Description

What is the tonality of Irish landscapes? British colonisation not only strongly altered Ireland’s natural terrains but also marked the spiritual and emotional landscapes of the Irish people. The traces of colonisation can still be seen and felt today, physically in the land itself and in the minds and culture of people from Ireland. Hills are still barren after the burning of ‘bush schools’ and the landscape to this day carries the ridges where crops failed, like scars reminding the Irish people of a trauma they try to forget. But how have these physical and emotional wounds manifested themselves artistically, and what role do previously colonised landscapes play in Irish music? In this talk – drawing on the Irish folk tradition and his own practice – musician Connor Deegan explores these historical and contemporary relationships between colonisation, landscapes and music, tracing how such landscapes of belonging have and continue to play an essential role in Irish music.

BIO

Conor Deegan (1993) is a two-time Grammy-nominated Irish musician and songwriter, currently based in London. He is the bass player and backing vocalist in Irish band Fontaines D.C., which he co-founded in Dublin in 2014. Ten years and four records later, Fontaines D.C. are among the most celebrated and epoch-defining guitar bands of our time, and with their highly acclaimed, genre-bending 2024 album Romance, they received the Rolling Stone ‘Album of the Year’ award, among many other recognitions. Deegan and Fontaines D.C. have been ardent and loud voices in support of Palestine, having, e.g. raised over half a million euros in collaboration with Doctors Without Borders.

More announcements on this semester’s Life Terrains speakers and events will be shared soon.