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Article

English

ID: <

10.4000/etudesirlandaises.3734

>

·

DOI: <

10.4000/etudesirlandaises.3734

>

Where these data come from
“Listening for landfall”: how silence and fear marginalized the music of the Aran Islands

Abstract

The Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland are a palimpsest bearing layers of representations in a myriad of forms including literature, film, television, radio, photography, and art, representations created by islanders and visitors. In the resulting Aran canon, which is dominated by visiting authors instead of local authors, the music of the Aran Islands – which is classified here as Irish traditional or folk music – has, however, been marginalised. This is surprising because both Irish traditional music and Aran itself are often cast independently of each other as entities that depict Irishness, entities that are, in fact, for many observers, exemplars of that identity. This article questions how the visitor’s experience of listening in Aran, which differs radically from that of locals, has contributed to the marginalisation of local music in the wider discourse and practice of Irish traditional music and Irish culture. It focuses on two of the forces at work in the marginalisation of the music of Aran. They are an appetite for silence and the silencing of music. Referencing the work of John Millington Synge, Kuno Meyer, Fr. Eoghan Ó Gramhnaigh and Andrew McNeillie, and that of the local poet Máirtín Ó Direáin, it considers the motives and fears that led visitors and islanders to treat the music of Aran as they did. This article is ultimately about how the act of listening to the world around us has a fundamental impact on how we represent islands and their cultures. Acknowledging the strong association between music and place that permeates the discourse of Irish traditional music and how, through the uniquely visceral experience of listening, that association has come to be so pervasive, it questions how and why, through the choices we make when we are listening, we perform notions of authenticity, musicality, and identity.

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