Making of Irish Traditional Music

The first critical study of Irish traditional music, The Making of Irish Traditional Music draws on the author's observations and participation as a musician. It analyzes the experiences of foreigners playing Irish music at summer schools, where they encounter the tourism industry's "Ireland of the Welcomes", and in the heart of Ireland's traditional music empire, County Clare. The book concludes that a view of Irish traditional music as expressive of an ethnically pure, geographically bound, masculine, national culture is an inadequate basis for a multi-ethnic Irish society.