However, it has not always been that way: while the beginnings of jazz grew well in Ireland with the advent of sheet music from US Irish immigrants, early radio shows and professional dance bands leading to a hugely popular dance craze in the 1920’s when dance halls had started to spring up all around the country, there was eventually a backlash from the Irish conservative establishment in the early to mid-1930’s resulting with the Down with Jazz campaign.
In this Part 1 of “Jazz in Ireland”, musician, musicologist and educator Mark O Callaghan writes of the social and political forces that influenced the journey of jazz in Ireland during these years. The article paints a vivid picture of how the natural development of jazz was stymied for a long period and gives the background canvas of the unique story which almost destroyed the development of Irish jazz. In Part 2, next month, we will look at how, despite the obstacles, the enthusiastic and brilliant Irish jazz artists start to emerge after 1945 and beyond.
We hope you enjoy Part 1, a little known story as part of the history of Irish jazz.
Jazz in Ireland. Part 1: - Socio-political factors influencing the early development of jazz in Ireland.
By Mark O Callaghan ©
The early 1900’s heralded the arrival of Jazz to Ireland. Its seminal years, however, were not easy and the New Music out of America struggled to find a cultural foothold. Indeed, Sir Hamilton Harty, conductor of the Hallé Orchestra, wrote in 1926 that he had never found jazz anything but ‘noisy, sexual and incredibly stupid’ (Irish Times 1 st September 1926). Today, this might seem ridiculous, given that jazz has become as much a part of everyday life as any other genre of music but from the beginning, jazz had its back against the wall fighting for survival against people who feared and hated it. The most obvious manifestation of this was 1930’s anti-jazz campaign. The Anglo-Irish Treaty, tenuously voted through in 1922, brought an end to centuries of British Colonial Rule and, with it, the foundation of the Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann). In the subsequent years both church and state sought a return to a ‘traditional, conservative and deferential role for the Irish people’ (Brennan 2011). The state at this time was suffering several social and economic problems and was plagued with poverty, unemployment and emigration. However, in the midst of all this it would appear that the issue most exercising the Catholic church was sexual immorality and unsupervised dancing of young people.
In the Lenton Pastorals of 1924 the Catholic Church made clear its feelings about the moral situation in Ireland at the time by highlighting what it felt were abuses present in society. These ‘abuses’ included ‘indecent dressing, indecent dancing and the consumption of alcohol’. For the next decade the threat posed by unlicensed dancehalls and unsupervised dancing would become an obsession of the Catholic Church. Jim Smyth, in his article ‘Dancing, Depravity and All That Jazz: The Public Dance Halls Act of 1935’ writes that:
This popular rural pastime became a classic terrain of fantasy projection
and pseudo-knowledge, involving a potent brew of alleged sources of evil
and degradation: cars, darkness, jazz music and the prospect of illicit and
unsupervised dalliance between the sexes. (Smyth 1993: 51)
In the opinion of the Catholic Church the ‘motor car’ also posed a threat to the moral integrity of the Irish youth as it allowed ‘unsuitables’ to travel great distances to attend even the quietest country-dance. The Church was not, however, against all forms of dancing as it considered many of the Irish traditional dances (especially the more modest ceilís) suitable for young people – provided they were supervised at all times.
It was the opinion of the Catholic Church that public and personal morality in the State was in decline. To address this decline, it called for more immediate and influential action to be taken. This led to a campaign for legislative change. The focus of the campaign was the amendment of the Criminal Law Amendment Acts of 1880 and 1885. These Acts were originally enacted to combat juvenile prostitution, protect minors and make brothel keeping an offence. In response to this the government formed the Corrigan Committee (named after its chairman) which, in 1931, gave its report on the moral condition of the nation. It concluded that ‘the moral condition of the country [had] become gravely menaced by modern abuses’ The committee next proceeded to uncover the cause of this moral degradation and eventually concluded that the dance halls, and by implication the jazz music that was played in them, were to blame. The following quotation from the Carrigan Report illustrates their concern:
It is to be attributed primarily to the loss of parental control and
responsibility during a period of general upheaval which has not been
recovered since the revival of settled conditions. This is due largely to the
introduction of new phases of popular amusement, which being carried
out in the Saorstát (Free State) in the absence of supervision, and of the restrictions found necessary and enforced by law in other countries, are the occasions of many abuses baneful in their effect upon the community generally and are the cause of the ruin of hundreds of young girls, of whom many are found in the streets of London, Liverpool and other cities and towns in England. The ‘commercialised’ dance halls, picture houses of sorts, and
the opportunities afforded by the misuse of motor cars for luring girls, are
the chief causes alleged for the present looseness of morals. (Smyth 1993:
52)
This concern for the ‘looseness of morals’ led directly to the launch of anti-jazz campaign in 1934. Brennan writes that this campaign ‘was a coalition of cultural nationalists, alarmed by the influence of foreign music and dancing, and the Catholic Church’ (Brennan 2011). The Gaelic League, a fierce opponent of foreign culture, joined forces with the Catholic Church in an attempt to rid Ireland of jazz music as at this time almost all non-national dancing was considered to be jazz. It was a powerful coalition; the Gaelic League was concerned about the non-national nature of jazz music, whereas the Catholic Church’s concerns related to the moral implications with which it was associated.
County Leitrim became the focal point for the anti-jazz campaign, and its leader was a parish priest named Fr. Peter Conefrey. Conefrey was an ardent cultural nationalist and was heavily involved in the promotion of Irish music and dance and the Irish language. ‘He devoted his life to making parishioners wear home – spun clothes and become self – sufficient in food’ (Maume 2005: 87). On New Years Day in 1934, 3,000 people from Leitrim and its hinterland marched through Mohill to begin the ‘anti-jazz campaign. Many of the marchers carried banners which bore statements such as ‘Down with Jazz’ and ‘out with Paganism’ (Leitrim Observer, 6th January 1934). Five traditional Irish bands accompanied the marchers. Although he was not present, ‘the President, Éamon de Valera, sent his regrets that neither he, nor any of his ministers, could attend but sincerely hoped that the efforts of the Gaelic League to restore ‘the national forms of dancing’ would be successful.’ (Leitrim Observer, 6th January 1934: 3)
During the meeting that followed the rally Fr. Conefrey announced his belief that jazz was a greater danger to the Irish people than drunkenness and landlordism. He called upon the government to make use of the Gardaí to ensure the cessation of jazz dances and the 11pm closure of dancehalls.
The secretary of the Gaelic League, Seán Óg Ó Ceallaigh, then made an extraordinary attack on the Minister for Finance, Seán MacEntee. He condemned the practice of sponsored programmes on the state broadcaster, Radio Éireann, which sometimes included jazz music. He told the meeting that
‘our minister for Finance has a soul buried in jazz
and is selling the musical soul of the nation for the dividends of sponsored jazz programmes. He is jazzing every night of the week.’
As a result of this the dance halls were subjected to new legislation in 1935. This was passed in the Dáil (Irish Parliament) without debate. The Public Dance Halls Act, 1935 was extraordinarily rigid and strict and meant that it was almost impossible to host a dance without the permission of the clergy, judiciary and police. However, Smyth writes that ‘it was probably honoured more in breach than in observance. Enforcement seems to have been patchy and the overall effect is hard to assess’ (Smyth 1993: 54) When asked about this, Chas Meredith, a jazz performer and presenter, recollects in interview how, when he was young, a priest would to stand in an upper gallery overlooking the dancers and how, if he spotted anyone getting too close he would come downstairs and separate them. He then adds to his story how at the interval there would be a group of nuns who would make tea for all the dancers.
Despite the harsh political and religious reception it received as an emerging art form jazz has gone on to flourish in Ireland. It now has a large and dedicated following and the country hosts an ever-growing number of international jazz festivals each year.
This article is an extract from Factors influencing the development of Jazz in Ireland from the Foundation of the State, by Mark O‘Callaghan. The full article can be made available upon request.
Mark is an Irish musician, musicologist and educator, based in Turin, Italy, with a special interest in Jazz and improvised music.