Mapping the Cultural Geography of Sam Henry's Irish Song Archive
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Ulster
Department Name: Research Office
Abstract
Working with the Sam Henry Irish song archive, my research aims to map and analyse the significance of the sense of place that Henry's collection constructs and examine how local place impacts upon the gathering of song. Using a cultural geographical approach, I will explore issues related to cultural/regional identity within Ireland at a time of great social, political, and demographical change following the establishment of Northern Ireland in 1921. This makes the project timely as it mirrors the current re-evaluation of what constitutes Northern Irish identity and "culture" amid the concerns and implications of Brexit today. The songs and lyrics convey a sense of how communities understood their local areas, and their place within them in, in the years directly following Northern Ireland's formation. Due to this I believe there is potential for a contemporary historical parallel between the cultural underpinnings of Northern Ireland in its foundation, and its centenary as a state in 2021.
Sam Henry, an active member of the Coleraine community in Northern Ireland, worked as a pensions officer for the newly-formed NI government from 1921 onwards and was also a journalist for the Northern Constitution newspaper. He ran a weekly newspaper column known as Songs of the People in which he gathered and published the folk songs known, played, and sung by people across the north of Ireland between 1920-1939. The collection contains over 15,000 artefacts, roughly 800 of which are songs, and is managed by the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council. The whole collection has recently been digitalised onto niarchive.org. Over the last ten years the archive has gained significant recognition through a programme of community workshops and exhibitions across Ulster, which has prepared the way for my academic analysis of the archive to begin. The songs cover a wide array of themes and locales, from local villages and rivers to versions of folk songs which exist more widely in popular culture today, often with varying lyrics. As such, the lyrics published by Henry can reveal a lot about the sense of place, space and community in which the songs were situated.
Sam Henry, an active member of the Coleraine community in Northern Ireland, worked as a pensions officer for the newly-formed NI government from 1921 onwards and was also a journalist for the Northern Constitution newspaper. He ran a weekly newspaper column known as Songs of the People in which he gathered and published the folk songs known, played, and sung by people across the north of Ireland between 1920-1939. The collection contains over 15,000 artefacts, roughly 800 of which are songs, and is managed by the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council. The whole collection has recently been digitalised onto niarchive.org. Over the last ten years the archive has gained significant recognition through a programme of community workshops and exhibitions across Ulster, which has prepared the way for my academic analysis of the archive to begin. The songs cover a wide array of themes and locales, from local villages and rivers to versions of folk songs which exist more widely in popular culture today, often with varying lyrics. As such, the lyrics published by Henry can reveal a lot about the sense of place, space and community in which the songs were situated.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Frank Ferguson (Primary Supervisor) | |
| Grainne Milner-McLoone (Student) |