FLOWING TIDES: History and Memory in an Irish Soundscape
AUTHOR: Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin (Oxford University Press, New York, 2016) ISBN: 9780199380084 
Flowing Tides explores 200 years of Irish history and the fascinating characters and events which shaped its musical traditions. Despite its isolation on the western edge of Europe, Ireland fills the music maps of the world. Deeply rooted in time and place, Irish songs, dances and instrumental traditions have a history of global travel spanning centuries.
“An immensely readable, informative, and innovative exploration of how history, culture, tradition, and art interweave to create and recreate place. Destined to become a classic!”
–Nancy Groce, Senior Folklorist, Library of Congress, Washington, DC
“Gearóid’s knowledge of Irish traditional music goes far beyond his academic voice. He has a passion for the music of our native Clare. He knows the source of the music and knows its heart and soul even more intimately.“
–Martin Hayes, Irish Master Fiddler
County Clare is an undisputed mecca of traditional music. Clare is home to the legendary music villages of Doolin, Miltown Malbay, Lisdoonvarna, Tulla and Kilfenora. Flowing Tides argues that this ancient place has felt the effects of global cultural flows for centuries. Flows bring musical change inwards, while simultaneously allowing musical change to flow outwards to the world beyond.
Flowing Tides draws richly from eyewitness accounts, multilingual ethnographies, cultural history, ethnomusicology, and memory studies. Ireland experienced radical change, from the Napoleonic Wars to the Great Famine, from the birth of the nation state to the meteoric rise—and fall—of Ireland’s cultural economy during the Celtic Tiger decade. All these changed shaped the musical traditions that survive and thrive today.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Professor Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin is a leading authority on Irish traditional music, history and culture. He is a prolific writer and international speaker. Now scheduling author readings and book signings.
FLOWING TIDES: History and Memory in an Irish Soundscape is based on thirty years of fieldwork in Ireland and among Irish diasporic communities in the United States and Britain
More than just cultural historian, social anthropologist, and ethnomusicologist, Gearóid is also a 5 time World Champion Irish traditional musician. He performs on concertina, uilleann pipes and with The Clare Tracin’ Ensemble. He is a former member of the Kilfenora Céilí Band, one of the oldest céilí bands in Ireland. It was founded in 1909 in Kilfenora, a village in County Clare.
Since 2009, he has held The Johnson Chair in Québec and Canadian Irish Studies in The School of Irish Studies, Concordia University, Montréal, Québec.