Fears of scarlet women, outsiders and immoral music enflamed Irish newspapers in the 1920s, brought thousands onto the streets of Leitrim in protest during 1934 and even led RTÉ to ban jazz in 1940s. In 2012, ninety years on from the founding of the Irish Free State, singer Christine Tobin investigated the fears of the newly independent country and its attempt to define a sense of Irishness. She spoke to key historians, musicologists and contemporary jazz musicians and reflected on the legacy of the Irish State and Church’s attempts to control music. Interspaced with readings from contemporaneous articles and Dáil debates, RTÉ archive and selected jazz tracks, she explored the nature of cultural repression through that most simple of human delights, music. Producer: Ruth Fitzsimons.
Executive producer: Alyn Shipton.
A Smooth Operations Production (Ireland) for RTÉ lyric fm, funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland from the Television Licence Fee.
(First broadcast 7th December 2012)
RTÉ lyric fm, Friday 3rd February, 7.02pm-8pm