Paper short abstract:

In Hiberno-English, "craic" refers to social buzz that emerges from performances of Irish traditional music. These ensembles model how juxtapositions of humans, animals, materials, and forces can foster collective sensations, commemorations, and new reckonings of relations across social divides.

Paper long abstract:

In Hiberno-English, "craic" refers to social buzz and happenings, especially as these emerge from public performances of Irish traditional music. This paper uses these ensembles to model how certain juxtapositions of humans, animals, materials, and spatial settings can afford possibilities for transformative reckonings of social relations and new frameworks of belonging.

Inishbofin is a small island off the west coast of Ireland. From the mid-20th century, the island's traditional agricultural and fishing economy has transitioned to greater reliance on seasonal tourism. Inishbofin's heritage resources feature significantly in the tourist trade, which relies upon annual extended stays by return visitors who feel a since of home on the island. Since 2012, I have undertaken extended participant observation of practices that involve interactions between islanders and tourists, including traditional music performances, archaeological walking tours, and farming tasks. I argue that these forums of interaction can promote new reckonings of relationships by evoking the past, engaging other-than-human forces, and cultivating intense and memorable collective sensations.

Musical performance, walking tours, and farming tasks, viewed as ensembles, can be seen as gambits for resonance, for shared sensory experiences that foster perceptions of belonging or trust. These gambits may succeed or fail, as participants - whether human or animal - may resist interactions or misconstrue others' expectations. I suggest that the viability of both Inishbofin's tourist trade and pastoral economy relies upon islanders' capacity to orchestrate collective sensations through carefully staged, but spontaneously executed interactions of humans, substances, animals, and landscape.