Dr. Susan O’Regan: Music and Society in Co. Cork, 1700 – 1900

Dr Susan O’Regan is recently retired from her position as lecturer in Music History at MTU Cork School of Music. She has authored Music and Society in Cork 1700-1900 (Cork University Press, 2018), and more recently has researched urban song in Cork city in the early nineteenth century, for which she has contributed a chapter to the Oxford Handbook of Irish Song 1100-1850, and has published a journal article on election songs in Cork city.

In her talk at Doneraile Court she focuses on the range of musical activities and traditions that were integral to social life in Cork during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, highlighting the central role of the theatre and its influence on both concert life and urban musical culture. The churches were important centres of professional musical leadership, as were the military bands, each contributing substantially to the rise of amateur bands and choirs during the nineteenth century. 

The talk will demonstrate how public engagement in music reached a peak during the late nineteenth century, when several notable institutions were founded, many of which continue to the present day.