Jack Talty: 'UCC has had a far-reaching impact on traditional music'
Jack Talty, musician and UCC lecturer. Picture: Maurice Gunning
“As practitioners, people who love and play traditional music, we are very aware of its cultural, social, and artistic value,” says Dr Jack Talty, Co Clare, concertina player and UCC lecturer in Irish traditional music. “But it’s pretty-well universally accepted that there is a raising of the status of traditional music when it has become integrated into third-level education.”
As someone who has coupled extensive musical performance and production experience with a PhD exploring the institutionalisation of Irish traditional music in higher education, Talty points to the Scandinavian experience, indicating “the fact that their traditional and folk music is located within their third-level education system has raised its status and its respect among the wider population”.
