University of Galway History Research Seminar: ‘hurry, hurry, over the waves’: Songs, the sea and the (re-)interpretation of nineteenth-century history

University of Galway History Research Seminar:

‘hurry, hurry, over the waves’: 

Songs, the sea and the (re-)interpretation of nineteenth-century history 

Dr Richard McMahon (Mary Immaculate College, Limerick) 

Dr Niall Whelehan (University of Strathclyde)

Abstract
Bring Your Own Hammer is a project that combines historical sources, music and digital technologies. It brings historians, composers and musicians together to create new and original song cycles. It explores the boundaries of historical interpretation by reflecting upon and offering new and often radical re-interpretations of historical sources relating to nineteenth-century Ireland. A key strand within the project involves the use of sources related to the themes of the sea, sea journeys and migration to and from Ireland in the nineteenth century. This paper will explore the processes of collaboration between historians and composers in creating a select number of tracks from My Grief on the Sea, the first album from the project, which will be released later this year. In creating the album, we asked the composers to focus on the ‘sea’ theme by exploring it from different perspectives and through a different lens depending on the source material. We identified a number of key ways of exploring the theme, namely through ballad/song material from the period, through individual lives, through particular moments or events and by exploring spaces. In the paper, we will reflect on these different approaches and, ultimately, on the similarities and differences that arise from representing experiences of the sea, sea journeys and migration in forms of written and of music history.

Biographies
Dr. Richard Mc Mahon is a Lecturer in History at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick with particular research interests in the history of violence, law and order in nineteenth-century Ireland and among the Irish Diaspora. He is also committed to engaging in forms of creative history.

Dr. Niall Whelehan is a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. His research focuses on themes of migration, political violence, and radicalism. His latest book – Changing Land: Diaspora Activism and the Irish Land War – was published with NYU Press.

Registration

This is an in-person event, in Room G010, Hardiman Research Building, University of Galway (ground floor). For those of you not able to attend in person, the talk will also be streamed on Zoom: https://universityofgalway-ie.zoom.us/j/98011931521. To attend via Zoom, please register at: https://forms.office.com/e/5Z0tW9Qz9h

The seminar will be preceded at 3.30pm by a reception kindly sponsored by the Department of History. All are welcome!

This talk is part of the University of Galway History Seminar series.