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Irish Diaspora Museum - Thematic Displays The Irish at Play
Sub Themes: Sports, Music and Literature. Visitor Goal: Visitors understand that many Irish emigrants and their descendants, blessed with sporting, creative and entertainment talent, found their destinies and success overseas. Focus Personalities: James Joyce, Margaret Burke Sheridan, Eamonn Andrews, Kevin Moran. Content: The contribution of emigrant and ethnically Irish sportsmen, entertainers, writers, artists and designers. Sport: The Irish were always seen as a sporting nation. From dogs to horses and from football to athletics sport runs in Irish blood. In their adopted countries Irish sportsmen made and still make a huge contribution. Gaelic football gave birth to Australian Rules. In the US the Irish dominated baseball in the 1920s and ‘30s, an era in which Irish-born athletes were winning Olympic medals but not for Ireland. In modern Britain scores of jockeys and Irish footballers are integral to the sports in which they compete. This is true for Manchester as it is for every major English City. Music: Music was central to Irish culture from at least the 18th century when traditional music emerged in its modern form. Emigrants – Presbyterians and Catholics – wherever they went brought with them a rich music, song and dance tradition. In the US not only did traditional music thrive it also influenced Hillbilly, Blue Grass and Country musical forms. Recording artists such as Michael Coleman transformed forever the way Irish music was played in Ireland itself. Irish dancing became tap and in recent years their influences were melded with many others to produce Riverdance, which in its groundbreaking premier saw two diaspora dancers in the lead roles. Thomas Moore, Percy French, John McCormack were household names across the English-speaking world and their success is unimaginable without their being able to work and perform in England and America. In the UK Irish entertainers working as singers, comedians and broadcasters still enjoy wide popularity. Groups such as The Pogues helped to redefine modern Irish folk performance. Literature: Since the 19th century Irish writers of note have often plied their trade abroad. The dramatist Dion Boucicault, who is credited with 150 plays, was born in Dublin but found fame in America. In the 20th century a string of Irish writers, giants of modern literature, have found their fulfillment outside Ireland. They include George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Samuel Beckett and perhaps the most famous James Joyce. Irish America in its turn produced many fine writers of whom the playwright Eugene O'Neill was one of the most gifted. |
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