Sean-nós singing and Oireachtas na Gaeilge: Identity, Romantic Nationalism, and the Agency of the Gaeltacht Community Nexus. Éamonn Seosamh Costello Submitted to the University of Limerick in Fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy October 2015 Supervisors: Dr. Sandra Joyce, and Dr. Niall Keegan Abstract This thesis examines the relationship between a style of Irish vernacular song, commonly known as sean-nós, and the Oireachtas na Gaeilge festival, Ireland’s oldest arts festival. The Oireachtas is essentially an Irish language festival that was established in 1897, at a time when Romanic nationalism was very much the intellectual zeitgeist throughout Western Europe. As such, the Oireachtas tends to be viewed in the literature as a Romantic nationalist movement. Romantic nationalism is often described as a homogenising ideology, and a number of scholars suggest that the Gaelic revival of the late 19th century, which spawned the Oireachtas, has had a standardising influence on various forms of vernacular Irish cultural expression. Much of the literature that deals with so-called ‘folk-revivalist’ movements, like the Oireachtas festival, frames them as gentrifiers and expropriators of vernacular culture. While this is undoubtedly true in many ways, it is an interpretation that tends to overlook the agency of the so-called ‘folk’ in revival movements. It is also an interpretation that imagines the revival movement and the ‘folk’ as essentially two separate cultural formations. Here I argue that —although initially the Oireachtas exploited and gentrified vernacular Irish language song for its own nationalist agenda— over time vernacular singers increasingly came to have more power within the movement’s membership. In fact, I would argue that the singing competition should be regarded as a discrete musical community made up of individuals from within and from outside the Irish speaking districts of Ireland (Gaeltacht). I suggest that what is considered appropriate musically and aesthetically within this musical community has been informed by a blending of Romantic nationalist ideas — concerning cultural essences— with more idiosyncratic ‘native’ ideas concerning good performance. i Acknowledgements Firstly I would like to thank all the sean-nós singers and members of the Oireachtas I spoke with during the course of my fieldwork, in particular my primary informants, Informant A and Liam Ó Maolaodha. I am especially indebted to Liam Ó Maolaodha, without your knowledge, generosity and expertise this thesis would not have been possible. I must also thank my supervisors, Dr. Niall Keegan and Dr. Sandra Joyce, who have supported and inspired me throughout this journey. I would also like to acknowledge the support of the Irish world academy staff, both academic and administrative. In particular Professor Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, Dr. Helen Phelan, Dr. Catherine Foley, Dr. Orfhlaith Ní Bhriain, Dr Mats Melin, Dr. Aileen Dilane, Dr. Colin Quigley, Melissa Carty, Ellen Byrne, and Paula Dundon. A special word of thanks also has to go to my ethnomusicology lecturers at my old alma matter, UCC, Dr. Mel Mercier, Kelly Boyle, and Dr. Tony Langlois. Additionally, I must thank the UL library staff for their patience, courtesy and professionalism. I do not possess the words to adequately thank my family for all their support during this research project. My parents Maggie and Padraig, my sister Ann and her family have been an encouragement and inspiration from the start. The warm welcomes, hearty meals and good humour of my in laws Chris and Ciarán Smyth and their family have fuelled me throughout this journey, and I thank you. Again my words of thanks are pitifully inadequate for my wife Orla. This thesis would never have been completed without your support and encouragement. Go maire sibh ar fad ii Declaration I hereby declare that this is entirely my own work and that it has not been submitted for the award of any degree at any other University. Signed________________________________________________ iii List of Illustrations 3.1 Gaelic League 1897-reprinted in 1923 by Francis Fahy for Conradh na Gaeilge, Festival of Samhain 3.2 Prominent members of the 1897 Oireachtas membership 3.3 Entry in the 1950, arrangement of Irish Song Competition 3.4 Irish Céilí in London, organised by the Gaelic League 3.5 The Welcoming of the 1939 Oireachtas 4.1 Sleeve and Cover Notes for Ceol na nUasal 5.1 1946 SSNC, Competition 2-Adjudicator Report Sheet 5.2 1945 SSNC, Competition 40- Adjudicator Report Sheet 5.3 1963 SSNC, Competition 44-Adjudicator Report Sheet 6.1 The Oireachtas na Gaeilge Crest, 2012 © Clive Wasson 6.2 Marian Ni Chonghaile competing at the Oireachtas sean-nós dancing Competition, accompanied by Johnny Óg Connelly (Marian Ni Chonghaile 2012) 6.3 Sean-nós singer at Oireachtas na Gaeilge (Beo 2014) 6.4 The Corn Uí Riada audience (Oireachtas na Gaeilge 2014) 6.5 The 2014 Oireachtas stage being readied (Telegael 2014) Charts 4.1 Corn Ui Riada Entrants 1972-2012 4.2 The Over 35 Women’s and Over 35 men’s sean-nós singing competition Map 2.1 Gaeltacht Locations iv Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................. i List of Illustrations ....................................................................................................... iv Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter I: Theoretical Orientation ............................................................................. 5 1.1 Musical Culture ................................................................................................... 5 1.2 Refocusing Ethnography ................................................................................. 8 Autobiography ......................................................................................................... 10 1.3 Developing an Ethnographic Research Method for analysing the Oireachtas sean-nós singing Cohort ................................................................ 13 1.4 Qualitative Analysis of the Oireachtas na Gaeilge Papers ................... 24 1.5 Participant-Observation and the Insider-Outsider Paradigm............... 28 Summary ................................................................................................................... 33 Chapter II: A History of the Development of Romantic Nationalisms, informing an Ethnomusicological Study of Sean-nós singing at Oireachtas na Gaeilge ... 35 2.1 Locating Romantic Nationalism ................................................................... 35 2.2 Irish Romantic Cultural Nationalism ........................................................... 42 The Gaelic League and the Gaelic Revival ...................................................... 45 Nationalism and Authenticity .............................................................................. 53 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 55 Chapter III: Essentialist and Non-Essentialist Definitions of sean-nós song ... 56 3.1 Essentialist Definitions of Sean-nós ........................................................... 56 3.2 Non-Essentialist Definitions of Sean-nós ................................................. 74 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 77 Chapter IV: A History of Irish language Song in Oireachtas na Gaeilge ............ 79 4.1 The Appropriation of the Expressive Culture of the Gaeltacht ........... 80 4.2 Progressivist and Nativist Revivalists within the early League/Oireachtas ................................................................................................. 90 4.3 The Performance of an Imagined Gaeltacht at the Oireachtas ............ 95 The End of an Era: The Demise of the Early Oireachtas .............................. 99 4.4 The Middle Years of the Oireachtas 1939-1973 ...................................... 100 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 104 Chapter V: The Rise of the Conamara Style within Oireachtas na Gaeilge ..... 106 5.1 Vying ideological stances within the Oireachtas .................................. 106 5.2 Aristocratic Origins of Sean-nós Theory ................................................. 109 5.3 Folk Origins of Sean-nós Theory ............................................................... 119 5.4 The Rise of the Conamara style within the Oireachtas ....................... 122 5.5 Revolution within Oireachtas na Gaeilge ................................................ 129 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 141 Chapter VI: Sean-nós through the gaze of the Competition Adjudicator and the Agency of Competitors .............................................................................................. 143 6.1 Oireachtas Adjudicating............................................................................... 143 6.2 The Agency of Sean-nós singers within the Adjudicating structure 147 v 6.3 The Oireachtas na Gaeilge Adjudicator Reports ................................... 152 Sean-nós, Place and the Irish-Language ....................................................... 152 6.4 Sean-nós