ABSTRACT
The Irish response to the arrival of jazz requires reconsideration. Current scholarship regards the Irish state, the cultural revival movement and the ‘anti-jazz campaign’ as coherent elements of a conspiracy to suppress foreign culture. However, by placing these efforts in an international historical and historiographical context, this chapter makes it clear that different groups had different aims and different priorities. Most importantly, the role of the State was much more reluctant and reserved than currently recognised, and its legislative response to campaigns against jazz represented a heavily watered-down version of what those campaigners wanted.?
