Gerry Smyth

Who is Gerry Smyth?

Gerry Smyth is an academic and musician from Dublin, Ireland. He works in the Department of English at Liverpool John Moores University. His early publications were mainly in the field of Irish literature, although since 2002 he has been writing almost exclusively on music. Smyth was an early advocate of postcolonial criticism in Irish Studies, although more recently he has been keen to emphasise the autobiographical dimension of critical discourse. Decolonisation and Criticism won the American Conference for Irish Studies' Michael J. Durkan Prize for best book published in literary criticism, arts criticism or cultural studies in 1999. Beautiful Day: Forty Years of Irish Rock was launched in the Clarence Hotel in Dublin in September 2005. Our House: The Representation of Domestic Space in Contemporary Culture was launched at the Tate Liverpool in September 2006. His collection of critical essays Music in Irish Cultural History also won the Michael J. Durkan Prize. Smyth has lectured throughout Europe and the United States on various aspects of Irish culture. In September / October 2006 he was Academic-in-Residence at the Princess Grace Irish Library in Monaco.