Music and Politics in Ireland The Specificity of The Folk Revival in Belfast

British Forum for Ethnomusicology
Music and Politics in Ireland: The Specificity of the Folk Revival in Belfast
Author(s): May McCann
Source: British Journal of Ethnomusicology, Vol. 4, Special Issue: Presented to Peter Cooke
(1995), pp. 51-75
Published by: British Forum for Ethnomusicology
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OFETHNOMUSICOLOGY
JOURNAL
BRITISH
VOL4
Music
and
specificity
of
the
Ireland:
revival
in
politics
folk
1995
the
in
Belfast
May McCann
Academicdefinitionsof folk song have excludedIrish patrioticand nationalistsong
in
withthecultural
of politically
avoidance
sensitiveissuesendemic
which,inconjunction
northernIrishsociety,facilitatedthe integration
of middle-classCatholicsandProtestants
in the folk revival.Thispapercontextualizes

the folk revivialin Belfastwithinthe
historicalandcontemporary
settingof Irishnationalistpoliticsandsong andexploreshow
in"thebattleof twocivilisations".
identities
songhasbeenusedtoconstruct
Theshamrock,roseandthistleandthelily too beside

Theydoflourishall together,boys,alongtheFaughanside.
LOCAL POET'S EXPRESSIONof the fusion of cultures in the northwest
erry folk song repertory(quotedin Shields 1981: 13) is a point made more
Breathnach,who writes that Irish folk music includes not
generallyby Breanddin
the
older
and
melodies of the Gael but also the Anglo-Irish and
only
songs
of
ballads
the
English
countrysideand the rich vein of dance music which belongs
exclusively neitherto Gaeltachtnor Galltacht (Breathnach1977: 2).1 However,
strands have been separated out and cultural traditions isolated. Such social
constructionsare productsof history, created, of course, by people. This paper
will explore some of these constructionsof culturalidentity as articulatedwithin
the domainof traditionalmusic in Ireland.
Irish cultureis prone to revivals. Some would take issue with this statement,
arguingthat, since the music traditionhas never died, it is inappropriateto say
that it has been revived.2The perceived strengthof traditionin Irelandhas been
the basis of its appealto outsiders,academicand otherwise.The relativelyhealthy
state of things traditionalin Irelandis related to the uneven economic development characteristic of colonial situations (Strauss 1951), which in Ireland
1 Gaeltachtrefersto Irishlanguage-speaking
districts,Galltachtto Englishlanguage-speaking
districts.
2 Theissueof whetheror notthefolkmusictraditiondiedoutin Irelandis partof a widerdebate
currentlybeingexploredin domainof language.See Hindley1990and6 Ciosdin1991.
51

52
vol.4 (1995)
BritishJournalof Ethnomusicology,
maintainedthe life of the ruralpeasantsociety in which thrivedthe folk tradition.

Culture is central to ideological control, hegemonic or counter-hegemonic
(Gramsci1971). Irish music, as well as language,literatureand religion, became
centrallyinvolved in power relationsandin the constructionandreconstructionof
identitiesof both colonised andcoloniser.This paperdemonstratesthatit may be
in the interestsof both coloniser and colonised to preserve,revive or appropriate
aspectsof Irishculture,includingmusicalculture.
By "specificity",as used in the title of the article,I wish to drawattentionto
the historical context of the folk revival in Ireland, and more specifically in
Belfast, where its meanings derivedfrom its partin a complex history of socioeconomic, political and culturalrelations.The first partof the paperwill consider
the work of some twentieth-centurycollectors of, and commentatorson, folk
music in Ireland,drawingout the delimitationsof the category"folk"music, and
demonstrating the consequent relative absence of political song in such
collections--collections which have morethan academicsignificance,given their
use as a repository of material, for contemporarysingers and musicians. To
confuse "folk song" with "songs of the people"at any given point in time would
be to seriously misrepresentwhat was relevant,musically and otherwise, to the
people of Ireland.
In the second part, I presentan overview of the relationshipbetween music,
music collecting and politics in Ireland,indicating some more or less apparent
connectionsbetweenthe antiquarianandpoliticalinterestsin music and song, and
highlightingthe centralityof political balladryin Irishnationalism.It is suggested
that in nineteenth-centuryIrelandfolk music was one of several areasof culture
contested in a battle of "two civilisations"(Moran 1905)---coloniserand colonised, Anglo-Irish and Native Irish, English and Irish; the Anglo-Irish colonial
stock claiming a legitimating, Irish identity and the native Irish, oppressed
Catholics, coming to assert their cultural heritage and claim to nationhood.
Analysis of the ProtestantantiquariansThomas Davis and Samuel Ferguson in
terms of their involvement with song indicates similarities and differences
betweencolonisersof nationalistand unionistpersuasion.
The latter part of the paper considers twentieth-century developments,
especially in Belfast, in relation to culturalidentity and traditionalmusic. It is
suggestedthat the folk revival of the 1960s in Belfast provideda social contextin
which young Catholics and Protestantscould interact within a shared cultural
framework.More specifically it might be partially understoodas a short-lived
opportunityfor a progressive,educatedmiddle-classminorityof NorthernIreland
Protestantsto claim/constructa British andultimatelyUlster folk heritage/culture
distinct from the triumphaliststreet band culture of Orangism.For some progressive young Catholics the folk revival offered a transitoryalternativeto a
nationalist-imbued traditional culture, squeezed in, as it was, between two
radically different periods of Catholic nationalistassertion of identity through
Irishculture.The apparentapoliticalnatureof folk song enabledthis oasis of nonsectarian music-making in Belfast, mirroringas it did the fundamentalsocial

McCann:Musicandpoliticsin Ireland
53
strategyof avoidance of sensitive political issues which facilitated the peaceful

operationof sectarianpractisein NorthernIrelandpriorto 1969.
Folk song,an apoliticalcategoryin Irishmusicscholarship?

Academic writingon folk music and song, certainlyin Ireland,tends to segregate
folk song from political song, and indeed from popularsong in general. This is
partlya consequenceof the general,much rehearseddelimitationsof the concept
"folk song". Oral transmissionand anonymityhave been central,althoughmore
substantivecriteria such as being pre-industrial,rural, sanitised and apolitical,
have been involved in the historyof this debateaboutthe selectivity of collectors
such as Child, SharpandLloyd (see e.g. Watson1983, Harker1985).
Shields (1981), discussing the normalrepertoryof the traditionalsingers he
collected from in Magilligan, notes the influx into the rural areas of townproducedcheap song books, and later the broadsides,and of the music hall hits
and vulgar poetry of urbaninspirationwhich circulatedin these sheets alongside
texts in traditionalstyle. Rural singers did not exclude such items from their
repertory,but despite their acquisition of a certain traditionalcharacterin the
process of native performance,they were too little influenced by local usage to
merit inclusion in a work on "folk singing". Some local compositions are
included, for example Carrowclare [no. 13], which demonstrates"an unusually
good changewithinthe frameworkof conventionalexpression."But topical,often
satirical and malicious, songs are not represented,nor sectarian songs, which
while known,were performedonly in limited,non-offensivecontexts.
Breathnach opens his classic Folk music and dances of Ireland with a
recognition of the gulf between folk song and the songs of the people. "If one
were to make a collection of the songs of the Irish people, one would hardly
hesitate about including The Last Rose of Summerand Silent, Oh Moyle from
Moore's Irish Melodies, patrioticsongs like My Dark Rosaleen [see discussion
below], The Memoryof the Dead, and Boolevogue, and some of the songs by
Percy French"(Breathnach1977: 1). But however national, however popular,
these would all have to be discardedas folk song. The basis of selectivity in this
instanceis anonymity.
Political ballads which have survived,often topical songs, tend to be part of a
writtentraditionwith more or less acknowledgedauthors.One must seek analysis
of political songs as a categoryof "songs of the people"independentlyof the folk
song scholarshipin such works as Zimmerman'scompilationand analysis of late
eighteenth- and early nineteenth-centurypolitical street ballads and rebel songs
(Zimmerman1967). Thomas Moore, authorof enormouslypopular Irish songs
which passed from generationto generationin the home andin school, and whose
output was one thirdpatrioticin sentiment,has been criticised for his patriotic
song writing (1967: 77) as well as for his manipulation of traditional tunes
(already faultily transcribed)to suit his own verses, which were "nostalgic,
pseudo-historical, whimsical, sentimental productions suited to the drawing
rooms of the nineteenthcentury..."(O'Boyle 1976: 13).

54
vol.4 (1995)
Categories other than "folk song" such as the very broad "Irish Song"
(O'Boyle 1976), narrowingto "IrishBroadsideBallad"(Neillands 1986) and the
yet more specific "Irishsong chapbooksandballadsheets"(Shields 1986) in their
differingfoci, permitof an alternativerangeof "songs of the people"which more
or less includepolitical song. In his studyof Irishbroadsideballadsin theirsocial
and historicalcontexts, Neillands calculatedthat 26.4% out of a corpus of 2,459
songs are concernedwith themesof "politicsandhistory".His two otherthematic
categorieswere "religionand faith",and"sex, courtshipandmarriage".
Shields points out that the precisely defined subject of his article, the eight
collections of nineteenth-centurysong books and chapbookshousedin the library
of Trinity College, Dublin, though not abundant,are quite representativeof the
varied subjects and styles found in the Irish popularpress of that century. He
groups the texts into three categories. The first consists of "traditionalsongs in
folk idiom, including numeroussongs of English or Scottish origin...fromvery
early ballads to quite recent songs, and a very diverse Irish repertory...the
majority composed in the English of Ireland."The second category includes
"Social or political songs of local, newsworthy or ideological interest.... This
categoryderivesmuch of its style from the precedingone."And the final groupis
"Songs of urban origin, British and Irish, stylistically marked by an original
theatrical,literary or sub-literaryenvironment,including some songs imitating
folk idiom"(1986: 200).
The notion of "streetballad"used in collections (0 Lochlainn1968, 1984) and
compilations(Healy 1969) attemptsto providea notion of the rangeof songs the
people may have heardand sung, and although0 Lochlainn,following one of the
rules of folk-song definition, omits all songs by known authors,one finds many
political songs in his volumes. In his introductionhe expresses some regret
regardinghis exclusivity; "manyfine balladsby SamuelLover, Michael Scanlan,
P.J. McCall almost demandedinclusion.PerhapsI shall do a book of these yet, if
the Lord sparesme" (0 Lochlainn1984: viii).
Music and politics in Ireland

Virtuallysince we have knowledge of music in Ireland,its relationshipto politics
has been evident in terms of song content, music, and culturalmeanings. Irish
music per se, not just the sub-section"politicalsong",has been withinthe domain
of culturalpolitics throughoutIreland'scolonialrelationshipwith England.While
colonial influence in Irish music in the seventeenthcenturywas concernedwith
extinction,the eighteenthcenturyseemed bent on preservation.Colonialconcerns
with absorptionand eventuallymodernisationaffected the social structurewhich
supported the music. The development of cultural nationalism, and political
nationalism'suse of music and song, breathedfurthernew life into the tradition.
The colonial process, in one way and another,has played a significantpartin the
maintenanceand developmentof Ireland'sdistinctivetraditionalmusic.
In 1603 a proclamationwas issued by the Lord Presidentof Munsterfor the
exterminationby martiallaw of bards,pipersandpoets becauseof theirrole in the
last upsurge of Gaelic Irelandagainst the English. Throughoutthe seventeenth

McCann:
c andpoliticsin Ireland
Mus,
55
century they were persecutedand singled out as an "importantmoral resource"

for the society the colonisers were trying to subdue (de Paor 1986: 171). All
musical instrumentssavouring of popery were destroyed. O'Boyle makes the
point thatthis occurredjust at the time when Europeanmusic was undergoingthe
change from modal to modem tonality, thus precludingIrish music, a patronbased, courtly music, from participationin this development. While Giraldus
Cambrensis,twelfth-centurychroniclerof the Normaninvasion of Ireland,found
in the nativemusic nothingdissimilarfrom the music he had heardall his days on
the continentof Europe,to the cultivatedears of the eighteenth-centuryEnglish
and"veryancient"(O'Boyle 1976:
lords Irishmusic sounded"quaint","barbaric"
10).
There have been differencesof opinion,one of which will be discussed below,
aboutthe notion that the aisling vision poetry of the eighteenthcentury(in which
Irelandwas representedas a sufferingwoman, young or old, with names such as
An tSeanbean Bhocht, An DruimionnDonn Dillis , R6isin Dubh or Caitlin N[
Ullachdin) was an allegorical expression of political discontent (Breathnach
1977: 23, Zimmerman1967:52). However,Tom Garvin,respectedby revisionist
intellectuals,is criticalof recent scholarshipthatportrayspopularIrish nationalist
ideology solely as a product of the nineteenth century, arguing that the "real
emotional taprootsof Catholicnationalismwas...in the political and social defeat
of the Catholic landed aristocracy in the seventeenth century and in the
subordinationof the Catholiccommunityafter 1690"(Garvin1981: 15).
Aisling poetrylamentedthe decline of Gaelic and Catholicpower, and ideas of
a potentiallysubversivenatureran throughthe Gaelic writtenand oral traditionin
the period 1700 to 1850. This populartraditionwas spreadaroundthe island by a
class of itinerantbards,teachersand storytellers,most of them literateand acting
as entertainers, teachers, instructors and news-bringers to an illiterate but
receptive population. These purveyors of subversion were capable of quickly
turningtreasonablesentimentsinto a more acceptableappeal to theories of civil
rights depending on their audience. The popular ballad tradition displayed a
similartwo-facedness;bilingualballadsexisted in which Irishand English verses
alternated,the English verses expressingimpeccably loyal sentiments,while the
Irishverses expressedsatiricalor subversivepoliticalopinion(Garvin1981: 17).
To the eighteenth-andnineteenth-centuryantiquarianmindsetthe native Irish
culture-language as well as music-was perceived as a relic of an increasingly
respectedancientCeltic civilisation.Preservationof the "ancient"culturebecame
the preoccupationof the great collectors who publishedinstrumentalsettings or
settings for voice; EdwardBunting (1796, 1809, 1840), O'Farrell(1810), George
Petrie(1855), PatrickWestonJoyce (1873, 1909), andperhapsmost influentialin
modem times, FrancisO'Neill (1903, 1907, 1910, 1913).
From the perspective of contemporaryethnologists, ethnomusicologists,and
folk enthusiasts,these collectors were guilty of the errorsof their time: setting
pianoforteaccompaniments,manipulatingoriginal notation to create what were
regardedas correctharmonies,and sanitisingtexts. One practice,the bringinginto
"urban"centres of rural-basedtraditionalmusicians, such as during the Harp

56
vol.4 (1995)
Festivalin Belfast in 1792, bearssome resemblanceto folk revival practiceof the

mid-twentiethcentury.The reason for the interestwas undoubtedlyinformedby
patriotism.
The Belfast HarpersFestival, for which Edward Bunting was appointedto
notatethe airs played, was organisedby some patrioticgentlemenin Belfast who
hoped to preserve the music, poetry and oral traditions of Ireland. Petrie's
motivationincludeda duty and desire to aid in the preservationof the remainsso
honourableto the nationalcharacterof the country(Breathnach1977: 108). It is
arguable that the work of these antiquarianscholars had immediate political
relevance since it suggested that people who had inhabitedIrelandbefore the
Anglo-Normanincursion had shown considerableculturalcompetence (Garvin
1981: 100).
While the antiquarianscholarscollected what they perceivedas the endangered
ancientmusic of Ireland,the people in Ireland,ruraland urban,listened to, sang
and composed popular song. Of the political variety, broadsides in English
dealing with local politics were published in Dublin at the beginning of the
eighteenthcentury;the Volunteer Movement,inspiredby the AmericanWar of
Independence,claimed freedomfrom English economic shacklesin song as well
as other media. Influenced by the French revolution, the Society of the United
Irishmen, founded in Belfast, developed into the first militant republican
organisation and also expressed its political sentiments in song, the largest
number of which are to be found in the series of booklets known as Paddy's
Resource, or The Harp of Erin. The first volume appearedin Belfast in 1795
"being a select collection of original and modem patriotic songs, toasts and
sentiments,compiledfor the use of the people of Ireland."
While Celtic antiquarianismwas initially literary,it came to assume greater
political overtones.Most of the United Irish leaders and apologists were men of
broad interests in a culture that did not segregate politics and literatureinto
separate intellectual endeavours. Among their diverse influences, the United
Irishmen,like the Volunteersbefore them, made use of the new literaryimages
fostered by celticism. From antiquarianresearch,for example, both movements
adopted the harp as symbol, and a harpwith the motto "It is new and shall be
heard"became the official insignia of the United Irishmen.The bardalso became
a significantpoliticalimage for the movement.
In terms of political propaganda,the United Irishmenrecognisedthe appealof
song and satires over dry prose work. Song and satire were majortools in their
campaignto capturethe heartsand minds of the Irishpeople. Both formally and
informally,music and song animatedthe UnitedIrishSociety. Accordingto Mary
Helen Thuente,who has convincinglyarguedagainstthe received historicalview
that Irish cultural politics is an essentially nineteenth-centurydevelopment,the
selection of a "captain"within a local United Irish society, which met in taverns,
was at times determinedby a man's singing ability, or by the candidatewith the
greaternumberof songs (1994: 15).
The latterquarterof the eighteenthcenturymarkedthe emergenceof Belfast as
a great urbanconcentrationof industrialand commercialpower on the basis of

57
which the populationbegan to rise. The Catholicpopulation,which by 1808 rose

to 16%,peaked at around30% in the early 1860s, decliningto about 25% in the
1960s. Presbyterians, still somewhat economically, socially and politically
disadvantagedby comparisonwith membersof the EstablishedChurch,but not
nearly so much as Catholics,played a majorrole in not only the economic, but
also in the social, culturalandcharitablelife of the city.
Antiquarianismflourished,stemmingfromthe activitiesof the Belfast Reading
Society, many of whose members were involved in the Belfast Harp Society
which organised the Harper'sFestival in 1792 (0 Buachalla 1978: 32).3 It was
this same Presbyterianmiddle class that formed the backboneof the Volunteer
Movement and the United Irishmen,although only a limited number took the
revolutionarypathculminatingin the armedrebellionin 1798.
After the rebellion, and the subsequentAct of Union in 1802, the intellectual
life of the city recoveredwith the formationof many historical,philosophicaland
musical societies. Anxious to avoid political and religious dissension, many
intellectualsagreed to ban discussion of controversialpolitical issues from their
meetings(0 Buachalla1978: 48)--a themeexploredfurtherin the next section of
this article.
The connections between collectors, popular music, politics and political
balladrycontinuedinto the next centuryduringwhich the political balladbecame
established as the prime element of national popular culture. Thomas Moore,
sentimental populist who adapted airs collected by Bunting, was a friend of
RobertEmmet,executed leaderof the armedrising of 1803. A Dublin newspaper
claimed that "Moorehas done more for the revival of our nationalspiritthan all
the political writerswhom Irelandhad seen for a century"(quotedin Strong1937:
137). Yet as Zimmermannotes, some nationalistwritersof the 1840s disapproved
of his "whining lamentationover our eternalfall, and miserableappeals to our
masters to regard us with pity" (Zimmerman1967: 77). Despite this, Thomas
Davis, most renownedpoliticalballadeerof the nineteenthcentury,took Moore as
a model.
The Young Irelanders,ultimately militant off-shoot of Daniel O'Connell's
Repeal (the Act of Union) Campaign,elaboratedtheirposition,primarilythrough
theirnew weekly publication,TheNation, foundedin 1842 by ThomasDavis and
northernjournalistCharlesGavinDuffy-most popularwere the ballads (Cronin
1971: 31). In threeyears Davis publishedmore thanfifty balladsand aspiredto a
"Ballad History of Ireland".In his "Essay on Irish song" he advised would-be
political balladeersto listen constantlyto Irish airs before startingto write. The
first thing to do was to define the characterof the chosen melody,. which would
in turndeterminethe tone of the tune, "thesentimentof the words".This method
of adaptingwords to airs was Moore's influence (Zimmerman1967: 112). W.B.
Yeats described Davis' Lamentfor the death of Eoghan Roe O'Neill as having
3 6 Buachalla'swork is translatedby GordonMcCoy, PhD studentat QueensUniversity,

Belfast.

58
vol.4 (1995)
"theintensityof the old ballad".The TimesdescribedTheNation as a publication

whose verse "breathedrebellion"(quotedin Cronin1971: 32).
While Breathnachclaims thatonly a few of the balladspublishedin TheNation
achieved a permanentplace among the national songs of Ireland (1977: 31),
Foster describesDavis as authorof some of the most popularIrish balladsof his
own and later ages (Foster 1988:311). The Nation had a weekly circulationof
10,000 copies and an estimated readership of 250,000 (Cairns and Richards
1988:34). Certainly they were not entirely ephemeral, several ballads of the
"Nation"were sung at least sixty years later, at the time of the Easter Rising
(Ryan 1949: 145). Davis's A Nation Once Again became the anthem of the
NationalistParty,predecessorof the contemporarySocial andDemocraticLabour
Partyin NorthernIreland.The song has enteredthe psyche of the countryandhas
again acquiredanthem-likestatusin contemporaryRepublicanBelfast.
Religion,politics and music: "Thebattleof two civilisations"4

The attribute"civilised"in relation to Irelandhas been, historically,a matterof
contestation.It was not only Irish music that was designated"barbaric"by the
"civilised" colonial neighbour, but the entire society and culture. Antiquarian
scholarshipdistinguishesbetween"Irish",which appearsto mean "Catholic",and
"Anglo-Irish"Gaelic scholarship.The latterwas precededby the former,which
was inauguratedby the bardicscholarand chieftainof his Galwayclan Roderick
O'Flaherty. He published a history of Ireland in Latin in 1685 which was
translatedinto English andpublishedin Dublinin 1793.
Catholicantiquarians
CharlesO'Connor(1710-90), founderof the CatholicCommittee,who published
tractson the stateof the IrishCatholicsandwroteon the subjectof Irishhistoryin
general, edited O'Flaherty's work. It was in his capacity as a marginalised
Catholic countrygentlemanthat he had patronisedpoets like TurloughCarolan,
regardedas the chief musicianof Gaelic Irelandat his death.HistorianRoy Foster
describesO"Connor'smoderationas such thathis writingswere thoughtto be that
of a liberal Protestant (1988: 199). However, in a literary critique, Seamus
Deane's analysis stresses the political context of his antiquarianstudies (1992:
29):
Rememberthatthis was 18th-century
Ireland,the periodof the PenalLaws,and
the GloriousRevolution,the goldencenturyof the Anglo-Irish.WhatO'Connor
did was to claimthatthe Catholicshad a nobleandancestralandlong-standing
Inotherwordstheywerenotbarbarians....
culturalandliterarytradition.
Deane arguesthat the significance of his work was not that you should read the
Gaelic bards,but thatyou should give Catholicscivil rightsbecause, accordingto
4 I wish to acknowledgeDavid Cairnsand ShaunRichards,authorsof Writing Ireland:
colonialism,nationalismand culture,for their stimulatinganalysisof culturein nineteenthcenturyIreland.

59
the standardsof the Britishsystem of the time,a cultivatedpeople deserve to have

civil rights.
Protestantantiquarians
Most antiquarians,however, were of the Protestantfaith, althoughnot uniformly
of the same political persuasion.Indeed the leadershipof radical, more or less
separatist political movements in Ireland in late eighteenth- and nineteenthcentury Irelandwas to a large extent Anglo-IrishProtestant,and in the North,
Presbyterian of Scottish descent also. Belfast-born and of Scottish descent,
Samuel Ferguson, however, was a unionist. He was ardently opposed to the
Catholic Church. And he was a prolific writer and researcher, engaged in
facilitatingthe emergenceof Gaelic cultureinto English prose and poetry. Yet it
was the Protestantnationalistpolitical balladeerof The Nation, Thomas Davis,
who inspired Ferguson's quest for the past. Indeed they were friends. Ferguson
surroundedhis Lamentfor ThomasDavis in a prose essay in which he distanced
himself from the politics of the founder of Young Ireland,while admiring his
motives and his character(0 Dtiill 1993: 5). Theirinterestin the past, including
its music and song serveddifferentpolitical agendas.
ILLUSTRATION1: THOMASDAVIS AND IRISHIDENTITY
Davis adoptedthe necessarilypluralistpositionof the Irish-Protestant

nationalist,
stressing the inclusiveness of the Irish tradition. The Irish must "sink the
distinctions of blood as well as of sect," combine the descendants of Gaels,
Normans,Welsh, Saxons and Scots, Catholicsand Protestantsin a union making
for a tolerantand flexible characterin literature,manners,religion and life, of any
nationon earth"(Griffith1914: 8-9). Theirdefinitionof IrishnessandIrishnation
precluded racial essentialism; hence the motto of The Nation, to foster Irish
Nationality and make it "racy of the soil". Nationality was to be based on
residence, and there should be an identification between the coloniser and
colonised. For the coloniser, perhaps more than for the colonised, this
identificationentaileda willingnessto acknowledgeIrishrights and duties. Davis
therefore dissociated his cause from that of the landlords, that is, from the
ProtestantAscendancy.He aspiredto a cross-class,cross-sectarianalliancebound
together by a secularnationalism.Neither Celtic origins nor Catholic faith were
relevantin this definitionwhich remainsthe theoreticalbasis of Irishnationalism
and republicanism.It was a definition of the Irish as all those who regarded
Britianand the Britishas "other"(Cairns& Richards1988: 34).
Duffy and Davis agreed that the best way to teach history to a semi-literate
people was thoughballads.It also allowed them to communicateto audiences as
large as those their political adversary,Daniel O'Connell, was attractingto his
"monstermeetings" and to combat his "playingof the Catholic religious card"
with their pluralist message. Reconciliation between all groups in Irelandin a
common ownershipof, and pride in, Ireland'spast was a constanttheme in the
balladsof TheNation.

60
vol.4 (1995)
ANDIRISHIDENTITY
ILLUSTRATION
2: SIRSAMUEL
FERGUSON
While Davis hoped to persuadefellow Protestantsto embracean Irishidentityin

pursuit of a nationalist "imagined community" (Anderson 1983), Ferguson
identified it as necessary for the legitimation, and greaterefficiency of AngloIrish,unionistgovernanceof Ireland.sHe saw Protestantsas the naturalleadersof
Irelandand aimedto "nationalise"the mind of the gentryso thatit would be more
fitted to lead the populationand be more accepted in doing so. While never the
majority-Protestantview, there was a growing reading market increasingly
conscious of its Irishness,its conservatismand its Protestantism.Respectfulas he
was of Ireland's heroic Celtic past, he described pre-PlantationIrelandas in a
state of total anarchywhich requiredthe impositionof law and order,necessarily
from the outside.
Association with Ireland'sheroic, warriorCeltic past providedthe antiquarian
Celticists not only with a point of identificationwith Ireland,an Irishnessbased
on an emotional attachmentto the land, their birth right throughconquest, but
also with a model of a stratifiedaristocraticsociety, clearly mirroringthe super
ordinaterole of the Anglo-Irishascendancy.Ferguson's personal sense of place
was associated with his native east Ulster whose individuality and
endangeredness is a dominant theme in his poems and prose. His personal
"warrior-identification"
seems to have been with "Fergus son of Roy," Fergus
MacRoy, who he favouredover Ciichullain--the hound of Ulster-as a literary
subject(0 Ddiill1993).
The focus on pagan Irelandside-steppedthe contentiousissue of Catholicism
which representeda formidableobstacle to the Ascendancy's identificationwith
Ireland.In Ferguson'sworkit is apparentthatthereis a role for the native Irishin
his version of the Irish nation, but not as equal partners,they were at worst,
primitive in their ungovernablepassions, at best, excitable and imaginative,but
either way incapable of self-government. In Ferguson's view little genuine
contact was permissibleuntil they had abandonedthatwhich most sustainedtheir
sense of separateidentity,theirCatholicism(Ferguson1834c:448).
CatholicversusProtestantantiquarians:R6isin Dubh
The debate aroundthe aisling song R6isin Dubh provides an example of one
skirmish in "the battle of two civilisations". The Gaelic song, metaphorically
identifyingIrelandwith a woman,was composed in the seventeenthcentury,one
of many poems employing this literary device. James Hardimanpublished a
translationwith notes, in his Irish minstrelsy,or bardic temainsoflreland (1831),
a collection of Gaelic poems and songs with translations.Hardimaninterpreted
the love poem as a political allegory of Ireland awaiting the help Red Hugh
O'Donnellwas seeking on the continent:
5 It wouldbe incorrectto suggestthat Davis did not also make assumptionsconcemingthe

continuingleadershiprole of the Anglo-Irishin Ireland.But he did so less consciously,andin
withotherof his views.
contradiction

61
There'swine....fromtheRoyalPope,
upontheoceangreen;
andSpanishale shallgiveyouhope,
myDarkRosaleen!
my ownRosaleen!
In doing so, Hardimanwas claiming, indirectly,as well as directly elsewhere in
the publication,thatthese culturalpossessions belong specifically to the Catholic
Irish.
The need experienced by some of Ireland's Protestantsto espouse an Irish
identity and to belong as a super ordinateclass, was undercutby Hardiman's
translations,for the poetry could be read as political allegories whose central
concern was the advocacy of an Irishness which had no part in it for the
descendants of the coloniser. Ferguson responded vehemently, in a four-part
review ( Ferguson 1834), to what he interpretedas Hardiman'sappropriationof
the poetry to the nationalist cause, describing it as "politically malignant and
religiously fanatical".He offered an alternativereading of R6isin Dubh as the
song of a priest in love, who had broken his vows: "We sympathise with the
priest's passion, we pity his predicament; but we despise his dispensatory
expedients, and give him one partingadvice, to pitch his vows to the Pope, the
Pope to purgatory,marryhis black rose-bud, and take a curacy from the next
Protestantrector"(quotedin Cairns& Richards1988: 31).
Hardimannoted thatthe allegoricalmeaninghad been forgottenandthatit was
known only as a plaintive love ditty (Hardiman 1931.1: 254). Whatever the
original truthof the matter,political allegory,storyof a sinful priest or "plaintive
love ditty",R6isin Dubh soon becameone of the classics of Irishnationalistsong.
James ClarenceMangan's much reprintedversion (quoted above from Walton's
treasuryof Irish songs and ballads, n.d.), in which the political allegorynoted by
Hardimanis most overt, first appearedin the Nation (30 May 1846). Padraic
Pearse also includedR6isin Dubh in his Songs of the Irish rebel (n.d.). It was to
re-emergeas politicallypowerfulthroughoutthe courseof the presentcentury.
Irish-Irelandersversus WestBritons
The expansion in popularity of the Gaelic revival, with the foundation of the
Gaelic League (1893) and Gaelic Athletic Association (1884) and other "Irish
clubs" promoting not only sport but dance, music and song, was part of the
emerging pre-eminenceof Irish Catholicnationalism.In directionopposition to
Ferguson's aims, the Gaelic revival at the end of the century was informed by
"The necessity of de-Anglicisingthe Irish"---titleof an addressgiven in 1892 by
Douglas Hyde, Protestantfounderof the Gaelic League.
Although,like Davis, Hyde did not find a contradictionbetweensuch ideas and
the pluralistneeds of Protestantnationalism,otherProtestantsdid. Hyde was very
conscious of the task of nation-buildingin which he was involved. Appreciative
of the various strandsinvolved in Irishculture,he wrote of building"a new Irish
communityout of the materialsinherited,whetherthe nativetraditionand all that

62
vol.4 (1995)
BritishJournalofEthnomusicology,
it had assimilated, the unabsorbedcolonists, or the "relicta" of the departing

conqueror"(quoted in Nowlan 1972: 47). He claimed that the mould would be
cast anew "by reforgingthe culturalcontinuityof our past history.... The matrix
of the Irish people is the Gaelic traditionand in this mould they must be cast"
(ibid).
The political andpropagandistnatureof the Gaelic movementcaused it to lose
many of its early rank and file Protestantsupporters(Boyce 1982: 242). It was
D.P. Moran who elaboratedthe "philosophyof an Irish Ireland"advocating a
thoroughpolitical, culturaland economic nationalism(1905). In his newspaper,
The Leader, he denied maintaining that no one but a Catholic could be an
Irishman,but argued"whenwe look out on Irelandwe see thatthose who believe,
or may be immediatelyinducedto believe, in Irelanda nation are, as a matterof
fact, Catholics.""Inthe mainnon-CatholicIrelandlooks upon itself as Britishand
Anglo-Irish,"he alleged, and those non-Catholicswho would like to throw in
their lot with the Irish nation "mustrecognise that the Irish nation is de facto a
Catholicnation"(TheLeader 1901).
Culturalimplicationsof partition
A combination of circumstances, not least the democratisation of electoral
politics, broughtaboutthe demise of landlord-ledpolitics in NationalistIreland,
as well as the demise of any real inter-confessionalnationalismdivorced from
social and religious issues. (Garvin 1981: 70). After the bloody war of
independence (1919-21) and the Anglo-Irish Treaty Settlement (1921) which
partitionedthe country,a Catholicstate was set up in the south of Irelandand a
Protestantstateletin the North.The resolutioncreatednew problemsfor southern
Protestants,many of whom found a modus vivendi and many of whom left or
chaffed, and for northernCatholicswho constituteda much greaterproportionof
the population,one third.
In the Southa subversivecultureof religion, language,music and rebel songs,
became established;TheSoldiers's Song writtenby PeaderKearneyin 1907, and
sung, among others, in the lulls between the fighting at Easter 1916 became the
national anthem.The nationalbroadcastingcompany used O'Donnell Abu, first
published in The Nation, 1843, as its signaturetune. They put up plaques, and
statues, and renamed streets in honourof nationalist heroes, and they paraded
annuallyto commemoratenationallysignificant dates, places and people, all to
the accompanimentof Irishmusic andinvolvingIrishsong.
While some northernPresbyteriansandEpiscopalianshad once been willing to
espouse an Irish identity distinguishablein culturalterms, their numbersgreatly
declined in the light of the political changes duringthe course of the.nineteenth
andearly twentiethcentury.In the north,a Protestantunionistculturewas literally
established;that is, it received full state endorsementand support,a fact most
overtlyillustratedby the integralrole of the anti-CatholicOrangeOrder(O.O.) in
the political andpatronagesystem of the newly createdone-partystatelet,with its
in-builtpermanentmajority.

63
Protestant,unionistmusicalculturewas manifestin the marchingbands,which

accompaniedthe many triumphalistannualparadesof the OrangeOrderand its
associatedperceptories.Triumphalismwas expressedin the songs, in the manner
of playing music and above all, the location of the paraderoute.Choice of route
was unlimited and frequently involved "coat-trailing",that is, the deliberate
routingof a paradethroughCatholicareasso as to markout power relations.The
Lambeg drum played solo or as part of the bands, was the other significant
musical symbol of identity. It was irrelevantthat many of the tunes played were
Irish,whateverthe bandsplayed tendedto be categorisedas Orangemusic.
The Catholicnationalistpopulationexpresseditself in a parallelinstitution,the
Ancient Orderof Hibernians(A.O.H.),with culturallyparallelbands,bannersand
regalia, and annual commemorations. Their music was categorised as Irish,
including papal hymns. The repertoirewas based on the nostalgic, sentimental,
and rebel rousing patrioticand nationalistmusic of the previous century.A.O.H
and 0.0. demonstrationsdid not have parallel status. Hibernianparadingwas
limited to places where there was no possibility of offending the loyalist
population,which, given the sectariangeographyof northernIreland,amounted
to a few small villages. Very occasionally they were permittedto paradein the
predominantlyCatholic towns of Newry and Armagh.While Hibernianparades
suffered frequentbans, re-routing,and arrestsof memberscarryingthe Irish tricolour, northernRepublicans found their expression of political and musical
culture furtherconfined, essentially to churchyards and cemeteries, where they
commemoratedthe dead of 1916 at Eastertime.
No longer was Irish culture and identity contested.Irish identity was equated
with Catholicand within the contextof northernpolitics, subversive.The cdilidhe
was a less public context for the expressionof Irishmusical cultureand was part
of the northernCatholic's need to express their nationalculturein a new, alien
political unit. Even attendanceat ceilidhes could be dangerous-in clubs where
names had to be given in orderto gain admittance,people often gave false names,
knowing that the recordswere inspectedby the police. The contest now was one
of political and culturallegitimacy. Part of it was fought out in the competition
for public space, and not solely on the roads and streets of the paraderoutes. It
was a major achievement, in the face of great difficulties, that some Catholic
organisations managed to acquire the prestigious Ulster Hall as a venue for a
cdilidhem6rin 1941.
Theceilidhe: a participatorymusicalgatheringmodelledon "folkculture"
According to Ernest Gellner, nationalism "usually conquers in the name of a
putativefolk culture,its symbolismdrawnfromthe healthy,pristine,vigorouslife
of the peasants" (1983: 57). The Anglo-Irish literary revival and the Gaelic
revival, both of which developed out of Celtic antiquarianism,looked to the Irish
peasantry. But they differed in the meaning which each attached to these
contemporarycustodians of the past. Attention focused on those who live the
most isolated and thereforeunspoiledlives, the inhabitantsof the Gaelic speaking
west of Ireland. Yeats, for example, identified peasant mysticism with occult

64
vol.4 (1995)
spiritualityin whatwas an essentiallypaganCeltic vision of Irish identity, while

the Gaelic revivalists found an equally idealised pious, puritanical Catholic
peasantry.For the literaryrevival, the lifestyle of the western seaboardprovided
an interestingrelic of an inspiringheroic past (and interestingsubject matterfor
creative writing), whereas for the Gaelic revivalist the inhabitantsof the West
providedinspirationfor a heroicpresentand future,an exemplarof a language,a
piety, a way of life morally superiorto the materialismof modern urbanliving
emanatingfromLondon,capitalof the BritishEmpire."Cooring",the mutualaid
providedbetweenpeasantfarmfamilies formedthe socio-economic backboneof
Irishpeasantsociety. Its social concomitantwas "night-visiting",or "clilidhing".
In the city of Belfast, the cdilidhe was a popularmusical entertainmentamong
young Catholicsin the first few decades of the new statelet. Ceilidhes, some of
which were organised by the Gaelic League, although primarily Irish dance
events, incorporatedotherIrishculturalactivities such as singing and reciting. It
was importantthat any piece performed should be Irish: sentimental ballads,
songs of the emigrant,patrioticsongs, or poems. There was no concept of folk
song in use, peopledescribedwhatwas sung as "Irishsongs",the main distinction
being between English- and Irish-language songs, the latter being highly
respected.
In Belfast the distinctionbetweenwholesome Irish ceilidhe dance and English
dance, involving not only dances such as The Military two-step, but the even
more corrupting jazz dances of the time, was clearly made-not least by
concernedparentsand clerics (McCann1983). But whereasin the field of sportit
was made socially difficultto actively supportboth Gaelic and Englishfootball,it
was possible to attendboth kinds of dance. English/Irishdance segregationwas
and old time events".
less significantin ruralareaswhich often featured"cedilidhe
The formatof the ceilidhe also appealedto protectiveparents.A familial ethos
was aspired to, with a key role ascribed to the fear d toigh (lit. "man of the
house", meaning father), who oversaw the entire proceedings, announced the
dances (sometimes in Irish as well as English), organisedthe floor singers, and
kept good order, for example separatingyoung couples who may be sitting
togethertoo intimately.The Gaelic League ciilidhes were renownedfor a further
degree of control.In pursuitof puriststandardsa dance set might be interrupted,
admonishedandtaughtthe correctprocedure.
The model for the event was an idealised"DonegalHouse cedilidhe",Donegal
being northernIreland's nearest Gaeltacht, situated on the western seaboard.
People used this ruraldomestic event as standardby which to judge the largerscale urbanevents. Althoughthe participantsof the Belfast cdilidhe were of one
family, or even one local community,it was hoped to recreatethe atmosphereof
community-a rural,Irish,nationalist,Catholiccommunity.
The association with the Gaelic-speakingwest was invoked in more formal
pageant or play-like stage productions of the cdilidhe using cottage interiors,
exteriorsor barnsas settings. At cdilidhe mdr (grandscale, formal cdilidhes)the
same "west of Irelandcottage"scene might be used as a backdropfor the band,

65
and one popularIrish language centre in Belfast had such a scene permanently
paintedon the wall behindthe stage.
Irish music, dance and song were involved in maintainingboundariesas well
as in a battle for legitimacy, seeking at most full Irish independence,at least,
parity of esteem. These battles were of course fought on grounds other than
cultural. Over time, as a consequence of coercive legislation, reprisal policies
against the entire Catholic community, sectarian practice in relation to the
franchise,jobs and housing,and workplaceexpulsions,resistancewas worndown
and IrishCatholicculturein Belfast becameghettoised.
"Telling":sectarianmodes of social interaction
A modus vivendi was reached involving a considerabledegree of physical and
social segregation. When mixing, many people adhered to rigid patterns of
behaviour.An importantstrategy,wherepossible, was to simply keep one's head
down so that people did not know who you were, and what were your politics.
But this was only possible in the most distantof contacts.An alternative,notedby
the anthropologistRosemaryHarrisin her 1950s researchpublishedas Prejudice
and tolerance in Ulster (1972), involved clear display, by means such as pictures
in one's home and wearingbadges of one's allegiance.By makingloyalties clear,
people made it possible to use the appropriatebehaviour patterns that made
peacefulrelationspossible.
The other side of this interaction involves what Burton (1972) has called
"telling".This is not so much the deliberateindicatingof culturalsigns, as the
ability to read the signs thatare there,no matterhow minimal.And in Belfast the
bus stop a person standsat, theirname,and undoubtedlyknowledgeof the school
attended,is more than enough "to tell". When used benificently these practices
allow people to interactamicablybut superficially,avoiding the fundamentalsof
religion and politics. Negative use allows people to identify targetsfor sectarian
attack.But eitherway "telling"can be seen to underwritesectarianpracticesince
it precludescritical discussion. It was the beneficentuse of avoidance strategies
that allowed for peaceful cross-communityinteraction,such as that involved in
the emergingfolk revival movement.
Thefolk revivalin Belfast

Socio-political contextoffolk revival
The late 1950s and early 1960s saw the benefits of the British 1947 Education
legislation. In addition, mass media and American/English popular culture
challenged more traditionalleisure pursuits.Youth sub-cultures,including their
musics, emerged and a more permissive society began. While the traditional
nationalist and Catholic musical culture continued, the number of cdilidhes
decreased,and only a few venues remainedto provide a focus for such activity.
They were mainly associatedwith sport,the Irishlanguageand the Church.Many
young people, Catholic and Protestant,particularlyamong the educated middle
class, felt disaffectionfrom the culturalpursuitsof theirparents"generation,and
looked beyond the apparentstultificationof northernIrelandpolitics and clerical

66
vol.4 (1995)
control to a broaderworld of internationalculture and to the anti-nuclearand

otherprogressivepoliticalmovements.
The Irishpolitical situationin which these developmentsbecamepossible was
one in which the armedRepublicanBorder campaign (1957-62) failed almost
beforeit began.The lack of supportfromnorthernNationalistswas apparentfrom
the 1959 election results (Farrell1976: 220). Even the Unionist party,normally
skilled at marshallingProtestantsupporton the borderissue, were unableto make
enough capital out of the crisis to resist inroads on its vote by the Northern
Ireland Labour Party (Rumph & Hepburn 1977: 159). According to one
cormnentator,"Irelandin the sixties seemedmoreconcernedwith the fruitsof the
good life than the bootless ambitionsof the romanticpast" (Bowyer Bell 1979:
349).
In the republic, Sein Lemass succeededDe Valera as Taoiseach in 1959 and
rejected the traditionalpolicy of protectingnative industry("Irish-Ireland")in
favour of one of attracting foreign investment through subsidies-the new
economic policy. He jettisoned what he believed to be the last vestiges of
republicanismand signed a tradeagreementin Londonin 1960. The subsequent
cross-bordereconomic talks seemed a logical corollary.Even the leaders of the
Ancient Orderof Hiberniansand the OrangeOrderhad talks at this time. There
were a few, but significant, Unionist dissociations from the Orange Order. A
group of Catholic graduatesset up an organisationto work for reform which,
while maintainingaspirationfor a unitedIreland,accepted the NorthernIreland
constitutionand condemnedviolence. In responseto criticismfrom this body the
NationalistParty,for the first time in the historyof the northernparliament,took
theirseats.
At a minimal level, however, nationalist and republican political culture
continued to reproduce itself quasi-publicly; annual commemorations were
maintainedby the NationalGravesAssociation, and the 50th anniversaryof the
1916 rising provided a celebratoryfocus. In addition to Gael Linn's film to
commemorate the 50th anniversaryof the Easter Rising, An Tine Bheo [The
BrightFlame] (Marcus1966), GeorgeMorrison'stwo classic documentaryfilms
on Irish history, Mise Eire [I Am Ireland] (1959), and Saoirse? [Freedom?]
(1961), were distributedwidely at this time, the former featuring a powerful
musical score by Sein 0 Riadabasedon the tune of R6isinDubh.
Folk purismversus rebelsongs andpop songs
Centralto my discussion is the notion that folk music, by whatevername, has a
history in Ireland, one that is integrally linked to notions of patriotism and
nationality. Therefore the folk revival of the 1960s in Ireland entered into
necessaryarticulationwith a pre-existingtraditionwhich had been, and still was,
part of a contested public and political domain, as opposed to simply a private,
domestictradition.
When ballad groupslike the Irish Clancy Brothers,who began theircareersin
the United States, impactedon Irelandthey were singing, for the most part, Irish
songs, most of which would have been commonly termed folk songs. Tommy

McCann:MusicandpoliticsinIreland
67
Makham(Makem) of the Clancy Brothersis the son of SarahMakham,County

Armagh traditionalsinger extraordinaire.Many of their songs were Irish rebel
songs. Their first album, The rising of the moon consisted of songs of Irish
rebellion. For most southernerssuch songs had lost their politicalpower and it is
indicativeof the relativeharmonyin the norththatthese groupsplayedto capacity
audiencesin largevenues includingthe Ulster Hall.
However, groupssuch as these were not consideredpurveyorsof "folk music"
among the small folk club gatheringswhich made up Belfast's more esoteric and
puristfolk revival. The groundsfor rejectionwere not political, but definitional
and aesthetic. The songs, for the most part, did not accord with academic
definitions of folksong, and their accompanimentand manner of performance
were not traditional.The preferencein folk clubs was for unaccompaniedsinging
of ballads, "the big ballads","the lyrical songs and later ballads"(Lloyd 1967),
and sea shanties. Young Irish men and some women sang in accents which
imitatedthe great names of the revival in Englandand the United States:Ewan
McColl, A.L. Lloyd, Peggy Seeger.
The democraticstructureof the event, like the ce'ilidheevent describedabove,
permitted floor singers to propose themselves. Some clubs were relaxed and
"catholic"in theirrepertoire,engaging with the possible novel and experimental
musical outcomes. For more purist clubs, in the absence of the authoritarian
paternalismof the fear d toighe, there appeareda lamentabledegree of heterogeneity, sometimesrequiringthe implementationof informalsocial sanctions.
Many kinds of song and music combinedwith the emergingBritishand North
Americanclassic folksong canon to create a "bricolage"of sound. There was an
ample supply of personalcompositionsfor guitarandvoice, and of re-renderings
of established popular artists, especially guitarists,such as Bert Jansch. There
were songs from different countries and in different languages. Political songs
also made up a significant proportion of the local repertoire. They included
Woodie Guthrieballads and McColl's political songs. There were workerssongs
of protestandresistanceandcontemporaryprotestsongs againstnuclearweapons
andwar. Nationalistsongs fromWales and Scotlandwere also sung.
Relationswith theIrish Catholicculturalscene
But initially there were relatively few Irish songs, and even fewer Irishpolitical
songs. Two or three singers who were part of the on-going nationalistmusical
traditionin Belfast would contributethe occasionalIrishlove song, often in Irish,
but they were not centralto the folk club scene. The two traditions,the new folk
world of religiously mixed internationallyorientedyouth and an older world of
Irish Catholic traditionalculture,co-existed. Relations were amicableand there
was some inter-visiting,but they remaineddiscrete.
For many young Catholics,the Irishworldwas somethingto be rejected,being
associated with parental and clerical control as well as archaic politics. Those
caught up in the non-commercialfolk revival were replacing the old Come All
Ye's with the new, replacingnationalistandpatrioticsong with folksong. Among

68
vol.4 (1995)
other attractionsfor the youth of a puritanicalculture, folksongs were bawdy

featuring"littleballs of yam" and"bonnyblackhares".
In some ways the folk revival's apparentlyapoliticalstancein relationto Irish
politics providedan escape from an identitybased on nationalityand religion for
both Catholic and Protestant youth. For Protestants, there was also an new
opportunityto tap into a cultural heritage, British, and ultimately Ulster--an
Ulster culturalheritagesignificantlydifferentfrom thatprovidedby the Orange
Order,which, at this time, was just beginningto loose the supportof more liberal
unionists.
The song revivaland the instrumentalrevival
It is also possible to separateout the folk song revival from the instrumental
music revival. Folk clubs were primarilysinging events, which welcomed the
occasional instrumentalist,a fiddler, uillean piper, or a group of musicians
broughttogether. But the event was "performance"as opposed to playing in a
session. The session was the formatdevelopingfor the playingof Irishtraditional
music, and in Belfast in the 1960s the session might welcome in a singer or two,
but again, as somethingquite differentand requiringa differentkind of listener
response.
One could suggest that the musical revival looked south, and was part of the
developing network of traditional musicians which was being more or less
facilitated by the fleadh Ceoil organised in various provincial towns by
ComhaltasCeolt6iriEireann,foundedin 1951. While singersandfolk enthusiasts
were increasinglyhappyto attendthefleadhs, the folk club movementin Belfast,
epitomised in the Ulster Folk Music Society, looked east to Great Britain,
modelling itself on, and in a relationshipof exchange with, the most famous of
folk revivalclubs in England,The SingersClubin London.
Politics and thefolk revival
The folk revival was predictably attractive to the Left. Fundamentalto the
enterprisewas the acknowledgementof the value of the cultureof the common
people, whether rural folk or industrialworkers. Such an agenda would be, in
theory, acceptableto a broadpolitical spectrumof opinion.Withinthe context of
northernIrish politics it became more problematicwhen the folksong remit was
extended to embracethe songs of contemporaryrelevantmovements,especially
resistancemovementsand nationaliststruggles.Otherfolk revivalsmight sing the
songs of Irishresistance!
Therewere specific venues associatedwith variouspoliticalgroupingswhere it
was safe to sing one's politics, for example, the CommunistParty,or nationalist
and republicanclubs. These were more or less integratedinto the folk revival,
enlargingtheir repertoires,and more importantly,changingthe musical styles of
their singing and composition.Theballadmovementemanatingfrom the south of
Ireland,was moreresponsiblefor these developmentsthanwere the folk clubs of
Belfast.

69
Otherpolitical or interestgroups,such as the Young Socialists,ran folk clubs.

These tended to be of the relaxed and "catholic" variety. Organisationand
structurewere minimal and performanceethos was absent. The song content,
political or otherwise,was spontaneousand haphazard,dependingon the participants on any given night. The clearest indication of the political nature of the
venue was the short, often inaudible, announcementmade about forthcoming
meetings and demonstrations.Politics and folk song were not integrated,but coexisted amicablyandto one another'smutualbenefit.
The non-alignedfolk clubs came togetheron a musical ratherthan a political
agenda,albeit a musical agendawith political undertones.They were constrained
by the mixed political and religious composition of their participants and
ultimately by the underdevelopedstate of class politics in Ireland.In terms of
ideal types, a dichotomybetween esoteric purismand political culturalactivism
was discernible. The latter was represented by a singing small faction more
interested in facilitating and partakingin a democratic song culture (Watson
1983) thanin esotericantiquarianism.
It is arguable that the specific history of the north of Ireland affected the
potentialcorpusof generallypolitical songs, for althoughthe most industrialpart
of Ireland, Belfast, because of its sectarian politics has a relatively underdevelopedlabourtradition.Little work had yet been done on the existing songs of
the linen mills, the ship yards,or of the streets;these were even more likely to be
political or sectarian.6
Some new political songs in the folk idiom were sung by individuals, often
their composer. The traditional-soundingFishers of Lough Neagh, while not
overtlystatedin the text, was a song abouta contemporary

campaignfor the
rights of the local people to fish their own lake which was supportedby the
CommunistPartyand the new Left Irish RepublicanArmy. TheIslandmenwas a
song about increased unemploymentin the Belfast ship yards. Sectarianstreet
songs were not sung, with the exception of David Hammond'srenderingof the
inoffensive, and somewhatdistantofferings such as Sir EdwardCarson's cat who
sat upon the fender,andevery time he saw a rathe shouted;"No Surrender".
Songs of Irish rebellion were virtually unsung, except for the occasional
renderingof the ambiguousand crypticsongs of Domnic Behan.One song of the
1798 Rebellion, in which the Presbyteriansof the Northplayed such a vital role,
was amongthe repertoireof one of the leading figures of the revival in Belfast. It
was GeneralMunroewho led the insurgentsin CountyDown and was defeatedat
the Ballynahinchin 1798.
Towardsa social constructionof Ulster identityandfolk culture

Ewan McColl's rail against the British singer's habit of singing American (or
Greek, or Israeli) songs, and his insistence that an Englishman should sing
6 Songcollectingin the areasoutlinedincludethe workof DavidHammondon
children'ssongs
andhis valuablelittlebook,Songsof Befast (1978),andBettyMessenger's
study,Pickingupthe
threads(1975)whichsetsthesongsof thelinenmillsin a broadersocialcontext.

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vol.4 (1995)
English songs, and American,Americansongs and a Scot, Scottish songs and so

forth(Woods 1979: 57) raisedcomplexitiesin the northof Ireland,for Ulster was
not just another region of the Britain. Physically it was part of the island of
Irelandand historicallyit was partof the political entity of pre-partitionIreland.
Ulster (of the nine counties, not the six that constitutepost-partitionNorthern
Ireland)was one of the five historicprovincesof Irelandand the founderof the
fourth-centuryKingdom of Dal Riada, based on the colonisation of western
Scotland. All of these pasts were available as culturalcapital for a variety of
potentiallycompetinginterests.
RobinMorton'sdefinitionof Ulsteridentityandfolk style
Robin Morton, founder member of the university folk club in Belfast and the
Ulster Folk Music Society, became involved in collecting song, and in
encouraging others to do so. His collection and innovative presentationof the
songs of JohnMaguire,influencedby JohnBlacking's concernfor social context,
demonstratesbut a part of the untappedfolk-song resources of Ulster. Ulster's
folk song, he remarks,not entirelyinnocently,"witha few notableexceptions,has
been largely ignoredby the scholarsand collectors."Morton'sclaim of an Ulster
exclusion from the Irish canon is a theme much rehearsed in contemporary
literary cultural debate in Ireland. It is a position which seems to demand
simultaneous acknowledgement of inclusion and separation, similarity and
difference.
Dimensions of this differenceare elaboratedin the forwardto his compilation
of Folksongs sung in Ulster (1970). "Whenpeople thinkof Irish folk music and
song they seem unconsciouslyto directtheirmindstowardsthe West, the lands of
the sean-n6s. Certainlythey never thinkof this province,yet you have only to list
some of the namesof oursingersandmusiciansto realise thatthe traditionis very
much alive 'Up North..."(Morton1970). Ulster is clearly differentiatedfrom the
West, at least in termsof singing style. DescribingJohnMaguire'ssinging,which
shows what is best in the Ulster style, he writes:"Inthis we do not find the vocal
gymnasticsof the sean n6s singing of the west. The decorations...aresubtle-they
have to be listened for, but they are no less effective because of that.The storyis
all importantand nothing is allowed to cloud that."For Morton the word that
comes to mindin pinpointingthe essence of Maguire'sstyle is "economy".
This discussion of style may help to explain the relativeabsenceof the Belfast
musical family, the McPeakes, from the world of the revival. With their very
ornamentalstyle of singing, sometimesto harpaccompaniment,and their use of
both IrishandEnglish,the McPeakeshadbeen involvedin traditionalmusic since
the early decades of the century. Ensconced in the heart of Belfast's working
class, Catholic Falls Road, they were in a sense a bridge between the old
nationalist tradition and the new folk revival. But it was a bridge not often
traversed.They were almost as likely to be playing in the AlbertHall in London
as in Belfast's Ulster Folk Music Society. Their professionalism,and therefore
commercialism, in playing such venues may also have been at variance with
puristnotionsof behaviourappropriatefor folk singers.Membersof the McPeake

71
family continue to be involved in the currentlyflourishing nationalist cultural

revival, teaching tin whistle, flute and uillean pipes to children from their local
area.
In Morton(1970) the issue of culturalidentity arises most overtly in the notes
accompanyingthe song The Orange maid of Sligo, one of the few partysongs in
the compilation, when he strongly opposes the view of those who "arguethat
Orangemenare not true Irishmen, and that their songs are of no importance"
(1970: 57). To supporthis point he cites CharlesGavin Duffy, co-founder,with
Thomas Davis, of The Nation. In the preface of his collection of "Nationalist"
balladsDuffy says of Orangesongs that"theyecho faithfully,the sentimentsof a
strong, vehement,indomitablebody of Irishmen."Such a claim to Irish identity
would not be sharedby the majorityof UlsterProtestants.
While attractingmany progressiveyoung Catholics who, in anticipationof a
successful civil rights campaign, may well have been prepared to become
stakeholdersin a new Ulster, it can be arguedthat folk revival offered an Ulster,
and to some extent a Protestant,orientation.This was achieved by distancing
itself from the pre-existingfolk music of the IrishCatholicnationalisttraditionone elderly Catholicmusiciandescribedit to me as "the Protestantrevival".The
separationof the music and song revival may also have contributed,given that
many people were unaware of the extent of the involvement of Protestant
musiciansin traditionalmusic, and the relatedbelief that"diddlydee" music was
Irish,and by extension,Catholic.Associationat many levels with the English folk
revival was another relevant factor, as were the limitations of the academic
definition of folk song discussedin the first partof this article.All of this, taken
in conjunction with the polite social conventions of avoidance which
characterisedcross-communityinteraction,facilitateda religiouslyintegratedfolk
revival, and at the same time contributedtowardsthe emergingissue of Protestant
andUlster identity.
EstynEvans and the Ulsterfolk identity
It was by act of parliament(NorthernIreland)that the Ulster Folk Museumwas
established as an instrumentof educationand research in 1958, inspired by the
idea of a heritage sharedby all sections of the community. Interestinglyit was
one of the few folk museums to employ social anthropologists,and an ethnomusicologist, one of whose firstpieces of researchwas on the lambeg drumming
tradition.Closely involved in the movementfor such an institutionwas the Welsh
Professor of Geography,later to become first Director of the Institute of Irish
Studies at Queen's UniversityBelfast, E.EstynEvans. Evans publishedan article
on "The personalityof Ulster"in 1970, followed by The personality oflreland
(1973). Influencedby the historianMarcBloch, for whom "landlife and history
were inseparable"(quotedin Evans 1973), Evans places identity beyond history,
locating a "sense of place"transcendinghumanconquests--the stage upon which
Irish history has been played having taken shape throughgeological time (ibid:
68).

72
vol.4 (1995)
Evans, like Ferguson in the previous century, and like Robin Morton, his
contemporarywithin the field of folk music, is concernedto characteriseUlster,
in the process distinguishingit from its significantother. Evans, like Ferguson,
transcendsIreland'smodem politically and religiously sensitive historicperiod,
arrivingat the physicallocationfor the enactmentof Ferguson'sepic narrativesin
orderto tracethe originsof difference.
He also sharesFerguson's focus on the isolation of Ulster. The protohistoric,
legendary Black Pig's Dyke, which was a series of protective earthworks
providing a defence for the kingdom of Ulster, epitomises the point that
differences between north and the south are not the consequence of the
seventeenth-centuryplantation,betweencoloniserand colonised. However, other
ancient differences suggested by Evans have an unnervinglyReformationring
aboutthem, for distinguishableamong the religious beliefs of megalithicIreland,
he claims, is a puritanic earth-worshipping northern region, eschewing
iconography,and a more artisticflamboyantsun-worshippingsouth (1973: 72).
The stereotypesare reminiscentof Morton's"economic"as opposed to "ornate"
styles of singing.
Ulster's distinctive identity is manifested in the sleeve notes to David
Hammond's beautiful BBC album, Ulster'sflowery vale (1968), which is subtitled "traditionalsongs and music of the Northof Ireland".Its locationwithin an
Irish tradition,and within a broaderBritishIsles-wide, Irish, Scots, and English
tradition,is affirmed.The sleeve cover includes a brief note on the Ulster Folk
Museum, one of whose exhibits was the subject of the front cover. It was a
painting of a sturdy,spacious, well kept, indeed "Protestantlooking"--to use a
local turn of phrase--thatchedcottage. No small, one-roomedcottage, this is the
house of a weaver, a categoryof colonist which distinguishedthe northfrom the
south and which laid the basis for industrialdevelopment in the North. If the
Ulster folk revival had any interestin peasantroots, it was morelikely to be in the
industrious,"economical"domestic-based,ruralweavers, than in the "little old
mud cabins"of the impoverishedwest of Ireland.
Epilogue
1968 saw the developmentof the Civil RightsCampaignas a mass movementin
the northof Ireland;some of the young people involved in the folk revival turned
their energies in that direction. However events overtook the possibilities of
peaceful non-sectarianprotest, and Irelandwas once more engulfed in a war
situation. The emerging republicannationalistmovement expressed its anger,
sorrow,aspirations,and increasingresistance,in the traditionalmode of political
balladry.FromBelfast and otheraffectedareas,songs pouredforthinto the street
and into the clubs and pubs. A whole nationalistrepertoiredating back as far as
the 1798 rebellion became availableto those unfamiliarwith it. New songs were
writtendaily, abouteach news-worthyincident.The composerswere often local
people, more or less musicallytrained.Local groupssprangup to performsongs
and the local recording studio producedrecordings of those same people and
groups.Performancevenues was frequentlydominatedby floor-singers.

McCann:
MusicandpoliticsinIreland
73
One of the more resonantsongs of the early 1970s, Four Green Fields, was a
song personifying Ireland as an old woman with the four provinces under her
care--one province,Ulster, was still in bondage.In an epoch-markingalbumalso
entitled "Four Green Fields", the local, Falls Road-based group, The Flying
Column (a reference to a ruralguerrillamilitary formationused in the War of
Independence),used the song Four Green Fields as a surroundfor an emotive
renderingof PadraicPearse's poem about "MotherIreland",Mise Eire, which
was musicallybackedby none otherthanR6isinDubh, played on the mandolin.
Conclusion
I could not have writtenthis article other than in retrospect.It is interestingto
reflect on how I might have writtenhad I done fieldwork during the early folk
revival in Belfast. It is extremely unlikely that I would have thought to
contextualize the revival within the context of Irish rebel songs. It raises
importantquestionsabouthistoricalperspective.My field researchwas, however,
on the 1970s. I studiedthe songs of The Troubles,which initially appalledme, in
terms of the aestheticI had learnedas a keen and puristCatholic folk enthusiast.
My research uncovered, for me, their significance in the lives of people. The
songs had a social heritage and a history, and they were part of an orally
transmittedtradition.
In this paperI have suggestedthatthe limitedparametersof the academically
defined term "folk song" mirroredand complemented the limited forms of
communication available to religiously mixed groups of people in Northern
Ireland.Both were intent on avoidingdifficult issues relating to Irish nationalist
history and politics. This convergence in the broaderhistorical context of the
1960s in Ireland, and in the Western world, allowed for a halcyon period of
fruitfulmusicalinteraction.
However, the revival was enteringthe domain of an older nationalistmusical
culture.It could not be innocentof the politics of identityin NorthernIrelandand,
whetherconsciously or not, took on a significantrole in relationto the emergence
of a new concernwith Protestantidentity.In manyrespectsthe attemptsto define
this identitymirrordebates of the previous century.Ultimatelythe coloniser still
must seek a non-essentialist, place-oriented version of Irishness, and indeed
Ulsterness.The Troubleshave witnessedan impressiverevival of Irishnationalist
culture.
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Music and Politics in Ireland The Specificity of The Folk Revival in Belfast

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British Forum for Ethnomusicology

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in the folk revival.Thispapercontextualizes

Theshamrock,roseandthistleandthelily too beside

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maintainedthe life of the ruralpeasantsociety in which thrivedthe folk tradition.

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strategyof avoidance of sensitive political issues which facilitated the peaceful

Folk song,an apoliticalcategoryin Irishmusicscholarship?

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