Welcome!

(VERSION FRANÇAISE DE CE SITE : VEUILLEZ CLIQUER SUR L'ICÔNE DE LANGUE CI-DESSUS)

I was born in 1964 in Nantes, Brittany, and Ireland has been my second home for 40 years: I completed my PhD thesis in 1996 on "Ireland's Musical Identity" and have translated or published several books on Ireland.

I have also published a book on the Beatles' clichés.

Thanks in large part to these two passions, I am an eclectic musician and a Professor of Irish and British Studies at the University of Tours.

What you will find on this website :

- Academic research: Irish music and identity

This part is a distant relative of my first personal website, in 1996 (already...): my PhD thesis, most of my research articles, excerpts from an audio CD of Irish music that I recorded & produced, a video documentary, etc.

- Multimedia documents

My Symphony 32 / Siansach 32 celebrating the partial independence of Ireland, played at the Castle of Limerick in July 2022 by the Irish Chamber Orchestra and guest musicians, among whom Jean-Michel Veillon, Sandra Joyce, Niall Keegan, Helen Lawlor...

CD "Music and Musicians of Ireland": excerpts from an audio CD of Irish music that I recorded and produced as part of my doctoral research. It was published in 1996 by Coop Breizh and received the "Diapason d'Or" from the French magazine Diapason in May 1996.

The 2017 video documentary on Irish music in France, the "Rencontres irlandaises de Tocane" in the Dordogne presents the origins of these summer schools with the founders and many Irish musicians.

The multimedia web-document on Irish Dance and Migrations was produced in 2015 at the request of the INA (Institut National de l'Audiovisuel, French National TV Archives) as part of a global project on dances and migrations in the world.

- Music
I've always liked making recordings: music, sounds, noises, wherever I am. I also record personal compositions or those of friends. Here are also recordings of classical or traditional Irish music in a pub, etc.

This "sounds and music" page is not updated very regularly, sorry.

- Miscellaneous bits and pieces and personal projects
My CV, photos, a symphony, etc.

ON THE IMPORTANCE OF WASTING TIME

'Can be clipped at the best of times, too.
A daft daily diet for moments absurd,
Mumbled, jumbled, forgotten words
That fool my wits and come on cue.
'Can strawberry anything 'f I feel like it,
Can scream at the top of your voice
Can verse more scorn over milk split
Or drink your liquor from an old fruit Joyce.
Now, mete me out some iambic pent-up meter
And throw in a rhyme for good measure
Give it a swish and a clatter, tat-for-tit,
Echo the hum-buzz while you’re at it.
Is this poetry in the making?
Nay, more like poetry in the faking,
Poverty in the talking twomey.
And the more, the less.

Doubting the qualms, scepticising the suspicion,
Scrutinizing the analysis, psycho or other guise,
Deconstructing the unbuilt for the sake of intention,
Miserabling the better to tower our self-lies,
Seizing your tail, telling your zeal, teasing your sail, what not?
Is this the truth that thrusts thee to death,
The fear that veils the loss of thy faith?
Aye, shak’em neurons, escape the skit,
Eye, for one (or two) shun the misshapen
And will riddley admit
it's important to make things (happen).

(EFP for C.H., April 2005)