Flowing Tides: History and Memory in an Irish Soundscape

by Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin

Despite its isolation on the western edge of Europe, Ireland occupies vast amounts of space on the music maps of the world. Although deeply rooted in time and place, Irish songs, dances and instrumental traditions have a history of global travel that span the centuries. Whether carried by exiles, or distributed by commercial networks, Irish traditional music is one of the most popular World Music genres, while Clare, on Ireland's Atlantic seaboard, enjoys unrivaled status as a "Home of the Music," a mecca for tourists and aficionados eager to enjoy the authentic sounds of Ireland.
For the first time, this remarkable soundscape is explored by an insider-a fourth generation Clare concertina player, uilleann piper and an internationally recognized authority on Irish traditional music. Entrusted with the testimonies, tune lore, and historic field recordings of Clare performers, Gearoid OhAllmhurain reveals why this ancient place is a site of musical pilgrimage and how it absorbed the impact of global cultural flows for centuries. These flows brought musical change inwards, while simultaneously facilitating outflows of musical change to the world beyond - in more recent times, through the music of Clare stars like Martin Hayes and the Kilfenora Ceili Band. Placing the testimony of music and music makers at the center of Irish cultural history and working from a palette of disciplines, Flowing Tides explores an Irish soundscape undergoing radical change in the period from the Napoleonic Wars to the Great Famine, from the birth of the nation state to the meteoric rise-and fall-of the Celtic Tiger. It is essential reading for all interested in Irish/Celtic music and culture.
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344 pages, Hardcover

Published July 8, 2016

About the author

A leading authority on Irish culture and heritage, Dr Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin is a 5th generation Irish traditional musician, scholar and former member of the legendary Kilfenora Céilí Band. In the simpler days of childhood, master musicians would call to his family home in the West of Ireland, to share tunes and stories over bottomless cups of tea and his mother's famous brown bread. They were eye-witnesses to extraordinary political, religious and cultural changes throughout the country.

His long awaited book, 'Flowing Tides: History and Memory in an Irish Soundscape' (Oxford University Press, 2016) brings their stories to life and with Gearóid's signature style weaves them into the broader historical narratives of Irish life– connecting the small place to the big picture!

A man of many hats, Professor Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin is a five-time world champion Irish musician, ethnomusicologist and historian. With numerous recordings and publications to his credit, he specializes in the Irish diaspora to Canada and the United States. His 'Pocket History of Irish Traditional Music' (O'Brien Press, Dublin, 1998) has sold over 15,000 copies and continues to provide music enthusiasts with a compact overview of Irish music history.

Over the past 30 years, he has presented more than 1,000 concerts, lectures and workshops on four continents. Since 2009, he has held the bilingual Johnson Chair in Québec and Canadian Irish Studies at Concordia University (Montréal). He is also the former Jefferson Smurfit Chair of Irish Studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis (2000-2009).

Visit him at www.DrGearoid.com
* Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin is pronounced 'Ga-RODE O-HAL-ver awn
* Author's name is frequently misspelled
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