Irish Studies Seminar: “Embedded in Zeitgeist, Embodying Zeitgeist: Traditional Music and Arts Developments in Galway, 1971-1981”

Irish Studies Seminar Series, 2023-24 (in person, and on zoom)

Dr Anna Falkenau, “Embedded in Zeitgeist, Embodying Zeitgeist: Traditional Music and Arts Developments in Galway, 1971-1981”

Focusing on the urban site of Galway City, this paper explores the embeddedness of Irish traditional music and arts events in the zeitgeist of the 1970s. Described in a national context as “a decade of cultural, social and economic transition” (Verena Commins 2014), on a local level, Galway “awakened from a sleepy town a happening arts town” (Kernan Andrews 2013). Throughout my paper, I explore the pathway of key actor Ollie Jennings, active in Galway’s changing cultural landscape from the mid 1970s. My analysis shows that Galway’s vibrant scene of Irish traditional and folk music-making in public houses and other public spaces – only in place since the early 1970s – was at the root of inceptive arts developments during this decade. My discussion further reveals that it was a concoction of agency and circumstance that enabled Ollie Jennings’ success as music and arts promoter; his actions were at once embedded in zeitgeist, but also embodied it. Ultimately, I put forward a re-interpretation of Galway’s recent socio-cultural history.

Dr Anna Falkenau

A recipient of a Freyer-Hardiman scholarship from the University of Galway, Anna Falkenau is currently concluding doctoral research on micro and macro flows in the development of Irish traditional music in Galway City between 1961 and 1981. She previously received her Master of Arts in Music from Wesleyan University, Connecticut, USA (2004) and graduated from University College Cork (BMus, 2002). Publications to date include a core chapter entitled “‘It was in the Air’: Irish Traditional Music in Galway, 1960-1979,” contributed to Hardiman & Beyond: The Arts and Culture of Galway Since 1820, edited by John Cunningham and Ciaran McDonagh. Anna Falkenau is also an active performer of Irish traditional music (violin). She has released two critically acclaimed albums: her solo CD Féileacán na Saoirse – The Butterfly of Freedom (2014) and I Can Hear You Calling with five-string banjo player Lena Ullman (2017), both albums receiving four-star reviews in The Irish Times. www.annafalkenau.com

This seminar will take place in the Seminar Room, Centre for Irish Studies, School of Geography, Archaeology and Irish Studies, 4 Distillery Road, University of Galway, and on zoom here: https://universityofgalway-ie.zoom.us/j/99430390639?pwd=Z3g0WEU0KzA2K051MlZWVVRFdFgxdz09