This is not a St. Patrick's Day Post

A chairde,

I was going to do a very meta newsletter today about the self-imposed pressure of posting on St. Patrick’s day. It was going to have a very pretentious title like “Spice Bag Existentialism” or something and I was going to get very wound up about American food influencers salivating over Kerrygold. I was maybe going to say something trite about how Irish music is for life and not just for today, alright!?

I was gonna wang on about the complicated emotional push and pull of “revivals”, “trends” and globally en vogue Irishness and the clumsy ways we tend to repackage aspects of our own culture as content during these otherwise incredibly positive moments. I’d say something about my hesitancy about capitalising on this moment as someone who makes “Irish music content”, while also, admittedly, quietly, wanting to. I’d maybe say something about wanting to fully embrace it and celebrate it authentically, with all its complexity and strangeness in tow, and not in whatever watered down way trendy English people want to latch onto.

But honestly, Blue Niall put it better than I ever could in a post of their own a few weeks ago, so just go and read that I guess.

Instead, I’ve decided to go for a pint. So here is a post about a post about posting. Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

I’m a month behind on the New Irish Music round-up. Admittedly, this has been somewhat intentional. The year began as an avalanche and, frankly, I’ve needed a few more weeks to reduce the pile of real life and day job related stresses before pulling together an edition that’s worthwhile. I’ll be knuckling down soon, and believe me, there’s been a lot of great music released on this island over the past few weeks. There always is. There’s also a long overdue interview incoming with an artist behind one of my favourite Irish albums of last year. It’s a good one. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, why not enjoy the mix of Irish experimental music I made for NTS Radio a few months back?

Slán ☘️