Culture behind the Irish music scene has gotten a real breath of new life over the past few years. This can be characterised by the growth in recognition and popularity of Irish language rap group, Kneecap. With their, often politically charged, music there has been a noticeable increase of the use of the Irish language in lyrics in more mainstream scenes and the growing interest of a younger generation in fluency. Though this Irish language music has not fully reached the centre of public recognition, and we are far from a full language revival, the approach is certainly there.
Multi-genre music collective, IMLÉ, has been on the Irish language music scene for nearly ten years now and their following has been steadily growing. Their current line up is composed of founder Cian MacCárthaigh, Róisín Seoighe, James Shannon and Neil Ó Briain. Some of their successes come both in the form of their latest album, Taoille, and the use of their song “Peacach” as the opening title for the Netflix series Bodkin.
With the release of Taoille, IMLÉ took to the stage at The Grand Social for an evening in mid-March. This is where I finally got to catch this group live, having been following them for a few years.
The crowd was an interesting blend of people. Aside from the mix of city gaeilgeoirs in their 20s and 30s, there were also a few older people. It’s possible that they were related to members of the band, or just eager to see an Irish-speaking performance live in the centre of the Pale. Either way there was one stand out for me. An older man who looked a bit like the James Joyce statue off O’ Connell street come to life. That is, if he was a little less groomed and was hopped up on few too many brews. This man was jumping about in front of the stage, yelling encouragement as Gaeilge, and spinning his hat around on his cane in celebration at random points in the show. The addition of interesting characters like himself only added to the homely atmosphere of the space.
I wouldn’t claim, by any means, to be particularly fluent in Irish. I try to engage in it where I can but it has been some time since I’ve been in any kind of casual back and forth to ensure an upkeep of the skill. Though I know many of the words to the songs, I was sometimes struggling to follow the in between banter between performers and crowd. That being said, the context clues and few words were sometimes just enough for me to stay in the loop and the warm atmosphere of the crowd had me in tune with things. I could feel everyone else’s excitement and was able to laugh along even when I wasn’t 100% on what the joke was. For all I knew they could have been saying “check out this dipshit up front, she doesn’t know what we’re saying” and I would have laughed anyway. This doesn’t detract from the experience for me. Part of being in tune with language and culture is immersion. If I’m hearing it, I’m still part of it. I may not understand it now, but there’s all the chance in the world that it’ll be understood later.
The group themselves are clearly a passionate bunch and James Shannon looked remarkably like some loud-mouthed boy who’d been in the Gaeltacht at the same time as me back around 2015. Given that both of them were from Dublin, and the boy was a drummer, there is a possibility that he’s the same guy but my memory doesn’t give me enough detail to know for sure.
I have to mention Róisín Seoighe as the frontwoman for the group. With plenty of laughs between songs and an engaging presence she kept the audience involved. When she sang, it was clear and just as enunciative as it is in the studio versions of their songs. I was always just waiting for her to open her mouth again to resume singing. She was landing every note and has a fun personality on stage, I’d be running to see another performance of her’s live.
In the current climate of interest in Irish culture and history, Irish language is something we want more of. Now is the time for actual Irish speakers to get their chance at the front and centre so we aren’t left with the bastardized, multi-dialectal carry-on that I learnt in school on the East coast. Authentic input and creation in the language would be a much desired, and is a much needed, addition to the output of this country. The crowd I saw gathered to see a group like IMLÉ is a real testament to this requirement.
