1213 | 218 | Expanding Ireland’s Ancient East: Celebrating Irish cross-border music heritage

Borders play an important role in shaping peoples’ cultures and identity. Some of them are not the product of natural boundaries, but the result of political decisions. The border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland still reflects clashes of nationalities and identities. This frontier is also placed over a cross-border territory known as the Oriel region, characterised by a common Irish literature and music tradition (Ní Uallacháin 2003; Crawford 2018; O’Connor 2018), which is suffering a lack from general recognition and interest among local (divided) communities. The condition of this region, divided between two nations, makes harder to encapsulate such heritage within local tourism promotion strategies. _x000D_
Fáilte Ireland, the main national Irish tourism board, has recently developed a programme dedicated to the promotion of the eastern part of the country called Ireland’s Ancient East (Jackman 2016) and it is now is committed on the challenge of developing cross-border tourism packages based on qualitative experiences (Fáilte Ireland 2022). It is in this context that music emerges as a fundamental theme. Music is integral to sounding nations or regions and this territory is now offering music experiences that could become part of local tourism offer, even if establishing a shared approach coordinated from institutions and organisations both from the Republic as well as Northern Ireland remains complicated._x000D_
This paper aims to explore how music may build and maintain a sense of community and identity in border regions and questions the role of tourism agencies in imagining a shared future, noting how enriching the tourism experience can enhance cultural understanding and recognition for local stakeholders. The analysis is a summary of fieldwork activities, such as participative observation and interviews with local musicians from the area, as well as tourism stakeholders and organisations managers.

Leandro Pessina
Dundalk Institute of Technology

ID Abstract: 218