Dr. Méabh Ní Fhuartháin, incoming Head of Discipline and lecturer at the Centre for Irish Studies, NUI Galway, specializes in Irish music and dance studies.
Her topic at this Keough-Naughton Institute lunch talk will be: "The Musical Priest on Screen: Essentializing Irish America in the Twentieth Century." She will examine the figure of the singing priest in musical movies of the twentieth century as a representative and dynamic figure of upward mobility in Irish America. Furthermore, she will situate the “super-ethnic” priest on screen in the context of a changing landscape in American Catholicism.
Dr. Ní Fhuartháin contributes articles and reviews to a variety of journals, including Ethnomusicology, Journal of Music in Ireland, Journal of the Society of Musicology in Ireland and New York Irish History Roundtable. She was also the popular music subject editor of the landmark Encyclopedia of Music in Ireland (UCD Press, 2012). Current research projects include co-editorship of, and article contribution to, the forthcoming special issue of Éire/Ireland titled Nótaí/Notes:Music and Ireland (June 2019), ongoing work in the area of women and traditional/folk music, and a forthcoming monograph on festival and the Fleadh Cheoil in Ireland.
Dr. Ní Fhuartháin is co-editor, with Dr David Doyle, of Ordinary Life and Popular Culture in Ireland (IAP, 2013). Recent published articles include work on pop music and emigration; masculinities and Irish popular music; and the interface between associational culture and music scholarship.
While RSVPs are not required, to help us estimate numbers for lunch, please indicate your attendance by a note to Mary Hendriksen (mhendrik@nd.edu).