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'Tis Like They Never Left: Locating “Home” in the Music of Sliabh Aughty's Diaspora

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2010

TIM COLLINS*
Affiliation:
timncollins@eircom.net

Abstract

This article, which builds on research in the fields of Irish traditional music, place, and diaspora, focuses on a community of diasporic musicians from Sliabh Aughty, an upland region of approximately 250 square miles that encompasses the musical storehouses of east Clare and southeast Galway in the West of Ireland. It examines the importance of home for these musicians, who have been resident in the United States for many decades. Their personal music geographies are explored to ascertain how traditional Irish music plays a critical role in transcending their sense of dislocation and reconnecting them with “home.”

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Music 2010

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