‘We are all facing the same problem’: Lived experiences of online participation in the Irish World Music Café community music initiative in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

The Irish World Music Café was created in 2015 in Limerick, Ireland, in the context of the Irish Refugee Protection Programme. The Café is grounded in the four ‘PERC’ principles of participatory, ethical, reflexive and creative engagement. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Café moved online on World Refugee Day 2020 with two additional online Cafés thereafter. In January 2021, a review of participation in the Café commenced to guide the decision-making processes regarding content, format and mode of engagement for the immediate and long-term future. The review was qualitative, comprising ten ethnographic interviews and author fieldnotes. Data generated were interpreted using thematic analysis. Three themes were identified through this process: enablers, activities and experiences. It concludes with the proposal that the expanded temporal, spatial and relational opportunities created through the online environment correlate with reduced opportunities for kinaesthetic-tactile embodied experiences. Understanding the dynamic relationship between planes of lived experience is important in the future development of the Café.