Opinion & Book Reviews
The Music Instrument Fund of Ireland (MIFI) celebrates 30 years in 2025 and is currently open for applications for auditions. Violinist Gwendolyn Masin tells the story of her family’s move to Ireland in the 1980s and the origins of the organisation founded by her father.
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Cork University Press has recently published 'Heading to the Fleadh: Festival, cultural revival and Irish traditional music, 1951–1969' by Méabh Ní Fhuartháin, a study of the Fleadh in its first two decades. Daithí Kearney reviews.
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The full speech given by Christy Moore at the RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards when presenting the Lifetime Achievement Award to Dónal Lunny.
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To mark the publication of 'Count Me Out: Selected Writings of Filmmaker Bob Quinn', The Journal of Music publishes an extract by editor Toner Quinn in which he writes about his experience of growing up in the Conamara Gaeltacht with his maverick father.
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The Arts Council has written off €5.3m on ‘substandard work’ and an IT system that was ‘not fit for purpose’ while artists try to make ends meet. This has to be the beginning of real change, writes Toner Quinn.
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The 2025 New Music Dublin festival takes place from 2 to 6 April and features Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, John Butcher’s 'Dublin Fixations', a new Irene Buckley opera, an Ed Bennett piano concerto and more. The Journal of Music speaks to Artistic Director John Harris.
Cork University Press has published a major volume on the late musician, composer and educator Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, edited by Helen Phelan, Marie McCarthy and Nicholas Carolan. Adrian Scahill reviews.
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The fiddle player Dinny McLaughlin passed away in December. Liz Doherty, a former pupil, writes about his contribution to Irish traditional music.
The Minister for Arts has lost her seat in the General Election, but she leaves a formidable legacy, writes Toner Quinn.
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What does the recent trajectory of the arts in Ireland – from Arts Council funding increases to the Basic Income pilot – mean for musicians? How can we further strengthen music across Ireland? And what do these developments mean for the tradition of the Irish harp? This is an edited version of the Harp Ireland/Cruit Éireann Annual Lecture, given by Toner Quinn on 17 November 2024 at the Royal Irish Academy of Music.
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