Members

Dr Helen Lawlor

Head of Musicianship and Academic Studies

Dr Helen Lawlor specialises in research on music in Ireland with a focus on the musical practice, education and history of the harp. She is Head of Musicianship and Academic Studies at TU Dublin Conservatoire. Helen is author of Irish Harping 1900–2010 (2012) and co-editor with Sandra Joyce of Harp Studies: Perspectives on the Irish Harp (2016) and Harp Studies II: World Harp Traditions (2024). She is co-editor of Access and Participation in Traditional Music (special issue of Ethnomusicology Ireland (2024); Essays on Music and Politics: Sounding Empowerment (2026) and Traditions in Transformation

European Perspectives on Music Education 14 (2026). Her work is also published in The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland, Ancestral Imprints, Sonus, American Harp Journal, JSMI and JM.

Helen has served as the Executive Editor of the Journal of the Society for Musicology in Ireland (JSMI) and is Secretary of Performance Research Ireland. She is an advisory board member of Irish Musical Studies, council member of The Society for Musicology in Ireland (SMI) and previously served as Chair of the Irish national committee of the International Council for Traditional Music and Dance (ICTMD Ireland).

Helen holds a PhD (UCD), Masters in Musicology (UCD) and a BMusEd (TCD/TU Dublin). Her current research engages with the song sheet collection housed at the Princess Grace Irish Library, Monaco. Initially funded by an IRC New Foundations Award, this is a collaborative project between the TU Dublin Conservatoire, The Princess Grace Irish Library and the Rainier III Académie, Monaco. Her research is grounded in the discipline of ethnomusicology, drawing also on performance practice and musicological methodologies.