Confusing Culture and Politics: Ulster Scots Culture and Music

Abstract

By the end of the 1980s it had become apparent that, with regard to the new cul tural terms of engagement in Northern Ireland, Sinn Fein was miles ahead of any other party. The cultural institutions and policies that flowed from the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985 played to strengths that Sinn F?in had developed out of a long tradition during which its culture was located outside of?and in opposition to?the representational and institutional structures of the Stor mont regime and the British state.1 The central and best-known of these developments is Sinn F?in s champi oning of the revival of the Irish language in West Belfast. Funding for Irish language schools was introduced in 1983, and significant British government support for Irish-language initiatives in republican constituencies continues to this day.2 Irish-language development also provided the pretext for attracting capital investment and the construction of cultural centers like the Culturlann McAdam ? Fiach on the Falls Road and the ill-fated T? Ch?lainn center in Mul