Article

Framing the North Kerry Tradition: Broadcasting Folk Theatre in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries

Susan Motherway

Published in: Ethnomusicology Ireland 11 (2026)
Pages: 50-62 | Published Online: 19 June 2026
https://doi.org/10.64208/QJXO8060

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between broadcast media and the folk theatre tradition of North Kerry, tracing a continuum from RTÉ public service television in the 1960s to podcasting in the 2020s. Focusing on Siamsa Tíre, the National Folk Theatre of Ireland, this article argues that broadcasting and theatrical soundscaping function as overlapping modes of cultural mediation that shape how regional traditions are framed, authorised, and sustained. The company’s first production is positioned as an early form of sonic ethnography, with staged movement, rhythm, voice and environment constituting a soundscape of local knowledge. RTÉ acted not only as documenter but as gatekeeper and catalyst, extending these soundscapes nationally. Drawing on archival research, oral history, and sound design, the podcast series Roots to Revelations: The Story of Folk Theatre in North Kerry (2026) is examined as “digital orality” (Spitulnik Vidali 2019), where sound becomes an epistemological medium. Engaging acoustemology and soundscape theory, the article proposes a sound-centred model for re-voicing vernacular tradition within contemporary media ecologies.

Keywords: applied ethnomusicology, media ethnomusicology, sonic ethnography, Irish folk theatre, digital orality, intangible cultural heritage

Author: Susan Motherway | ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9532-235X

Susan Motherway is an ethnomusicologist from Kerry who lectures at the Munster Technological University. She is a flute and concertina player who has long been associated with the National Folk Theatre of Ireland, Siamsa Tire. She published her PhD "The Globalisation of Irish Traditional Music" with Ashgate in 2013 and UCC Press recently published a collection of papers on Staged Folklore she co-edited with Prof. John Morgan O'Connell. Susan was a founding member of ICTM Ireland and acted as secretary for several years.