Brian Boydell (1917 - 2000) was a leading figure in Irish musical life. Composer, performer, broadcaster, agitator for music, musicologist, and Professor of Music at Trinity College Dublin, he profoundly influenced the development of music and music education in Ireland. In his later years he wrote his memoirs focusing in particular on the 1940s and early 1950s (but extending to the early 1970s) when he was closely involved in what he describes as 'that remarkable period in the history of artistic development in Ireland during the Second World War and shortly afterwards', a period he also refers to as one of 'rebellious ferment' in Irish cultural life.
