School of Creative Arts

I was born in Chicago, the son of Joe and Betty Dowling, from Tullamore County Offaly, and Gurteen, County Sligo, respectively. I spent most of my childhood in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where I studied violin and was a member of my high school policy debate team.  I returned to Chicago to receive a BA in economics from the University of Chicago, where I also studied Irish history with Professor Emmet Larkin and Irish literature with Professor Frank Kinahan.  In my final year in Chicago I joined the traditional Irish band Samhradh Music founded by the poet and musician Michael Donaghy (1954-2004).  I returned to Wisconsin to pursue a PhD in Irish economic and social history with Professor James Donnelly, Jr. I then formed the trio Boxty with Christine Plochman and Bob Newton, and we performed for a number of years in the Midwest.  Christine and I married in 1987, our sons Joseph and Simon were born in 1990 and 1992. In 1994, the year I completed my PhD, we moved to Belfast.

My interests have ranged across a number of disciplines: economics and quantitative methods, history and sociology, psychoanalysis and critical theory. My research and teaching has evolved from the history of capitalism and Irish agrarian history to the performance of Irish traditional music and its cultural and historical contexts.  Having spent five years of my career as the Traditional Arts Officer of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, I remain involved in the work of development organizations in the field of traditional music. I currently chair the management committee of the BelfastTrad Traditional Music and Dance Society, and am a regular instructor at Scoil Samhradh Willy Clancy and the South Sligo Summer School of Traditional Music.  

My main passion is fiddle playing. I focus on the style and repertoire of the Sligo-Mayo-Roscommon border region, where my mother was born and raised, though I cast a wide net within the field of Irish traditional music.  In 1998 I produced the CD A Thousand Farewells with Christine Dowling and Daithi Sproule.  More recently, I have collaborated with Úna Monaghan and Ciaran Carson to create Owenvarragh: A Belfast Circus on the Star Factory which uses a score by John Cage to create an Irish traditional musical realization of Carson’s literary work.  I formed the Trad Noise Trio with Úna Monaghan and Ryan Molloy to explore chance determined strategies for performing traditional music devised by composer and programmer Eric Lyon. The group released a CD in 2013 titled TwentyTwelve.

I am presently working on a general narrative history of Irish traditional music from the death of Turlough Carolan (1738) to the first performance of Riverdance (1994), a work which will serve as the textbook for the classes I teach on the history of Irish traditional music. Over the next few years I will also be researching, reflecting, and writing on the aesthetics of Irish traditional music, and continuing to explore innovative ways of performing.

Teaching Awards

Teaching Award, Sustained Excellence Category, Queen's University Belfast (2012)

Text of citation: "This Teaching Award is presented to Martin Dowling who has used his interdisciplinary skills in music, history, and sociology to develop a unique programme in Irish traditional music. He is an engaging an enthusiastic teacher whose range of teaching methods inspires active learning and appeals to a diverse student body. His use of accessible digital media engages the students as researchers and creators, and his use of educational podcasts provides innovative assessment opportunities."

Merle Curti Memorial Lectureship, Department of History, University of Wisconsin-Madison (1989)

Research Fellowships Competitively Awarded

Research Fellowship, ,Stones in the Field: Traditional Music and Irish Society 1738-1998,’ Arts & Humanities Research Council (2011)

Research Fellow, ‘Traditional Music, Song and Dance in Irish Modernity: Social Change and Cultural Identity 1792-1996,’ Identity, Memory and Meaning in Ireland Programme, Humanities Institute of Ireland , University College Dublin (2006)

Deis Grant in Support of Traditional Artists, Arts Council of Ireland (2005)

Research Fellow, ‘Identity in the Field of Traditional Music,’ Contemporary Irish Identities Project, Geary Institute, University College Dublin (2004)

Research Fellow, ,Tenant Right and Agrarian Society in Ulster, 1600-1870,’ Institute of Irish Studies, Queen's University Belfast (1996)

Research Fellow, ‘Database of Irish Historical Statistics, 1911-1971,’ Irish Historical Statistics Project, Department of Economic and Social History, Queen's University Belfast (1994)

Dissertation Fellowship, North American Conference of British Studies (1988)

Vilas Dissertation Fellowship, Faculty of Humanities, University of Wisconsin-Madison (1987)

I have taught on undergraduate and MA courses in British and Irish history, the history of capitalism and industrialisation, science and society in the early modern period, contemporary politics and music identity and work placement. At present I contribute to the following modules:

Undergraduate

Performance Workshop I and II

Irish Traditional Music: Origins and Trajectories

Irish Traditional Music: Form, Style and Development                 

MA

Research Methods                   

Arts Administration

Irish Music: History and Criticism

Cultural Policy and the Creative Industries

PhD Supervision

Conor Caldwell, Did You Hear About the Poor Old Travelling Fiddler? The Life and Music of John Doherty (PhD, 2013)

Nollaig Casey-McGlynn, The Music Amnuscripts of patrick O'Neill (1765-1832)

Maire Ní Chathasaigh, The Manuscripts of Edward Bunting, A Cabinet of Curiosityes or Untapped Treasure Trove

Fionnuala Fagan, The Sound of Memory: An Artistic Explanation of Personal and Cultural Memories of Post-Conflict Communities

Stephen Millar, Musically Consonant, Socially Dissonant: The History, Development and Use of 'Sectarian Music' in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Úna Monaghan, Technology in Irish Traditional Music Performance

External Teaching in Irish Traditional Music

Fiddle Instructor and Performer, Scoil Samhradh Willy Clancy (The Willy Clancy Summer School), Miltown Malbay, County Clare (1998-2013)

Fiddle Instructor and Performer, South Sligo Summer School of Traditional Music, Tobercurry, County Sligo (1998-2012)

Fiddle Instructor and Performer, Irish Folk Festival, San Benedetto in Alpe, Italy (2000-2013)

Fiddle Instructor and Performer, Irish Fest, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA (1998, 2004)