Tag Archives: history

A Review of ‘What Ireland Can Teach the World About Music’ in Ethnomusicology Ireland

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Review by Kara Shea O’Brien, University of Limerick, in Ethnomusicology Ireland, Issue 10, 2025. https://www.ictmd.ie/ethnomusicology-ireland-10

What Ireland Can Teach the World About Music
Toner Quinn
The Journal of Music, 2024
ISBN: 9781739577407 (HB)

Writer, publisher, and fiddle player Toner Quinn has long championed the Irish music industry, leading and facilitating discussion through his creation and editorialship of the Journal of Music. In his new book, Quinn brings together selections of his own writing in the Journal from 2000–2023. The essays cover a wide variety of topics from performance reviews to obituaries and to thoughtful opinion pieces that shed light on many aspects of Irish music over the last two decades. The book offers a unique retrospective on a tumultuous period in Irish music history: a thoughtful, critical, wide-ranging exploration that will serve both as a primary source for future historians and, hopefully, as a starting point for further discussion.

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What Now for the Arts Council?

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After a failed IT project costing €6.675 million and the departure of Director Maureen Kennelly, the Arts Council faces a crisis of trust and direction. What does it mean for those who work in the sector?

It has been a difficult week for the Arts Council. With the stepping down of Maureen Kennelly on Wednesday, it has lost a Director who had a deep understanding of what it is like to work in the arts, and on Thursday, its senior staff and Chair were questioned by the Public Accounts Committee for over three hours regarding the failed IT system that has now cost €6.675 million.

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History Repeats Itself as British Authorities Get to Decide Who the Terrorists Are

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A member of Kneecap has been charged with a terrorism offence, but those in power continue to look away from the deeper crisis.

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Enough of the Facile Narratives: Gael Linn’s Crossroads

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TG4 recently broadcast a new documentary marking 70 years of the Irish language and cultural organisation Gael Linn. Toner Quinn reviews.

This is a critical moment for Gael Linn and its relationship to traditional music. Despite its record label having a catalogue of over 300 recordings, plenty of them now classics, ten years ago Foras na Gaeilge designated the organisation’s future role as focusing on education. What then is going to happen to the label?

Gael Linn did not set out to be one of Ireland’s iconic record labels when it started out in 1953. The organisation was many things, all with the aim of revitalising the Irish language. It was when one of its founders, Riobard Mac Góráin, saw that more recordings of traditional music and song were needed for their sponsored Radio Éireann programme that they began issuing singles and albums. This initiative arrived at an extraordinary time. Seán Ó Riada and the folk revival were gathering momentum and Gael Linn was well positioned to meet demand. Their roster included everything from Ceoltóirí Chualann to Clannad. Mac Góráin ran that label for 43 years.

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