Borrowed Space, Embodied Sound: The Sonic Potential of New Ritual Communities in Ireland

The turn of the millennium in the Republic of Ireland was marked by an unprecedented financial prosperity referred to as 'The Celtic Tiger'. In the space of a decade, significant and accelerated change was experienced at every level of economic, cultural, social and religious life. This paper examines two aspects of this period of transformation: the explosion of cultural diversity through an influx of asylum seekers and migrant workers, and the institutional decline of the Roman Catholic Church. Grounded in fieldwork with a Russian Orthodox and Nigerian Pentecostal community in Limerick city, the paper proposes a unique and significant role for ritual song, which emerged as a result of the particular symbiosis which developed between new ritual communities and the changing identity of Catholicism in Ireland. It suggests that the nature of this interaction highlights the potential of music to act as a sonic authority, both in terms of its unique ability as a culture-bearer, but also through its ability to provide leadership in change. Secondly, the paper suggests that this sonic authority has been instrumental in the attempted re-imagining of institutional 'Irish' Catholicism, through its facilitation of 'pilgrimage' as a metaphor for a re-habilitated identity. This looks to the past, in its historical appropriation of the 'Celtic' understanding of pilgrimage, as well as to the future, through an increased alignment of its self-expression with the new 'pilgrim' people of the 21st century.