Paper Short Abstract:

I question how the practice of translocal Irish music in the Netherlands negotiates authenticity and identity amongst the participating musical community. Could this movement, rather than being a revival of past traditions, be a complex reconfiguration of cultural heritage in the present?

Paper Abstract:

Music sessions, where musicians gather to play music informally together and give small-scale, intimate performances, are popular methods of disseminating folk music in the densely-populated province of Zuid-Holland in the Netherlands. However, the repertoire is often largely of Irish, rather than of Dutch folk music.

There has been great interest in Irish music in the Netherlands since the 1970s although its popularity has waxed and waned a few times. Many participants in present day Irish music sessions are very knowledgeable about music and travel frequently to Ireland to learn and to assimilate both the music and the culture. Some express distaste with their native Dutch folk music. This assimilation of ‘Irishness’ in translocal musicians, who identify closely with the music they play, suggests that the growing interest in Irish music in the Netherlands is not a folk revival per se, as the interest relates to a style that is not native to the Netherlands.

In this paper, I will question how the practice of translocal Irish music in the Netherlands negotiates authenticity and identity amongst the participating musical community. In the Netherlands, we are witnessing a transformation of cultural identity. I will explore how this contemporary movement, rather than being a revival of past traditions, is instead a complex reconfiguration of cultural heritage in the present. But whose cultural heritage and how is it written and shaped?