Shifting Borders of Memory

Shifting Borders of Memory explores the fate of the small farmer and small farming culture in rural Ireland from the squaring of the land, the Famine and the land wars through the creameries to their legacy today. Fleshing out the bare bones of history, they consider how things were and what they have become in and around Sligo, the traditions that were and their revival, the role of traditional music and musicians in the social life and politics of the countryside, the role of meitheal in making common cause of work and consolidating community and its legacy in local history projects and associative activities today, the importance of remembering and understanding the past as an inspiration for solving the problems of the present.

The Podcasts

Cathy Jordan in conversation with Seán Golden: on folklore and folk songs
Harry Keaney in conversation with Seán Golden: on sketching the land with language
Gregory Daly in conversation with Seán Golden: on society and politics in trad music
Heather Laird in conversation with Seán Golden: on land wars and social change

Cathy Jordan

Cathy Jordan has sung with traditional group Dervish for nearly 30 years.A self-taught guitar, bouzouki, bodhrán and bones player, she writes songs as well and has presented Fleadh TV on TG4. With a deep understanding of traditional Irish songs and singing she has collected hundreds of songs that might otherwise have been forgotten, receiving many awards, including the 2025 Gradam Ceol trad singer of the year and nominations for best folk singer and best album at the 2025 RTE folk awards. She will discuss the folk origin of traditional songs, their roots in the community and their relevance today.

Harry Keaney

Harry Keaney is the author of Carrowreagh Childhood, a memoir of growing up on a small farm in Sligo. He has been a journalist with the Roscommon Herald and the Sligo Champion, as well as the Irish Echo in New York, and a presenter for Ocean FM. He was honoured as Sligoman of the year in New York for his work in raising funds for the Northwest Hospice. He has training in archaeology and heritage studies and now works with the OPW at Sligo Abbey, about which he has written the book A Wall That Speaks, a study of the 1624 O Connor Monument. He will discuss field names and placenames and their legacy, life in the countryside as it was and as it has become, and the importance of community.

Gregory Daly

Gregory Daly is a traditional flute player and an independent scholar of musicology. Originally from Donegal at the juncture of Sligo and Leitrim, he moved into the musical community of the Coleman Country in south Sligo. Having worked extensively with the Irish Traditional Music Archive and the Coleman Irish Music Centre, he is the author of In nearly every house: Irish traditional musicians of North Connacht and ‘Transcending the limits of our time, traditional music in County Sligo – a historical review'’, in Sligo History and Society, and lectures on the music regularly. He will discuss the musician’s traditional role and the changes it has seen, as well as the political overtones it has acquired.

Heather Laird

Heather Laird was raised on a farm outside Carrick-on-Shannon and went to school in Boyle and Sligo town. A Senior Lecturer in the Department of English, University College Cork, she has written Subversive Law in Ireland, 1879-1920 about the social history of the land wars and their consequences, and Commemoration, a book about land ownership and usage that makes the roads untaken in the history of the Irish past visible as possible alternatives to dominant ways of thinking. Her current book project, ‘Land and Literature in Modern Ireland: Decolonising the Field’, explores the same context from the founding of the Free State to the present day. She will discuss the politics and struggles of small farming in the countryside and their legacy