・アメリカ初のアフリカ系大統領として歴史に名を刻んだ人物。 ・オバマの母方の先祖にあたるFulmuth Kearney(1830年生まれ)がアイルランドの County Offaly(オファリー県)Moneygall村の出身。
・1850年ごろ、アメリカに移民として渡った。
「Meet the Notorious Irish(悪名高きアイルランド人たち)」 このセクションは、歴史的に「悪名高い」「一癖ある」と言われたアイルランド系移民や その子孫たちを紹介するコーナー。
「Notorious(ノートリアス)」という語は…
・単なる「悪人」ではなく、
・社会的に注目され、物議を醸した、あるいは型破りな人物、
・あるいは「犯罪的な側面を持ちながらも魅力的・伝説的」な人物を含むのだ と。
「アイルランド人の移民が世界で果たした多様な役割」をあらゆる角度から紹介。
・「英雄」だけでなく、
・「悪党・革命家・流れ者・海賊」なども含め、
・アイルランド人のグローバルな影響力の広がりを示していたのであった。
「Meet the Notorious Irish(悪名高きアイルランド人たち)」セクションの壁面パネル (新聞見出し風)展示
このセクションでは、「アイルランド人の移民は、時に社会の周縁や地下世界でも存在感を示した」
という歴史の一面を、ユーモラスかつ皮肉を込めて伝えていたのであった。
「Achieving Infamy(悪名を馳せた人々)」セクションの締めくくりを象徴する展示。
「Achieving Infamy Of course not everyone who left Ireland went on to lead an exemplary life. Some achieved notoriety through criminal exploits while others were infamous due to their bad luck.One such unlucky figure was Mary Mallon. Known to the popular imagination as Typhoid Mary, she spent 26 years in isolation after it was discovered she was a healthy carrier of typhoid fever and had caused 51 outbreaks of the deadly illness during her career as a cook in the northeastern United States before the First World War.Less pitiable members of our rogues' gallery include George Barrington, a London-based pickpocket who was eventually caught and transported to Australia, and "Machine Gun" Kelly, an American gangster who was imprisoned at Alcatraz. Outlaws like Ned Kelly in Australia and William McCarty, aka Billy the Kid, in the USA are often considered romantic figures of freedom and rebellion, despite their violent stories.」
「Music and Dance: Sharing the Tradition The Irish love of a tune travelled with them when they left in search of a better life.
The mass emigration of famine times in the mid-19th century saw the music and dance of Ireland carried to Britain and America. In time, some of these forms were adapted and became part of popular entertainment on the American stage. The early 20th century arrival of new technologies – sound recording, radio and cinema – brought Irish talent to even bigger audiences.」
Thomas Moore’s collection of Irish Melodies, published between 1808 and 1834, was extremely popular among Irish emigrants in the 19th century.
His lyrics, which were often sentimental and patriotic, were set to traditional Irish tunes, and they helped preserve a sense of Irish identity abroad.
The melodies were shared in songbooks and performed in drawing rooms and public halls across Britain, America, and beyond.」
「音楽と文化の保存」に関する展示の一部で、フランシス・オニール(Francis O’Neill) という人物に焦点を当てていた。 「To Preserve and Protect
During the closing decades of the 19th century, an ambitious undertaking to collect, preserve and publish Irish traditional music was masterminded by a Chicago Chief of Police, Cork native, Francis O'Neill (1848–1936).
O'Neill's books included hundreds of unpublished tunes collected from immigrant musicians, whom he also photographed and recorded on his Edison phonograph.」
「アイルランド移民と音楽録音産業の関わり」を示すセクションの一部であり、1920年代の アイリッシュ・ミュージック黄金時代に焦点を当てています。 「The Record Business At the moment when the record business became a commercial reality, a number of exceptionally talented Irish immigrant musicians were in New York, the centre of the music business.
Ellen O’Byrne De Witt, who founded an Irish music shop in New York, saw the potential for quality recordings and her foresight helped create the "Golden Age" of Irish music recording in the 1920s.」
「移民と社交文化(とくにダンスホール)」に焦点を当てたもので、アイルランド系移民が 新天地で人と出会い、繋がり、未来を築いていった様子を描いている と。 「Meet on the Dance Floor
Irish societies, county clubs and dancehalls, filled with familiar accents and a home from home atmosphere, were important meeting places for immigrants in American cities. It was common for a newly-arrived immigrant to be introduced at such gatherings to those Irish already established. Sometimes the new arrival had a job before the evening was over.
There were 27 dancehalls in greater New York during the 1920s providing steady work for immigrant musicians, as well a meeting place for young men and women. Introductions on the dance floor often led to marriage.」
Irish music had a considerable influence on the development of music in the United States. The music skills brought by Irish and other immigrant groups combined with existing forms to create American folk music.
Fiddle players with their repertoire of dance tunes – particularly lively reels and hornpipes – seem to have made the biggest impression. Uilleann pipers were also heard in different American settings but their uniquely Irish sound limited their appeal. The transition from the fiddle neck to the finger board of the banjo – an instrument of Afro-American origin – was not difficult for a musician to make and this allowed many fiddlers to adapt to the banjo's rise in popularity.
These two instruments became particularly associated with the new American sound which developed in the east coast and southern regions of the country – areas known as Appalachia and the Ozarks – and which laid the foundations for Country and Western.」
「Step Together(共にステップを)」の解説パネルです。アイルランド系移民のダンス文化が、 アメリカでどのように変化・融合していったかを紹介していた。 「Step Together
To this day, the yardstick of how well a piece of Irish dance music is played is the observation "it would make you want to get up and dance!" The Irish preoccupation with rhythm was usually what defined a good dancer and those men and women who excelled in the art stood out and were often revered in their communities.
This admiration for a good dancer travelled with the immigrants and solo step dancing or clogging became a feature of stage shows. When other ethnic elements were combined with Irish steps – African-Americans had their own distinctive steps or shuffles – a new hard shoe style of dancing was created. This style was adopted by stage dancers and made its way to Broadway shows and into Hollywood musicals.」
Emigrants from Ireland's western seaboard travelled with their sean-nós (old style) songs. These were sung unaccompanied and in the Irish language. One of the greatest exponents of sean-nós was Connemara-born Seosamh Ó hÉanaí (1919–1984), who sang in English folk clubs and whose talents led to teaching positions in American universities.
Singing in English was widespread in other parts of Ireland. These songs told stories of love, emigration, sporting encounters and war. Imported, these songs became the models for new compositions, about the railways, cowboy life, the civil war, mining, work injustices and other aspects of daily life.
Many performers with no Irish heritage have been influenced by Irish songs. Versions of Irish tunes have been recorded by Bob Dylan, Louis Armstrong and Johnny Cash.」
【物語を歌う
アイルランド西海岸出身の移民たちは、sean-nós(シャン・ノース、古い様式)の歌を携えて 旅立ちました。これらの歌は無伴奏で、アイルランド語で歌われました。sean-nós の偉大な 担い手の一人が、コネマラ出身の ショーサム・オ・ヘナイ(Seosamh Ó hÉanaí、1919–1984) です。彼はイングランドのフォーククラブで歌い、その才能からアメリカの大学で教鞭を とるまでになりました。
アメリカ音楽界におけるアイルランド系音楽や歌の影響を示す 「Tin Pan Alley(ティン・パン・アレー)」に関するもの。 「Tin Pan Alley
The place where popular music was made.
In the early 20th century, a number of music publishers and songwriters set up business in a part of New York City that became known as Tin Pan Alley. It was here that the sheet music industry flourished and where the business of creating and marketing popular songs took off.
Irish American composers and lyricists were among the most successful. They included men like Chauncey Olcott, Ernest R. Ball, and George M. Cohan.
The songs they created often sentimentalized Irish identity, telling tales of emigration, motherly love, and longing for the old country. The popularity of these songs helped to shape perceptions of Irishness in America and beyond.」
During the mid-1990s, the Irish dance show Riverdance developed modern forms of Irish dance and music for global audiences.
When the original seven-minute television presentation was being planned by RTE
Eurovision Producer Moya Doherty (and the subsequent expanded stage show, with music by Bill Whelan and directed by John McColgan)
the lead female dancing part was taken by a Long Island Irish dancer of Mayo parentage,
Jean Butler, and the lead male dancer in the original Eurovision staging of Riverdance and in the expanded full-length stage show that followed was Michael Flatley, a Chicago-born champion dancer whose father had emigrated from Sligo.Colin Dunne, a Birmingham-born championstep-dancer with Irish parents, later became lead dancer in Riverdance.
Following its debut at the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest, the show opened in Dublin in 1995 and quickly became a global phenomenon with up to four versions of Riverdance touring the world simultaneously.
In the 22 years since the show opened it has become an Irish cultural icon with the lead roles often being performed by dancers born in Canada,
Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, England and the US.」