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

I always wondered if "the ambulance . . . took little Jim away" in the Undertones' song because he committed suicide or because a bomb got him.

What, no-one's mentioned The Cranberries yet :-)

No Foster and Allen? It's a disgrace, so it is.

Re: The supposed Irishness of the Pogues. The line-up in their mid-80's heyday was as follows:

Shane McGowan who was born in Tunbridge Wells
James Fearnley who was born in Manchester
Spider Stacey who was born in Eastbourne
Jem Finer who was born in Stoke
Andrew Ranken who was born in London
Cait O'Riordan who was born in Nigeria (before moving to London)
Darrell Hunt who was born in Hampshire

but(although he didn't join till Rum, Sodomy etc)....
Phil Chevron was born in Dublin YAAAAAY!

A lot of 19th century National Romantic composers, painters and authors preferred to live outside their home countries.

Their "home country" is England.

Bap Kennedy has a few songs that help this Yank relate to living in difficult times in Ireland.

The Divine Comedy - Sunrise

I was born in Londonderry
I was born in Derry City too
Oh what a special child
To see such things and still to smile
I know that there was something wrong
But I kept my head down and carried on

I grew up in Enniskillen
I grew up in Inis Ceathlain too
Oh what a clever boy
To watch your hometown be destroyed
I know that I could not stay long
So I kept my head down and carried on

Who cares where national borders lie
Who cares whose laws you're governed by
Who cares what name you call a town
Who'll care when you're six feet beneath the ground

From the corner of my eye
A hint of blue in the black sky
A ray of hope, a beam of light
An end to thirty years of night
The church-bells ring, the children sing
What is this strange and beautiful thing
It's the sunrise
Can you see the sunrise?
I can see the sunrise

the band that best addrsses 'Irishness' and the subject of Ireland ...inna reggae song?

Christy Moore was still the best answer on this thread, but it asked for a band, so it would probably have to be Planxty whose first three albums (at least) were pretty much peerless.

planxty was such a good band, and pre-MOR paul brady was even better than christy moore imho (lol i just remembered luka bloom, christy's brother - is he still "around")

Mary Coughlan: "My Land Is Too Green" (abt sentimental self-mythologising alcoholics ect)

No mention of Clannad or Enya?

the Virgin Prunes, see especially the song "Down The Memory Lane" or most of Heresie for example.

Actually, there's a native comedy troupe who occasionally appear (Mighty Wind-style) as fake-folkie balladeers, satirising the whiny, recriminatory self-pity that pervades so much of Ireland's "trad" songbook.
They're called The Hairy Bowsies*, and their songs tackle Perfidious Albion (Ye Dirty English Bastards) and sacred cows such as the 1916 Rising (The Craic We Had The Day We Died For Ireland) and the Potato Famine (Jaysus, The Spuds Aren't Lookin' The Best).

must look these guys up, those titles are pretty sharp.

There's always the Horslips.

I vote for Primordial. Easily the greatest Irish band of the last 20 years.

The Craic We Had The Day We Died For Ireland

lol

so beautiful...

There's clearly a gap in the market for a band of young(ish) men full of righteous anger spewing venom about falling house prices, the income levy, and the loss of Ranelagh's Michelin star restaurant.

There's clearly a gap in the market for a band of young(ish) men full of righteous anger spewing venom about falling house prices, the income levy, and the loss of Ranelagh's Michelin star restaurant.

or career rebirth for the Thrills, to give vent to the anger of their class....

I used to play football (soccer) with the lead singer of Primordial when I was a kid. He's one of my best friend's cousins.

my best mate was introduced to his GF by one of the thrills at a wedding, and subsequently given the use of his posh room to consummate said meeting.

that pic from the youtube primordial is five mins from me.

i got nothin else.

that was actually my dad

seriously tho, first sentence, are you saying your mate slept with guy from primordial's gf? or the dude from the thrills? i saw the thrills in aladdin's on brick lane last thurs. the circle is complete.

introduced to his own future gf, not a gf of any of the thrills. that i am aware of.

ah okay, now i understand. the dublin indie scene is pretty small. a lot of bands/artists i thought were irredeemably shite turn out to be v nice and good fun and into techno.

their music still shite tho...imo

certainly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7NV52UApGY
Women from the UK/Ireland area have the most soothing songs/voices. This girl, Enya, Leona Lewis, Dolores O'Riordan from the cranberries to name a few.
Just something about celtic women singing that calms the soul.
Jarsia 1 year ago 34

has never heard Dolores O honk like a sealion on "Zombie" i take it

the band ronan was looking for singing about young posh middleclass upwardly mobile ireland (but well aware of cultural nationalism's importance to edge in the celt angle) are probably bell x1 tbh, cf reacharound

but i mean the chieftains were suckin diesel last night on jools holland and if we can go back to the dubliners, those are good answers too.

just think of all those douce celtic sirens like sinead o'connor, jessie j and the melifluous cerys from catatonia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQcnepLAu0k

NPR says they deliver “a brilliant co-mingling of electronic music and anthemic pop rock”.[4] The band is named after the Bell X-1, the first supersonic aircraft in history.

co-mingling

The Clancy Brothers with Tommy Makem

They're called The Hairy Bowsies*, and their songs tackle Perfidious Albion (Ye Dirty English Bastards) and sacred cows such as the 1916 Rising (The Craic We Had The Day We Died For Ireland) and the Potato Famine (Jaysus, The Spuds Aren't Lookin' The Best).

I thought this was Ding Dong Denny O'Reilly, one of whose tunes is reputed to feature the lovely lyric "Flow river flow / fuck off to the sea".

I understand that the same person was also behind Tony St. James and the Joshua Trio.

an old website: http://indigo.ie/~lwp/dingdong/

I know everyone will tell me to fuck off but what about those Fontaines DC lads

i was hoping this revive was going to be about Fontaines DC

I’ve never heard of them! Will check them out.

I also just saw The Blizzards have a new album out, dubious because I feel they are really best remembered at the time I experienced them (plus my favourite of theirs is a bside I got on mytunes circa 2006 that didn’t make it onto the album ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )

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