Traditional song in Ireland: living fossil or dynamic resource

Abstract

When I submitted the abstract of this paper, I did not realize that the late Frank Harrison used almost exactly the same title in an 6 Riada memorial lecture at University College Cork, Ireland some years ago (Harrison, 1988). I can only say by way of excuse that it was not conscious theft on my part, but an example of inadvertant intertextuality. In this paper I propose to give a survey of the traditional song scene in Ireland, its main events and also to attempt an exploration of some of the issues which concern singers and indeed the wider community of musicians in Ireland at the moment.