ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the musical output and uses of music during the opening years of the Northern Irish Troubles. While the reorganised constitutional movement largely avoided rebel songs after the outbreak of violence, for Republican organisations the escalating conflict stimulated new material and performances. Radical political movements often claim to represent a range of ideals to broaden their appeal, claiming that those ideals are inexorably linked. As this chapter argues, ideals of Republicanism, civil rights and cultural nationalism did not inevitably blend into one another in the Irish case. Rather, Republicans deliberately cultivated music that conflated them, romanticising and benefitting their movement.
