My name is Abi Horan, and I am a final year CIViC student. I am interested in music, art and media, and these interests naturally led me toward researching identity and representation in music videos. Outside of college, I play guitar and watch a lot of films those interests shape a lot of how I think and what I pay attention to. I’m drawn to how people express themselves creatively, whether it’s through sound, visuals, or storytelling and I hope these themes follow me in my future career.
Visualising Irishness: Identity and Representation in Music Videos, 2020-2026
This thesis examines how Irishness is visually constructed in music videos produced across Ireland in the 2020s. Music videos have become an important part of how Irish musicians construct their public identity, reflecting the importance of visual culture in contemporary music. Rather than relying on traditional symbols, contemporary Irish artists draw on the visual textures of their surroundings, using place, atmosphere and tone to express different forms of Irishness that are grounded in lived experiences. This study uses close visual analysis of selected music videos, examining how meaning is produced through setting, styling and micro-details. Supported by semiotics and visual culture theory (Barthes, De Saussure), the research focuses on how images produce meaning and how these meanings influence identity. This framework treats music videos as cultural texts that reveal how Irishness is explored in the present day.
Two band case studies form the core of the analysis, Fontaines D.C. and Kneecap. Kneecap’s videos draw on working-class Belfast, and incorporate humour, local references and politically charged visuals to express an identity that is shaped by class and cultural memory. Fontaines D.C., in contrast construct Irishness through the atmosphere of Dublin, using place and tone to evoke emotions that are tied to nostalgia and lived experiences. The research shows that Irishness in music videos in the 2020s is shaped by social conditions, cultural memory and everyday environments. Across the videos examined, Irishness emerges not as a fixed or singular idea but as something fluid, expressed similarly across the artists as they each draw on their own social conditions, creating expressions that feel different in detail but are similar in spirit. Together these findings show that music videos offer a meaningful way to understand contemporary Irishness, revealing identity as something shaped through moments that feel recognisable within contemporary Irish life.
