performances, international dissemination also fosters creativity, cross-cultural exchange, and resilience. Irishness thus appears as a fluid construct, continually reshaped through tradition, innovation, and dialogue.
45The process feeds back into Ireland itself, where ITM is both global heritage and cultural commodity. Since its acceptance on national airwaves in the 1960s, ITM has become a marketable cultural asset and a recognised international presence, a trajectory amplified by media and the Internet since the 1990s.
Cultural diplomacy
- 36 IFPC, The Music Industry in Ireland, Dublin, 1993; Simpson Xavier Horwath Consulting, A Strategic V (...)
- 37 FORTE Task Force, Access All Areas – Irish Music, an International Industry, Dublin, Stationery Off (...)
46The spread of ITM through diaspora and education eventually converged with formal diplomacy, as the Irish state recognised its value on the global stage. In the 1990s, six reports on the music industry were submitted to government,36 and then Minister Michael D. Higgins commissioned in 1995 a study on employment and international markets.37
47These initiatives went beyond job creation: they reflected growing awareness of culture as a strategic tool for shaping Ireland’s image abroad. This alignment of cultural policy and international projection exemplifies cultural diplomacy, where states use artistic expressions such as music to build goodwill, strengthen relations, and project a favourable identity.
- 38 Soft power is thus the ability to influence through attraction (culture, values, diplomacy) rather (...)
- 39 ITM first commodified in the United States through recordings (e.g. piper Patsy Touhey, 1901); a se (...)
- 40 Since 2009, seven editions of the Global Irish Forum – a biennial forum to reinforce Ireland’s glob (...)
48The promotion of ITM abroad fits Joseph Nye’s concept of soft power,38 where culture shapes international perceptions and enhances diplomatic influence. In pursuing global markets, ITM was further commercialised as a cultural product39 designed to present Ireland as both artistically authentic and economically dynamic. By the mid-1990s, cultural leaders openly linked this strategy to improving the national trade balance,40 as noted by Arts Council chairman Ciarán Benson in a 1995 interview with Hot Press:
- 41 Ciarán Benson, interview with Joe Jackson, Hot Press, vol. 19, no. 21, 1 November 1995, p. 14.
The function of the Arts Council is to create the conditions for more money to come in, both for the artists and for the arts community. And going back to the origin of the Arts Council in Ireland, the point is that when this money comes in, it has to be free from Government interference.41
- 42 See “Outcome Grants” on Culture Ireland website: https://applications.cultureireland.ie/index.php?r (...)
49As part of Ireland’s global cultural policy, Minister Catherine Martin launched the 2022-2025 strategy for Culture Ireland, a government-funded body created in 2005 to promote Irish arts abroad. Covering literature, visual arts, theatre, music, dance, and film, its policy emphasises artists, equality, diversity, sustainability, gender balance, and the Irish language, while aligning with the Global Ireland 2025 strategy in cooperation with the Department of Foreign Affairs and embassies. It remains a major source of funding for professional artists, with music strongly represented: in 2023, 41% of its €3.7 million budget (about €1.5 million) went to music and dance projects.42
- 43 See “‘I can’t make a living in Ireland. There’s no question about that.’ New Report on Irish Tradit (...)
- 44 In France, radio stations have to play a certain amount of French songs: either 60%, with 10% being (...)
50The drive to export ITM also reflects economic reality: Ireland’s small market cannot sustain the number of musicians it produces,43 especially as national radio lacks binding quotas for Irish music, unlike France or Canada. Despite campaigns and recommendations, Irish songs remain underrepresented on airwaves.44
51At the same time, ITM has long thrived on cultural exchange – from US recordings to the adoption of banjo, mandolin, and bouzouki, or the invention of pub sessions in England. It is thus both a product of Irish culture and part of global artistic heritage, comparable to jazz or reggae, belonging to Ireland but also to all who embrace it.
- 45 Simon Coveney, foreword to Government of Ireland – Emigrant Support Programme, Support for the Iris (...)
- 46 “Previous Funding. Breakdown of Funding by Organisation, Amount and Country”, online: https://www.i (...)
- 47 “[…] the global Irish family. It is a community that encompasses Irish-born citizens and those whos (...)
52A more critical case of state involvement is the Emigrant Support Programme, launched in 2004 to strengthen ties with the global Irish community “and all those who value their connection with Ireland”.45 Despite its broad cultural remit, the programme has paid little attention to music:46 since 2006, no grants outside the English-speaking world have gone to music-focused projects, apart from minimal support for Comhaltas in Luxembourg and Argentina. Instead, over three-quarters of funds in most countries go to business associations. In short, the scheme largely overlooks non-diaspora communities promoting Irish culture, particularly ITM, despite official references to this “affinity diaspora”.47
Conclusion
- 48 Anthony McCann, “All That Is Not Given Is Lost: Irish Traditional Music, Copyright, and Common Prop (...)
53A major factor in ITM’s international success has been its large-scale commercialisation, turning it into a commodity. Tunes and songs once shared by communities are now commodities, claimed as the property of individual authors,48 a shift that has long provoked strong criticism.
- 49 Julian Vignoles, “What Is Irish Popular Music?”, The Crane Bag, vol. 8, no. 2, 1984, Media and Popu (...)
A lot of commentators who like to talk about what they call the “traditional movement” have invented a whole set of clichés that make demands on the music; it has to be “going somewhere”; be “relevant to the eighties”; “develop”. […] What they’re effectively asking is that traditional music adapt itself to the market place.49
The tension between authenticity and commerce lies at the heart of ITM’s role as soft power. While commodification raises fears of dilution, it is also what has secured the music’s global visibility and survival. ITM has adapted to new environments, combining its exportable value with its local social role in sessions, dances, and singing gatherings. Yet this global success can also create feelings of cultural dispossession among Irish people, as their heritage is reshaped by international audiences – a dynamic shared with genres like jazz, flamenco, reggae, or tango, now part of world heritage.
54Music and dance, like literature, allow Ireland to participate in the global “concert of nations”. Long marked by a cultural inferiority complex and economic backwardness, Ireland now finds in ITM both symbolic capital and international recognition. But as with all forms of symbolic capital, its meanings are never neutral: such dynamics now compel us to consider, not only who and what gets to represent Irishness abroad, but increasingly how the meanings attached to ITM shift when shaped as much by local communities as by international audiences and markets.
55This study has traced how ITM shapes Irish identity at home and abroad, accumulating symbolic capital, functioning as soft power, and redefining Irishness. Its rise often occurred without, or even against, state support, showing how culture can lead where politics falters. In times of crisis, music and the arts provide language for endurance, memory, and renewal. Amid today’s global instability, artists are not secondary but essential: they offer meaning, connection, and collective orientation. Ireland’s musicians thus fulfil a civic role as vital as that of doctors or teachers – as healers of society through culture.
Notes
1 All the collectors mentioned here were Protestants, as were John and William Neale (dates unknown), Joseph Cooper Walker (1761-1810), William Forde (c. 1797-1850), Samuel Ferguson (1810-1886), Charlotte Milligan Fox (1864-1916) and Sam Henry (1878-1952). By contrast, Patrick Weston Joyce (1827-1914) and Richard Henebry (1863-1916) were Catholics.
2 Plenary Council of Ireland, Acta et Decreta, Dublin, Browne and Nolan, 1929, p. 141-142; cited in John Henry Whyte, Church and State in Modern Ireland, 1923-1979 [1971], 2nd ed., Dublin, Gill and Macmillan, 1980, p. 27.
3 “Carrigan Report” to the Minister of Justice, 20 August 1931, section C28: “Dance Halls”.
4 Seán Ó Riada, Our Musical Heritage, Thomas Kinsella, Tomás Ó Canainn (eds.), Portlaoise, The Dolmen Press, 1982, p. 19.
5 Breandán Breathnach, “Traditional Music”, in Encyclopaedia of Ireland, Victor Meally (ed.), Dublin, A. Figgis, 1968, p. 389.
6 Stuart Hall, “Cultural Identity and Diaspora”, in Identity: Community, Culture, Difference, Jonathan Rutherford (ed.), London, Lawrence and Wishart, 1990, p. 226.
7 Criticism concerns competition, politics, and centralised control under Labhrás Ó Murchú, unelected director general for life since 1968. See The Companion to Irish Traditional Music [1999], 3rd ed., Fintan Vallely (ed.), Cork, Cork University Press, 2024, p. 644b.
8 Sharon Shannon, Out the Gap, Solid Records, ROCD 14, 1994.
9 Niall Crumlish, “Industry Special: Irish Music – The Blueprint”, Hot Press, vol. 17, no. 16, 25 August 1993, p. 43.
10 Reinventing Ireland: Culture, Society and the Global Economy, Peadar Kirby, Luke Gibbons, Michael Cronin (eds.), London, Pluto Press, 2002.
11 Donal O’Sullivan, Irish Folk Music: Song and Dance, Dublin, Cultural Relations Committee of Ireland, 1952.
12 See also Alexandra Slaby, “Ireland’s Music Policy”, in Music and the Irish Imagination: Like a Language That We Could All Understand, Thierry Dubost, Alexandra Slaby (eds.), Caen, Presses universitaires de Caen, 2013, p. 57-70.
13 Pierre Bourdieu, “The Production of Belief: Contribution to an Economy of Symbolic Goods” [1977], Richard Nice (trad.), Media, Culture and Society, vol. 2, no. 3, 1980, p. 261-293.
14 Ciarán Benson, interview with Joe Jackson, Hot Press, vol. 19, no. 21, 1 November 1995, p. 15.
15 Finance Act 1984, Section 16; see Andy Bielenberg, Raymond Ryan, An Economic History of Ireland since Independence, London, Routledge, 2013, p. 115-116.
16 On music education debates, see Barry Burgess, “Irish Music in Education – A Northern Ireland Perspective”, in Crosbhealach an Cheoil – The Crossroads Conference 1996, Fintan Vallely, Hammy Hamilton, Eithne Vallely, Liz Doherty (eds.), Dublin, Whinstone, 1999, p. 45-51; Crosbhealach an Cheoil – The Crossroads Conference 2003, vol. 2, Education and Traditional Music, Fintan Vallely, Liz Doherty, Therese Smith, Paul McGettrick, Eithne Vallely, Desi Wilkinson, Colette Moloney (eds.), Dublin, Whinstone, 2013; Frank Heneghan, Ireland’s Music Education National Debate, PhD thesis, University of Pretoria, 2004; Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, “Irish Traditional Music in Education”, MEND 120, Dublin Institute of Technology, 2004; Thomas J. Johnston, The Bloom of Youth, PhD thesis, University of Limerick, 2013.
17 Donald Herron, Deaf Ears? A Report on the Provision of Music Education in Irish Schools, Dublin, Arts Council, 1985.
18 See Frank Heneghan, “Music in Ireland – Performance in Music Education”, in Music in Ireland, 1848-1998, Richard Pine (ed.), Dublin, Mercier, 1998, p. 94-95.
19 See Central Statistics Office, CensusAtSchool 2013, 16 October 2014, p. 2, online: https://www.cso.ie/en/interactivezone/censusatschoolsreleases/censusatschool2013. No further statistics on Irish amateur music-making could be found (but data on household computers is readily available).
20 See Making Live Music Happen – Music Network Strategic Plan 2014/2017, Dublin, Music Network, 2014, online: https://www.musicnetwork.ie/content/files/MUNE_089_Document_REV1_02.pdf.
21 See https://www.musicgeneration.ie.
22 Towards a Policy for the Traditional Arts, Dublin, Arts Council, 2004, p. 16.
23 “Pipe Making at PipeCraft”, The Journal of Music, 28 June 2012, online: https://journalofmusic.com/radar/pipe-making-pipecraft.
24 Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and the Media, “Groundbreaking Basic Income for the Arts Pilot Scheme Grants Awarded”, press release, 8 September 2022, online: https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-culture-communications-and-sport/press-releases/groundbreaking-basic-income-for-the-arts-pilot-scheme-grants-awarded. Of 2,000 grant recipients, 584 were musicians (29%), though the share of traditional musicians is unclear.
25 An Bord Fáilte, “Ireland of the Welcomes”, in Encyclopaedia of Ireland, p. 304-307.
26 See Ulster University Economic Policy Centre, Tourism on the Island of Ireland, May 2024, p. 2, online: https://www.ulster.ac.uk/epc/pdf/2024/tourism-on-the-island-of-ireland/Tourism-Report-v2024-web.pdf.
27 Towards a Policy for Irish Traditional Arts, Dublin, Arts Council, 2014, p. 3.
28 Based on personal observation: in summer, established session musicians may play 5-6 times weekly.
29 Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin, Flowing Tides: History and Memory in an Irish Soundscape, New York, Oxford University Press, 2016, chap. 6; Adam R. Kaul, Turning the Tune: Traditional Music, Tourism, and Social Change in an Irish Village, Oxford, Berghahn, 2009.
30 Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, in Simpson Xavier Horwath Consulting, A Strategic Vision for the Irish Music Industry, Dublin, 1994, for IMRO/MCPS; quoted in Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, “‘All Our Central Fire’, Music, Mediation and the Irish Psyche”, The Irish Journal of Psychology, vol. 15, no. 2-3, 1994, p. 335.
31 The official March 2015 report is very vague: “[…] it is believed that there are up to 70 million people around the world claiming Irish ancestry and heritage”; “There is no clear evidence to support this figure” (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Global Irish – Ireland’s Diaspora Policy, March 2015, p. 10 and 17). See the first use of the term “diaspora” in the Irish context in John A. O’Brien, The Vanishing Irish: The Enigma of the Modern World, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1953; popularised by Lawrence J. McCaffrey, The Irish Diaspora in America, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1976; and by President Mary Robinson, “Cherishing the Irish Diaspora”, Oireachtas speech, 2 February 1995.
32 Cansin Arslan, Jean-Christophe Dumont, Zovanga Kone, Yasser Moullan, Caglar Ozden, Christopher Parsons, Theodora Xenogiani, A New Profile of Migrants in the Aftermath of the Recent Economic Crisis, OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers no. 160, 2014, p. 41, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/5jxt2t3nnjr5-en.
33 See Donald Harman Akenson, The Irish Diaspora: A Primer, Belfast – Toronto, The Institute of Irish Studies, Queen’s University of Belfast – P. D. Meany Co., 1993. He defines diaspora in terms of cultural affiliation rather than strict political or geographic boundaries.
34 Speech by US President Bill Clinton, during his visit to Belfast, 30 November 1995, official press release. There is however no dividing line between the Catholic and Protestant musical traditions in Northern Ireland.
35 Tony Blair Famine statement, Millstreet, 1 June 1997, later revealed as drafted by aides and not approved by him.
36 IFPC, The Music Industry in Ireland, Dublin, 1993; Simpson Xavier Horwath Consulting, A Strategic Vision for the Irish Music Industry, Dublin, 1994; Coopers and Lybrand, The Employment and Economic Significance of the Cultural Industries in Ireland, Dublin, 1994; Stokes Kennedy Crowley, Irish Popular Music Industry Report, Dublin, 1994; IBEC, Striking the Right Note, Dublin, 1995; Paula Clancy, Mary Twomey, The Irish Popular Music Industry, Dublin, NESC, 1997; BBC Music Industry Group, Raising the Volume, Dublin, 1998.
37 FORTE Task Force, Access All Areas – Irish Music, an International Industry, Dublin, Stationery Office, 1996.
38 Soft power is thus the ability to influence through attraction (culture, values, diplomacy) rather than with military or economic “hard power” (Joseph S. Nye Jr., Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics, New York, PublicAffairs, 2004).
39 ITM first commodified in the United States through recordings (e.g. piper Patsy Touhey, 1901); a second wave came in the 1970s with Planxty, the Bothy Band, and the Chieftains.
40 Since 2009, seven editions of the Global Irish Forum – a biennial forum to reinforce Ireland’s global connections, more recently rebranded as Global Irish Civic Forum – have taken place in Ireland.
41 Ciarán Benson, interview with Joe Jackson, Hot Press, vol. 19, no. 21, 1 November 1995, p. 14.
42 See “Outcome Grants” on Culture Ireland website: https://applications.cultureireland.ie/index.php?r=reports/outcomeGrants. See also Maria O’Brien, “A Policy Review of Strategy 2022-2025, Culture Ireland”, Irish Journal of Arts Management and Cultural Policy, vol. 9, 2022, p. 58-69. Aligned with Global Ireland 2025, the strategy uses culture as soft power, which has raised concerns about instrumentalising the arts for political purposes.
43 See “‘I can’t make a living in Ireland. There’s no question about that.’ New Report on Irish Traditional Arts Highlights the Need for More Support and Unified Voice”, The Journal of Music, 19 January 2021, online: https://journalofmusic.com/news/i-cant-make-living-ireland-theres-no-question-about-new-report-irish-traditional-arts; Arts Council of Northern Ireland, “New Report Shows Artists Are Struggling to Make a Living in NI”, 16 July 2024, online: https://artscouncil-ni.org/news/report-shows-artists-struggling-to-make-a-living-in-ni.
44 In France, radio stations have to play a certain amount of French songs: either 60%, with 10% being new, or 35%, with 25% being new (Act of 30 September 1986, amended on 25 October 2021); in Canada, the law imposes 65% French-language music quota on weekdays (Radio Regulations of 18 September 1986, completed by the Broadcasting Regulatory Policy 2022-332 of 7 December 2022); in Ireland, a bill proposing 40% Irish music quota was defeated in 2016. See “A New Bill Is Calling for a Quota of Irish Music on the Radio – and the Music Industry Isn’t Happy about It”, The Journal, 14 December 2016, online: www.thejournal.ie/music-bill-dail-eireann-reaction-3138848-Dec2016; “Irish Music Industry Promotion”, Houses of the Oireachtas, Parliamentary Questions, 13 January 2021, online: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/question/2021-01-13/292.
45 Simon Coveney, foreword to Government of Ireland – Emigrant Support Programme, Support for the Irish Abroad, Annual Report 2018, Dublin, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 2018, p. 2, online: https://assets.ireland.ie/documents/2018-Emigrant-Support-Programme-Funding.pdf.
46 “Previous Funding. Breakdown of Funding by Organisation, Amount and Country”, online: https://www.ireland.ie/en/irish-diaspora/emigrant-support-programme/previous-funding.
47 “[…] the global Irish family. It is a community that encompasses Irish-born citizens and those whose parents or grandparents were born on the island, those with ancestral ties, as well as an affinity diaspora such as those who once lived, studied or worked here – those who hold a deep appreciation for our people and culture” (Emer Higgins, Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure, “Presidential Voting Rights: Motion”, Dáil Éireann debate, vol. 1069, no. 4, 24 June 2025, online: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/2025-06-24/17).
48 Anthony McCann, “All That Is Not Given Is Lost: Irish Traditional Music, Copyright, and Common Property”, Ethnomusicology, vol. 45, no. 1, 2001, p. 89-106.
49 Julian Vignoles, “What Is Irish Popular Music?”, The Crane Bag, vol. 8, no. 2, 1984, Media and Popular Culture, Richard Kearney (ed.), p. 71.
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