Performing Paramilitarism Loyalist Songs, Conflict, and Culture War in Northern Ireland

During Northern Ireland's 'Troubles' (1969-98), paramilitary groups were supported and sustained by a sociocultural apparatus that helped legitimise their position within the community and disseminate their political message. From the use of flags and murals to loyalist and republican parades, working-class vernacular culture revealed who controlled various districts of the Province. For many working-class Protestants, loyalist songs were a key component of this culture, connecting the past and the present. Unlike the better-known loyalist marching band scene, the loyalist song scene was--and continues to be--much more private. Performances take place in closed settings such as local loyalist pubs and clubs, where songs are reproduced for internal consumption rather than outward expression.

Performing Paramilitarism examines the role that loyalist songs played during the Troubles and why musicians and audiences still produce and consume these songs today. By tracing the connection between loyalist songs and loyalist paramilitaries, the book highlights how these songs feed into a broader 'culture war' in Northern Ireland where, in the absence of intercommunal violence, the commemoration of paramilitary groups is used to continue the conflict by other means. Stephen R. Millar argues that in the wake of Brexit, such songs form part of a cultural nostalgia for multiple and intersecting imagined pasts. These pasts in turn resonate with the rise of populism in other parts of the world and are weaponized to defend against the looming existential threat of a United Ireland.

Stephen R. Millar is Lecturer in Anthropology and Ethnomusicology at Queen's University Belfast. His work focuses on music, power, and conflict, with an emphasis on Britain and Ireland. His books include Sounding Dissent: Rebel Songs, Resistance, and Irish Republicanism, Football, Politics and Identity and Football and Popular Culture: Singing Out from the Stands.