Keep calm and don't mention class:Popular culture and the crisis of neoliberalism

This article explores recent developments in cultural studies debates regarding the representation of class in British and Irish life.

The Advent of Modern Irish Drama and the Abjection of Peasant Popular Culture: Folklore, Fairs and Faction Fighting

This paper is part of a larger project in which the author is interested in recovering popular performative traditions and practices that have been occluded by the modernist project of the Irish Revival. This erasure has been compounded by subsequent historiographical paradigms that have reinforced the revivalist narrative of theatre history and excluded indigenous forms, traditions and practices (mumming, rhymers, strawboys) along with the wider performative culture of patterns, wakes, fairs, faction fights etc. This essay subjects to scrutiny what the author sees as a disjuncture between the riotous reality of peasant popular culture and its representation in Revivalist dramas to argue that Irish Theatre Studies needs to develop alternative historiographies of performance and to methodologically engage with theoretical models extant in Performance Studies.

"I Forbid You To Like It:" The Smiths, David Cameron, and the Politics of (Mis)appropriating Popular Culture

The Smiths were a critically acclaimed 1980s “indie” band that achieved cult-status within the five years they were musically active. Several studies on fandom have focused on The Smiths, particularly its frontman Morrissey, whose “apostles” are among the most committed on the popular music circuit. Yet British Prime Minister David Cameron’s repeated claims to Smiths fandom have been rebuked by fans, and the band themselves, as being incompatible with his right-wing political program; former Smiths guitarist and songwriter Johnny Marr tweeted: “David Cameron, stop saying you like The Smiths, no you don’t. I forbid you to like it.”

This article proceeds from the possibility that David Cameron was not being cynical in professing his admiration for The Smiths and considers music’s role in the embodiment of a social identity. Drawing on recent examples in the UK and the US, the article explores politicians’ problematic relationship with popular culture, alongside the notion that when an artist’s music is appropriated, they themselves are appropriated.

Popular Culture, 1600-1914

A review of changes in language, custom, amusements during Ulster's transition from a rural to an urban industrial society

The Cultures of Popular Culture

Special Issue of the 'Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy Modern Languages Symposium', reflecting a selection of papers from the Belfast Conference (13th-14th December 2013)