DIY Connections and Collaborations: Mid-West to North-East

Alternative music cultures can be found in various Irish cities and towns outside of the capital Dublin. These scenes may retain their own local idiosyncrasies, but those subscribing to do-it-yourself (DIY) ideals in Ireland are clearly influenced by sounds and styles from further afield. As punk mutated into different forms from the 1980s onwards, political and musical cues came from the countries to the East and West of Ireland - hardcore (Fairchild, 1995) from the United States, and anarcho-punk (Dines, 2004) from Britain. The DIY aesthetics of the early punk movements have since translated to numerous music genres and practices since, including rap, indie, and dance (Bennett, 2018). This article looks at contemporary DIY practices in Ireland, with a specific focus on two urban centres approximately 300 kilometres apart from each other – Dundalk, in the north-east of the country and Limerick, in the mid-west. Both have burgeoning independent music scenes, with young music-makers across disparate genres (alternative rock, hip-hop, electronica) subscribing to the ideals of do-it-yourself through the self-promotion, recording and distribution of music. This article examines contemporary perspectives from practitioners involved in these scenes. It explores networks - formal and informal - that are developing, with a specific focus on collectives in the two locales investigated for this study.