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* Most of these can be consulted on audio tape at the Irish Traditional Music Archive

·Ahern, Pat: 'Fiche Bliain ag Fás. A Personal Account of 20 Years of Tradition and Change', remarking on the explosion in the number of young people taking up traditional music ­ many of them urban-based with no previous links with the tradition.
· Bazin, Fennella: 'Lessons from One Hundred Years Ago.' Examined two seminal collections of Manx music which were published 100 years ago, this in light of the developments which have taken place in the last twenty-five years.
· Bennett, Margaret: 'From Kennedy Fraser to the Jimmy Shandrix' Experience in Five Generations'. One of five generations of a music-making family, she looked at the process of transmission within it.
· Boyes, Georgina: 'Unnatural Selection: Choice and Privileging in English Cultural Tradition'. Examined the ways in which specific types of singer and dancer, styles of performance etc. have been selected as suitable for display and transmission by organisations within the English Folk Revival.
· Breathnach, Deasún: 'The influence of baroque music on O'Carolan, the traces of influences of French, southern English and Scottish music on the Irish.'
· Burgess, Barry: 'Irish Music in Education ­ a Northern Ireland Perspective'. Viewed the issues which have influenced and restrained development of Irish traditional music in Northern Ireland education, including the two cultural identities, the Ní curriculum, media, broadcasting, etc.
· Carolan, Nicholas: 'Irish Music to 1600: Traditions and Innovations'. Considered the evidence of innovation from before the sixteenth century using historical, literary and archaeological sources, and drawing on the music of analogous technologies and cultures.
· Corcoran, Seán: 'Whatever happened to Horse-whatsit? Innovation and post-Colonialism in Irish Music'. Argued that the clamour for innovation is part of a post-colonial mind-set with parallels in other areas of Irish life, that it is the avant-garde of any period which always appears most dated in retrospect.
· Cranitch, Matt: 'My mind will never be aisy' is the name of a slip jig published in O'Neill's Dance Music of Ireland, 1907. It has evolved to become a well-known slide in the present Sliabh Luachra repertoire and may also have had some influence on another slide. This example of metamorphosis illustrates the role played by Pádraig O'Keeffe (1887-1963) in the development of the Sliabh Luachra style of music. Though established at the 'tradition' end of the spectrum, he was also, in the truest sense of the word, an innovator in his music notation systems, repertoire and in versions of tunes.
· Curran, Catherine: 'Changing Audiences for Traditional Music 1956­96'. Examined the changes taking place in Irish traditional music through the medium of the audience and their changing perceptions of Irish culture within Ireland and abroad.
· Dowling, Martin: 'Communities, Place and the Traditions of Irish Dance Music Today'. Considered the present breakdown of regional isolation and of stable locality-based communities, the relationship between performer and music-community.
· Gaffney, Martin: 'DO judge a book by its cover'. An audio-video presentation examining the evolution of cover-style in Irish music records from the céilí band era through to the 1990s.
· Gershen, Paulette: 'Tradition, Innovation and Identity. Ethnomusicological Reflections'. Innovation, authenticity and modernisation explored from some of the theoretical perspectives current in American ethnomusicology.
· Hall, Reg: 'Heydays are Short Lived ­ Change in Music-making Practice in Rural Ireland 1850-1950'. Explored the social organisation of rural music-making in term of household, kinship and neighbours, community and trade; the shift from pre-famine, public space to private space in the late nineteenth century, back to public space in the 1930s.
· Hammond, William: 'Traditional Music ­ Whose Copyright?' Looked at the relationship between traditional music, copyright and music rights in general, how this affects the musician on the ground.
· Hamilton, Colin: 'Innovation, Conservatism, and the Aesthetics of Irish Traditional Music' looked at the long standing attitude that the tradition needs protection from change, and must be 'preserved'.
· Hannan, Robbie: 'Tradition and Innovation in Uilleann Piping'. Questioned the belief that the uilleann piping tradition is rigid and unchanging, suggesting that the top pipers balance their commitment to tradition with their dynamism and innovation.
· Harbison, Janet: 'Harpists, Harpers and Harpies'. The dilemma of the place and identity of the harp in Irish music-making.
· Hensey, Áine: 'Michael Coleman's brother was a better fiddle player'. Looked at the real and perceived influences of the media, using this and other examples to examine how the media can both distort and enhance.
· Hughes, Harry and Muiris Ó Róchain: 'The Willie Clancy Summer School'. Dealt with the history of Ireland's oldest and most popular summer school, which attracts more than 500 pupils from all over the world for its music classes alone.
· Moloney, Mick: 'Acculturation, Assimilation and Revitalisation. Irish Music in Urban America 1960­96'. Looked at the dynamics of continuity and change in Irish music in America from 1960 onwards in the context of massive population displacement and social upheaval.
· Larson-Skye, Cathy: 'Building Bridges ­ Challenges in Playing, Performing, and Teaching Irish Traditional Music in the American South'. Examined the problems of teaching and playing Irish music away form the supportive Irish community and evaluated some possible solutions.
· Mac Aoidh, Caoimhín: 'The Critical Role of Education in the Development of Traditional Music'. Argued that the foundation for progress in the development of traditional music lies in the provision of an educational infrastructure.
· Mac Góráin, Riobárd: 'Media, Tradition and the Industry'. Gael-Linn and its operations world-wide since the 1950s, its successes and strengths.
· McLaughlin, Dermot: 'Why Pay the Piper?' Looked at the structure and financial relations between the state and traditional music and the support structures which are available in the public sector.
· Moulden, John: 'Sing us a Folksong, Mouldy'. A personal perspective of the vocabulary of traditional music and song, considering some of the attitudes revealed in conversations.
· Munnelly, Tom: 'Black Pudding and Bottles of Smoke'. Argued that the events such as the Crossroads Conference itself are part of a cyclical response ­ in the long run their effects on the music are minimal.
· Ó Cinnéide, Barra: 'The Riverdance Phenomenon'. Compared and contrasted the 'artistic freedom' experienced by the music since the establishment of CCÉ and the recent 'liberation' of dancing through Riverdance.
· O'Donovan, Joe: 'Evolution and Innovation in 400 Years of Irish Dancing'. Outlined the history of Irish dancing, indicating the major influences resulting in change, and looked towards the future of Irish dance.
· O'Keeffe, Máire: 'Tradition and Change in the Irish Button Accordion'. An overview of the way in which a new instrument is adopted into an already established musical tradition.
· Ó Laoire, Lillis: 'Dearnad sa Bhrochán -Tradition and Change in Music in a Donegal Community', the music and song of Tory Island, showing that change generated within this community was seen essentially as a force for improvement.
· Preston, Paschal: 'When Old Technologies Were New: The adoption, diffusion and impacts of recorded music in Ireland'. Focused the period 1890­1940.
· Schiller, Rina: 'Gender and Traditional Irish Music'. Investigated gender aspects of contemporary Irish traditional music performance, looking at concepts of female performance in comparison to those associated with Western art music.
· Smyth, Therese: 'The challenge of bringing oral tradition of music into an academic teaching environment'. Discussed the problems of integrating oral traditions of music ­ in particular Irish music ­ into a university music programme.
· Sommers-Smyth, Sally: 'The Founder Effect: a Model of Traditional Music Evolution'. Discussed the differing standards of performance in Ireland and America.
· Tansey, Seamus: 'Irish Traditional Music ­ the Melody of Ireland's Soul'. Explored the place of traditional music in his home culture, its evolution from the environment, the land and the people.
· Topp-Fargion, Janet: 'Continuity, Change and the Forging of New Identities'. With reference to the popular, urban music of South Africa and the Swahili Coast.
· Trew, Johanne: 'Ethnicity and Identity: Music and Dance in the Ottawa Valley'. Discussed the way in which the Ottawa Valley ­ settled by Irish, Scots and French-Canadians over the past 200 years ­ developed and maintained its unique tradition and culture because of relative isolation.
· Uí Ógáin, Ríonach: 'Camden Town go Ros a' Mhíl ­ Aspects of Change in the Connamara Song Tradition'. Examined recent development in the Connamara song tradition of a new type of song, how this has become part of the repertoire of Sean-nós.
· Wilkinson, Desi: 'An Overview of Breton Traditional Dance Music'. Considered how social and musical influences have been brought to bear on the performance of dance music forms in Brittany.