Tower Seminar Series – Revival and Repercussions in Irish Tradition

Presenters: Dr Catherine Foley, Dr Niall Keegan, Dr Sandra Joyce
Chair: Dr Colin Quigley

Traditional singing, dancing, and musicking have all undergone periods of revitalization over a history stretching back at least to the turn of the 18th century. Is the notion of revival still relevant to Irish traditions today?
Comparable revivals of song, music, and dance genres have been many throughout Europe, North America, and indeed throughout the world. Scholars have examined the circumstance in which many of these movements emerged and the consequences of their shaping ideologies. What happens in the later stages of revival movements, shifts into circumstances of post-revival or ‘re-revival’, is less well understood.
This panel brings together leading academic practitioners in the fields of Irish traditional song, instrumental music, and dance to offer a snapshot of the present state of revivals across these sometimes separate, sometimes overlapping and intersecting, domains.