Encyclopaedia of Music reveals Ireland's achievements

THE Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland is the summation of 10 years of research, and brings together some 2,000 articles by 240 contributors in a handsome two-volume, cloth-bound edition.

The guiding hands for this massive scholarly undertaking were Harry White, professor of music at UCD; and Barra Boydell, who recently retired as professor of music at NUI Maynooth.

As we admire the volume in a Dublin coffee shop, White admits he is thrilled with the book’s appearance. “That was really the great payoff after 10 years of working on it,” he says. “I attached a certain importance to how it symbolised the significance of the project, at least for those of us who were working on it.”