Hearing (on Irish radio) about “America 250” (it is 250 years since the American declaration of independence) reminded me that, a couple of years ago, I wrote an article about the American reaction to the Irish declaration of independence (in 1919). It appears in the volume Irish Revolution: diplomacy & reactions. Explaining the American foreign policy attitude of the day, which was not well understood in Ireland, was a worthwhile study.
In the same book, I wrote an article about “Aonach na nGaedheal”, which was the official title of the 1922 “World Conference of the Irish Race”. Apart from attempting to organise a diaspora, this “Aonach” event encompassed Irish art exhibitions, on everything from Irish painting to drama to music. As I explained in the article, it was initiated by a nascent Irish department of foreign affairs.
The music programme in 1922 included traditional music. This did not happen at state-patronised, Irish cultural events thereafter! Therefore, it is interesting to me to see a slight “diplomatic dimension” to recent reflections on traditional music, both here and here!
I’m very conscious that, as much as I’d like to study the subject in great depth, being a political and to some extent cultural historian hitherto, it is not possible to literally “switch minds” and become a bona fide music historian at the drop of a hat! Of course, I’ve also to deal with many other issues in my life beyond historical studies, and to turn music into an object of academic study (work) rather than artistic enjoyment (relief from work) would be contrary to some ingrained personal instincts. But where folklore and history meet is potentially a fascinating subject, not just a tremendous rabbit hole to get lost in, so it may entice me to dig deep yet….
Notwithstanding the Library of Congress link above, I’ve always been inclined to think of American opinion as essentially “anti-folklore” and more given to futurology than history as a mode of thought. Hence, in 1922 (I’m pretty sure), there was often an association of Irish culture and particularly Irish music in America with the negative legend of the pied piper (a sort of “road less travelled for good reason”). On a different note, a recent discovery for me was an eloquent reflection by T.S. Eliot on folklore and history, in the name of tradition, which is really quite thought provoking. But Eliot, born in the heartlands of America, had by this time moved to England and would soon renounce his American citizenship for good. Why so, one might wonder. As I have not read a biography of Eliot I cannot give you an answer. Today, however, I can muse: “how was it that it was an American who issued such a challenge to artistic stereotypes in the name of tradition?” I knew and liked some of Eliot’s poems in yesteryear but, I must admit, I was never conscious of him as a prose writer.
I’m pretty sure that by the time Eliot died, in early January 1965 (I don’t think that made headlines in Irish newspapers, which deemed “the” great artistic casualty of the day to be Jimmy O’Dea!), most people would have associated American art criticism with the likes of Andy Warhol rather than this “former American citizen”. But as one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century, Eliot’s prose commentaries may merit further examination (irrespective of any broad criticisms in John Carey’s old “intellectuals and the masses” thesis).
