ABSTRACT
Music can provide vital insights to why minority groups are not reconciled to the identity of a larger nation. This chapter considers the musical rituals of the devolved Northern Irish government and the responses of the nationalist movement. In particular, it suggests that the nationalist movement’s failure to cultivate a mass political musical culture epitomised the failings of the nationalist movement more broadly. Nevertheless, music was an important part of perpetuating a separate national identity and culture that was ideologically incompatible with that of the Northern Irish state.
