In 1934, Father Peter Conefrey, the parish priest of Cloone, County Leitrim, described Jazz as ‘music borrowed from the savages of Africa by the anti-God society’. Conefrey was a key figure in the Gaelic League’s Anti-Jazz Campaign, which sought to restore Irish music and dancing as the dominant forms.

Over three thousand people turned up to march against this ‘fruitful source of scandal and ruin’, as Cardinal MacRory described all night jazz dancing. President Éamon de Valera even sent a message of support to the campaign.

Ultimately the campaign led to the Dance Halls Act of 1935, which meant that public dance’s required a licence granted by a district judge, and which saw even dances taking place in private homes subject to prosecution.

A documentary in the RTÉ Documentary on One series produced by Kieran Sheehy looks at the campaign against jazz in more detail. Listen back here.

Daniel Jacobson, who will perform under his ‘electro-jazz’ ZoiD moniker, has made short mix to celebrate the music form that was once described as an ‘engine of hell’.