Archive for RTÉ

Ireland’s Campaign to “Put Down This Jazz”

Posted in History, Jazz with tags , , , , , on September 5, 2026 by telescoper

I’ve been listening to a radio programme about the centenary of RTÉ, it being a hundred years since the first radio broadcast by Raidió Éireann in 1926 (before television existed). One of the things included was a discussion of the fierce campaign against Jazz in Ireland during the 1930s. On New Year’s Day 1934, a Fr. Conefrey led a march through Mohill, County Leitrim, in which demonstrators shouted “down with jazz” and “out with paganism” and called on the government to close the dance halls and ban all foreign dances in Ireland. Jazz, the campaign argued, was “abominable” music that originated in central Africa and was exported to the West by “a gang of wealthy Bolshevists in the USSR to strike at church civilisation throughout the world.” Jazz was an “engine of hell” deployed to do the devil’s work. The Gaelic League weighed in on the day with an attack on then-Minister of Finance Seán MacEntee, who, in allowing jazz to be broadcast on Radio Eireann, was “selling the musical soul of the nation for the dividends of sponsored jazz programmes”.

It seems absurd nowadays that people could take such tripe seriously but it was a significant movement supported, amongst others, by Éamon de Valera. Here are some extracts of a speech which is both hilarious and sinister, not to mention deeply racist, by Fr. Conefrey, to give you an idea. Honestly. I know some people don’t like jazz, but this is just ridiculous!

–0–

Let me tell you why this campaign is the most important step taken by the Gaelic League for many years.

While the Irish music has died out it is being replaced by a foreign system of music introduced from savage Africa by people out to kill religion and destroy morality. This ‘jazz’ represents the sin of impurity and young people leave their homes every night to go to dances where jazz is practised.

All night jazz dancing is one of the greatest evils Ireland has ever seen. Jazz is an even greater evil than both intemperance and landlordism combined. It is a menace to religion and nationality and its objective is nothing less than to destroy virtue in the human soul.

The reason it has been tolerated and indulged in so far is because the public in Ireland do not understand its meaning and do not see the danger.

Now we still have some people asking what is jazz? Some have asked in good faith if it excludes waltzes and barn dances? My answer to that is that the ‘anti-jazz campaign’ excludes no dance that is in keeping with public Christian decency. But no-one could make anything out of the jazz dancing, and there was no music in the jazz tin squealing.

A professor in Oxford University tells us that the word ‘jazz’ is a Central African word and means the acting in public of something that St Paul says should not be so much as named amongst us.

The dance and the music with its abominable rhythm was borrowed from Central Africa by a gang of wealthy International Bolshevists in America. Their aim is to strike at Christian civilization throughout the world and to steer Roman civilization inro the dust: they employed this jazz – this engine of hell – to do this devil’s work.

They laid their plans carefully. They employed mass suggestion. In the music they knew they had something that would appeal to debased sexual instinct. Its superlative, savagely extreme use of syncopation, allied with the copulative beat, beat, beat of the drum, stirred up forces all over the world.

To counter this abomination, the only answer is to revive Irish dancing and music. I appeal to you to support Irish music and Irish dancing: as far as I’m concerned it is a question of defending Christian religion and faith while we have it.

No other nation has the same music as we have. The Irish nation was famous for its music, but all the old violinists and flautists are gone, and it is only amongst the peasantry of Ireland that the real traditional music and dance is to be found.

When I was at the Royal Dublin Society exhibition we had a great show of our local cottage traditions of spinning and weaving and all sorts of knitted goods. But we also had Irish music and dance at our stand. I was congratulated and told by many that never was such music played on the show grounds, and it was one of the greatest treats of the whole show.

Music and dancing are among the arts of the nation and if the nation is to be rebuilt then we must get all the constituent parts reconstructed. I’ve had an idea in my mind for a long time, that we should have a National Reconstruction League to take charge of the language, music, and dance, and for cottage industries and the arts. If we could organise competitions and concerts to play our old tunes on traditional instruments and bring on new pipe bands, we could stop the spread of immorality and irreligion.

There is great musical-talent in Co. Leitrim and it is undeveloped.

We need to see that Irish music is fostered and not despised. But there are certain classes in this country who consider our Irish music is not genteel enough for them, and they look down on it and are out to destroy its spirit. Those Dublin people need to come down to the country where they’ll learn step dancing and how to distinguish one step from another and get the names of the steps. I would like to know what the Leinster School of Music was doing for Irish music: nothing; they are only teaching classical music. Even at the Sligo Feis Ceoil all the music was from Continental authors, and it was only the poor Irish farmers were left to play the Irish music.

Action is needed to be taken by the church and state. First, the government should compel the closing of dance halls at 11 o‘clock. Young teachers should be trained to teach Irish dancing and music, and they should have Irish dancing taught in the Depot amongst the members of the Guards.

One of the greatest offenders at the present time are the Civic Guards. The Minister for Justice should take action and have good Irish céilidh organised in every barracks every week or month, and not allow the Guards to be carrying on their pagan dances until hours in the morning. It is a well-known fact that in most cases there are bars open at these all-night dances, and people attending them are blinded with drink. This is a disgrace, and President de Valera should be ashamed of his face to stand by and allow this conduct to be carried on. It is time for the Government to open its eyes and see to it that this abuse should end.

I appeal to political parties to give up their disputes and unite on this question and put down this jazz.

While I speak to the Government I also speak to the Church, and say that the priests will want to waken up and see that this terrible and abusive jazz dancing ceases. I know that the majority of the priests know that jazz is wrong, but many of them will not speak out. There are others who don’t understand this monster and their idea is to let the people have what they want, which is the jazz.

I fear that if this is to continue and the generation of old people die out, we will have a different type of people in the future. It is up to the people to rise against this ]azz dance and music as it is necessary to save their traditions and faith. It is unworthy of Catholics to support jazz and no one is associated with jazz but shoneens. If people were worthy of their race and traditions they would blow up every hall, where jazz is practised.

More condemnation of jazz is worse than useless, as Henry Ford realised.

Young folk, will dance, but let them dance to rhythms of beauty and in a manner that will scatter morbidity and make for fun and jollity.

–0–

Coincidentally, it was also in 1926 that Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five recorded “The Irish Black Bottom” which I here present to you in the hope of destroying the virtue in your soul.

1 Comment »

Corroding Ireland’s Public Institutions

Posted in Education, Maynooth, Politics with tags , , on April 30, 2025 by telescoper

There’s an article in yesterday’s Irish Times with the headline Irish universities take millions of euro from big business. Are they too close for comfort? and the lede Many higher education institutions now rely on industry-sponsored professorships, research and scholarships to plug State funding gaps. The piece is behind a paywall, but it is based on public policy document by colleagues at Maynooth university that isn’t. In fact you can read it here. The abstract is

This policy paper explores private sector funding of higher education institutions in Ireland. Large corporations are providing financial support to Irish universities in multiple ways including supporting research projects and research centres, establishing professorships in the company name, funding physical infrastructure, and providing scholarships and other supports for students. A lack of publicly available data about the scale and scope of industry funding of Irish universities constrains a comprehensive understanding of how the private sector is engaging with and influencing Irish universities. While industry funding of higher education is often framed as a benefit to Irish society, the risks associated with private sector funding of higher education appear not yet widely considered in the Irish context. International research on industry funding of universities shows that these risks include: (1) an erosion of support for academic endeavours that may not be perceived as having commercial value, (2) corporate capture of the public-good mission of universities to legitimise profit-seeking priorities in policy discourse, and (3) the distraction of academic attention away from social and economic policies that prioritise human health and ecological health. This paper warns of the challenges of preserving the integrity and independence of academia in a higher education landscape increasingly shaped by profit-seeking objectives and market-driven priorities. Policy recommendations include a renewed commitment to strong public investment in universities and greater transparency about the scale and scope of industry funding of higher education in Ireland including a publicly accessible database of all private sector funding. 

This article elucidates many of the worries that I’ve had for some time about the corrosion of Ireland’s public universities. It’s not just that going cap-in-hand to the private sector inevitably means a focus on applied research but also that our lords and masters seem to think university teaching is simply about preparing graduates to go and work for Google. There is much more to university education than skills training.

It also occurred to me reading the piece that what it says about universities is also true about other public institutions. The one that sprang first to mind is the Irish public service broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). This is funded by a license fee, as is the BBC. Unlike the BBC, however, its TV broadcasts also carry advertisements to supplement the income generated by the fee. To attract advertising it has broadcast content that is more like what you would expect from a commercial channel, including imported soap operas and the like. The management of RTÉ has also been involved in a number of dodgy practices, including sponsorship deals and secret payments, that have led to a corrosion of trust in the organization.

I think RTÉ would be far better off concentrating on the current affairs, documentaries, culture and sports programming that it does well than try to compete with other channels for advertising revenue. Then it would truly be a public service broadcaster, funded by the public to serve the public. Universities should be like that too, funded by the public to serve the public, rather than commercia,l interests or the vanity of those in charge.

1 Comment »