Irish music holds pride of place among the cultural attributes defining Ireland, and its role in shaping national identity is undisputed. To question these certainties which tend to convey a restrictive notion of a so-called Irish music, the first Irish music studies conference in France, which took place at the université de Caen Basse-Normandie on September 10th-12th, 2008, brought together Irish studies scholars, musicologists and musicians from Ireland and from France. Proceeding from this conference, this collection of essays places itself in the context of the fairly recent development of music studies as an area of scholarship within Irish studies. After an introductory essay by Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, head of the Irish World Music Academy and chair of Culture Ireland, other articles look at issues such as (re-)defining, instrumentalising, performing, staging and listening to Irish music. In this volume, studies of form, setting, repertoire, political and ideological exploitation and government policy sit alongside explorations of music motifs and themes in literature and on the stage.

Introduction / Thierry Dubost et Alexandra Slaby

Defining and redefining Irish music
- Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin / Elver-Gleams: Sub-marine Soundings from the Irish World Academy
- Erick Falc’her-Poyroux / Irish Music Redefined, An Outsider’s Viewpoint
- Adrian Scahill / Riverdance and Irish Traditional Music

Instrumentalising Irish music
- Alexandra Slaby / Ireland’s Music Policy
- Lison Ducastelle / Weapons in Irish Republican Rebel Songs
- Visnja Cogan / “Every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief”: Literary and Theatrical Influences in the Works of U2

Playing Irish music
- Jacques Tranier / Lute Music as a Reflection of Political Destiny: A Telltale Comparison between Ireland and Scotland in the 16th and 17th Centuries
- Damien Verron / Interactions between Music and Social Environment in the Context of a Session

Writing Irish music
- Pascale Amiot et Emmanuel Amiot / Frame and Flow in Words and Music by Samuel Beckett and Morton Feldman
- Mathias Lebargy / Reading Music Whilst Listening to the Novel: The Musical Experience of Breakfast on Pluto
- Claire Majola-Leblond / The Art of Irish Counterpointing: William Trevor’s “A Day”

Staging Irish music
- Virginie Roche-Tiengo / Music as an Apolline and a Dionysiac Ritual in the Theatre of Brian Friel
- Matthieu Kolb / Frank McGuinness’s Carthaginians: A Choral Theatrical Celebration of the Dead
- Thierry Dubost / The Woman Who Walked into Doors Set to Music and Staged