This book is a contribution to the field of music and identity in Ireland. This may not be surprising considering John O'Flynn, one of the book's editors, was also the author of the Identity and Music section in The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland (Reference Boydell and White2013) as well as his own book The Irishness of Irish Music (Reference O'Flynn2009). Music and Identity in Ireland and Beyond is an edited collection consisting of 16 diverse chapters, separated into three broad sections: ‘Historical perspectives’, ‘Recent and contemporary production’ and ‘Cultural explorations’. As an Irishman studying a PhD that regularly forays into the murky world of music and identity I was very much interested in reading this volume.
It is worth stating for the readers of this journal that the book itself is not centred purely within the field of popular music; the music contained within the bulk of the chapters concerns mostly western art music and Irish traditional music. The first chapter of the book, by Barra Boydell, deals with issues of identity within Anglo-Irish society in the 18th century, long before Bono put on his hat, and steadily moves along in a largely chronological order until the second section of the book, ‘Recent and contemporary production’, where we see the first chapters dealing in popular music. In summary, if you are looking for a book on Popular Music and Identity in Ireland and Beyond then this is not it, with the obvious exception of a few chapters.
The first section, ‘Historical perspectives’, brings us from the 18th century right up to the 20th, with Boydell's aforementioned chapter on Anglo-Irish identity and Ruth Stanley's discussion of broadcasting in the early years of the Northern Irish BBC being particular highlights. Boydell discusses the potentially problematic identities of the upper-echelon Anglo-Irish. Here he explores the musical inclinations of the privileged social class and concludes that the ‘Irish’ is perhaps more salient than might otherwise be imagined when it comes to analysis of their cultural leanings. Stanley's chapter deals with a very particular problem that the BBC encountered when they began regional programming in Northern Ireland within the first decade of the establishment of the state; namely, how can the state-funded broadcaster cater to the tastes of both the eastern-looking Protestant majority and also the southern-looking Catholic minority. This is a chapter steeped in discussions of identity in a place where identity would come to dominate political and cultural discourse for the next 80 years.
The book's second section, ‘Recent and contemporary production’, deals with more current subjects, and it is here that we find the book's first chapters set within the field of popular music. Isabella van Elferen's chapter on ‘Morrissey's gothic Ireland’ deals with the otherness found in Morrissey's work, discussing the difference he felt at a young age, living in England yet born of Irish-immigrant parents. The chapter contends that Morrissey's life can be shown to mirror that of Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde and W.B. Yeats, all contributors to Ireland's gothic tradition and all men who, at one stage in their lives, found themselves in England. Van Elferen draws parallels between Morrissey's references to identity, religion and sexuality and the similarly liminal nature of Ireland's gothic tradition and its cultural output.
The third section, ‘Cultural explorations’, was, for me, the most engaging. O'Flynn's chapter on Irish-Celtic music is an excellent exploration of the trope of Celticism visible in many contemporary productions of Irish music and why it can be viewed as problematic. Matteo Cullan's ethnographic work within the African immigrant community in Dublin is a breath of fresh air among a set of chapters located mostly within a white, Irish and, dare I say it, male, past and present.
The book itself states in its title the desire to discuss the concept of music and identity, not only within a specific Irish locus but also beyond. Unfortunately this is not really achieved. While the book does do a good job of discussing the intra-island complexities of the political situation in Ireland, it fails to really consider the diaspora in any great detail. Only in van Elferen's aforementioned chapter on ‘Morrissey's gothic Ireland’ do we find a real examination of Irish identity in a context not situated on the island of Ireland,Footnote 1 and even then the streets of Manchester don't really seem to be exotic enough to fulfil the promise of Beyond contained within the book's title. The Irish have, for many years, found themselves flung to all corners of the world in various waves of emigration dating back centuries that largely continue to the present day. Perhaps observations of Irish music making or Irish identities existing outside the geographical setting of the island itself could provide a contrasting, or at least disparate, contribution to the field.
In summary, this volume is a welcome contribution to the field of music and identity in Ireland. As a researcher in Scotland dealing with Irish (as well as other) identities I would have welcomed some kind of attempt to analyse the construction and maintenance of identity among the diaspora. This would not only have produced a further dimension to the book, but also would have resulted in more chapters about the lived experience of identity. This could have enabled a move away from the canonical feel of the book that, for the most part, elects to deal with big names in popular music and Western art music rather than the everyday person and their Irishness or identity in music.
