This book collects a number of essays on the relationship between music, cultural history and musicology in Ireland which, taken together, comprise a natural progression from the author's widely acclaimed monograph, The Keeper's Recital (1998). The progress of music in Ireland contains essays on contemporary music and musical infrastructures in Ireland; on Irish musical nationalism in the context of German and Czech traditions; on the presence of music in the work of Brian Friel and Samuel Beckett; on Joyce and music; on university education and Irish musical education; on the discourse of musicology in Ireland; and on the work of Brian Boydell and Aloys Fleischmann as pioneers in Irish musical scholarship.