Irish Musical Studies

Irish Musical Studies publishes monographs and edited volumes reflecting the plurality and presence of Irish music across history and in the present moment. The series was inaugurated in 1990 under the general editorship of Gerard Gillen and Harry White. In 2022 general editorship changed to Lorraine Byrne Bodley and Harry White, the series moved to Boydell and Brewer, and began to publish monographs as well as essay collections.

Building on twelve previously published titles by Irish Academic Press/Four Courts Press (1996-), the ‘new’ Irish Musical Studies series seeks to understand Irish musical practice not only as an expression of Irish, British and North American cultural history but as an art form whose identity and meaning have been shaped, determined and sometimes silenced by political, religious and social forces from the middle ages to the early twenty-first century. The series also seeks to enlist biographical, cultural and gender studies, in addition to studies in popular culture, ethnology and film studies in order to deepen the scholarly reception of music as a primary signature and preoccupation of Irish identity in a host of historical and global contexts. Although volumes in the series are clearly addressed to a wide academic constituency of music history and musicology, the series also publishes monographs and collections which speak to a more general readership in Irish studies. Books in the series will embrace art, popular and traditional/folk music.

The most recent volume was published in June 2025. Harry White, Fieldwork: Essays on the Cultural History of Music in Ireland (IMS vol. 16, 2025) is a collection of fourteen essays on the history and reception of Irish music and music in Ireland. It addresses three prevailing themes: the historiography of Irish music, the influence of music on Irish writing (and vice versa), and the cultural identity and reception of Irish music both domestically and in the world at large. Its principal protagonists include Thomas Moore, W. H. Grattan Flood, George Moore, Edward Martyn, Charles Villiers Stanford, James Joyce, Dora Pejačević, Ina Boyle, Aloys Fleischmann and Jennifer Walshe. These essays also identify and interrogate key questions underpinning a general crisis of reception in relation to Irish music, and particularly art music, within the domain of Irish studies. Fieldwork examines this crisis in the aftermath of The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland (published in 2013) and a major retrospective of Irish art music, Composing the Island (curated and presented in 2016). It thereby engages closely with contemporary Irish art music and the challenges which this music has faced in the early decades of the twenty-first century.

The next monograph, which will be launched on 18 September 2025, is Joanne Cusack, Women in Irish Traditional Music (IMS vol. 17, 2025): the first book of its kind to engage in the larger subject of women in commercial Irish traditional music. It considers the experiences of performers in the various commercial arenas of the tradition, while also engaging in critical discussions of choice, agency, feminism and sexualization. It reveals how the commercial music industry and Celtic music label continues to place women within a stereotypical idealized role or occupation. The book provides new insight into the legacy of women-led bands and compilations as well as their impact on Irish traditional music over five decades. Its findings on commercial dance shows are equally significant. While these shows had a positive impact on performers, at the same time they enforced gendered, racial and heteronormative  expectations. Drawing on extensive ethnographic and statistical research, the book finds strong evidence that women and other marginalized practitioners continue to face greater challenges and different expectations when maintaining a professional career and participating in Irish traditional music. It also uncovers characteristics and dynamics related to the recreational and commercial spaces of the Irish traditional music and Irish dance scene that enable harmful and predatory behaviour. The author's findings support understandings and aid future legislation for creating a safe, inclusive and equitable performance space for all.

See details of all previous volumes in the series.

For more information or to submit a manuscript or proposal, please contact the following: 
    Professor Harry White, School of Music, University College Dublin. Email harry.white@ucd.ie
    Professor Lorraine Byrne Bodley, Department of Music, Maynooth University. Email Lorraine.byrnebodley@mu.ie
    Dr Michael Middeke, Editorial Director, Boydell and Brewer Ltd. Email mmiddeke@boydell.co.uk

The Advisory Board of IMS:
    Anja Bunzel (Institute of Art History, Czech Academy of Sciences) 
    Gareth Cox (Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick) 
    Aileen Dillane (Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick) 
    Gerard Gillen (Maynooth University) 
    Nicole Grimes (Trinity College Dublin) 
    Kerry Houston (Trinity College Chapel) 
    Sandra Joyce (Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick) 
    Axel Klein (Frankfurt) 
    Helen Lawlor (Technological University Dublin, Conservatoire)
    Maria McHale (Technological University Dublin, Conservatoire) 
    Estelle Murphy (Maynooth University) 
    Michael Murphy (Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick) 
    Denise Neary (Royal Irish Academy of Music) 
    John O' Flynn (Dublin City University) 
    Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin (Concordia University, Montreal) 
    Séamas de Barra (Munster Technological University, School of Music ) 
    Adrian Scahill (Maynooth University) 
    Gerry Smyth (Liverpool John Moores University) 
    Laura Watson (Maynooth University) 
    Sean Williams (Evergreen State College, Washington) 
    Patrick Zuk (Durham University)