the band that best addrsses 'Irishness' and the subject of Ireland

I'm spent.

Christy Moore or something.

That guy.

NEUTRAL milk hotel! *winks*

Bah, humbug.

(Possible answer: JA music seems to be on a tip of continuously re-telling / mythologising the present day...).

oh for the days of coffin ships and potato famines.

ps kilian, thank you, you lovely man, you.

Roy Keane to thread!

There's plenty of romantic sentimentalisation of Africa in Jamaican music though DS, yes? So it's really the Irishness which you find cloying?

Ummmm, did The Pogues actually reflect the genuine experience of Irishness and being Irish or did they (and similarly The Men They Couldn't Hang) not in actual fact reflect the (inevitably somewhat distorted and romanticised) impression of Irishness and being Irish that you'd get from growing up (as most of them did) as 2nd generation Irish immigrants listening to their ex-pat. parents sentimental reminiscences about their home land?

Please note I'm not trying to detract from the Pogues in any way, merely to identify them as what they were - a bunch of London punks with Irish parents.

Stiff Little Fingers and Saw Doctors OTM.

How about The Chieftains, The Dubliners, Christy Moore?

... this is kind of my point: that's been one of the key experiences of 'Irishness' for a long time, hasn't it?

Dave, I was trying to make conversation because I'm interested in this subject: I wasn't trying to shut you up.

Christy Moore is a good nomination, for this thread. Probably the best I can think of.

Crying at this Genius annotation in Boys in the Better Land

Carrolls is an Irish brand of cigarettes which had its headquarters in Dundalk Ireland. The traditional Irish ownership and production location so close to the border with Northern Ireland makes it a popular cigarette with Irish Republican smokers – the type of person that might spit out “Brits Out”

riiiiight

I started off smoking Carrolls!

Yeah I mean Carrolls is, what, a pretty normal brand? Are Major more authentocrat?!

Nah Major is an aul fella brand surely

Major are like Carrolls' harder older stockier brother

Do these brands exist anymore?

They do!

https://shop.supervalu.ie/shopping/newsagent-tobacco-cigarettes-major-25-s-1-piece-/p-1544159000

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Sweetafton.jpg

^^^ discounted 2011, proper aul fella fags

Absolutely stunned that there is no mention whatsoever of Cathal Coughlan on this thread. For shame . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRe0Jses5hw

Absolutely stunned that there is no mention whatsoever of Cathal Coughlan on this thread. For shame . . .

Microdisney and The Fatima Mansions quite obviously own this thread.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 10:10 (fifteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Ah, I did a word search for his surname.

No mention of Flogging Molly though

no mention of the Rubberbandits as far as i can see

for shame...

xp had this been 2011 I would have been happy to write about how much I loved Serious About Men! Always rated them

I really love the Fontaines DC album but it’s the kind of experience where I could imagine being talked out of it.

I know what you mean. someone on my FB feed dismissed it as 'Lamacq-core' but you know, if every UK indie rock band is gonna get called that while the likes of Ought and Parquet Courts are allowed then it's not fair. Also, compared to Idles who I find fun but super-cringy, there's no comparison

ahem

both Dad Punk tbf

Theres nothing blindingly original about them (and why does that have to be the be all and end all) by any means but I love them. "Boys in the better land" is a banger

And yes the lyrics do address what it's like to live in late '10s Dublin

listening to them for the first time coincidentally. keep reminding me of the hold steady.

I definitely think Republic of Loose were responding to some idea of ''Irishness" in a more complex and nuanced way than Bono would have you believe:

"The Celtic twilight turned into Celtic soul with Van Morrison. Republic of Loose grabbed the Celtic tiger by the tail, swung it around their heads and threw it out the window into the cosmos. They're sophisticated soul bootboys."

Cruelty Man

Once there was the cruelty man
The whip of the state in his hands
Creeping round the halting site to steal their infancy
If they held out in the ditches well then come the morn
They had to move on again
Brush that history down the shore, disinfect the corridors
Mother she is fallen & the father is unknown
Superior vile she burnt the files, left a generation in tatters

They’re rising, they’re rising, their chances of surviving
What’s really after happening in the fields?

A young one that was raped so young
Took decades to discover her tongue
Touch me daughter sergeant & I’ll break your fucking knees
You’re the bastion of misogyny
Protected by the baton of ignorance

They’re rising, they’re rising, their chances of surviving
What’s really after happening in the fields?

The parish is rising, the parish is rising
In the diocese & the villages that were poisoned
The parish is rising, the parish is rising
To find out what has happened in the fields

What kind of mind debased & rank
Buries babies in a septic tank

If there’s a heaven father then you’re going to fuckin hell
You may not have signed off the heinous crimes
But pulled down the blinds when they came for the answers

They’re rising, they’re their chances of surviving
What’s really after happening in the fields?

They’re rising, they’re rising but no-one’s televising
What’s really after happening in the fields?

I'm posting this here because this is one of the few threads that's ever mentioned Christy Moore. I did a bit of a rabbit-hole dive on him recently — I was aware of him and love "Ride On," but hadn't really listened to much. In the course of that, the song that really leapt out at me was "Bright Blue Rose," which (like "Ride On") is a Jimmy MacCarthy song. Apparently kind of a modern standard in Ireland? Anyway, it's a beautiful tune and just wanted to call attention to it. I guess it somewhat fits this thread because its soaked in a sort of mystical literary Catholicism that feels very Irish to me. This is Christy and Jimmy singing it together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glGdAwGBt8s

Anyone listening to Kneecap from Ireland

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/arts/music/kneecap-irish-rap-celtic-revival.html

Yeah I like them

ctrl-F "Planxty"
HWAT/?