Just Irish Music

The Flight of the Earls tells the story of a fateful September in 1607 when the proud Gaelic lords of Ulster set sail from the shores of Ireland, carrying with them the last light of the old Gaelic order. The song captures that moment not as quiet tragedy but as a storm of emotion — the clash of loyalty, loss, and hope that marked the end of an age. Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, and Rory O’Donnell, Earl of Tyrconnell, once the great defenders of Ireland against Elizabeth’s armies, found themselves surrounded by betrayal, spies, and the tightening chains of conquest. Knowing their lands would soon be seized and their heads hunted, they gathered their families, followers, and priests and boarded ships at Rathmullan on Lough Swilly. As the sails caught the wind, Ireland watched its nobility vanish into the western sea. Yet this Irish ballad does not weep in silence; it beats like a drum of farewell. The fiddles rise, the bodhrán strikes, and the voices of the people send their lords away...

The Irish State Wears Borrowed Shame is a fierce modern protest song that tears the mask from the face of a nation that has forgotten its own rebellion. It speaks from the soil upward, from the people who still toil and pay while the powerful trade away Ireland’s soul for comfort and position. The verses echo the cadence of old rebel ballads yet strike with the anger of the present age. In its first verse, the song paints the image of ordinary men and women working the same fields their ancestors fought for, but under a new kind of bondage — not the red hand of empire but the polished bureaucracy of Brussels and the greed of homegrown elites. It condemns the false promises of parties that once claimed to fight for freedom but now live on deception and foreign favour. The second verse turns the blade inward, calling out Sinn Féin, once the banner of resistance, now accused of wearing the tricolour while serving the same masters they once swore to overthrow. The third verse widens the sc...

The Song of the Volunteers of 1782 celebrates a moment when the Irish people stood together in unity and strength, not as rebels against their own soil, but as free men demanding the rights of a nation long denied. It was the year when Ireland, weary of foreign control and unfair laws, found its courage through the ranks of citizen-soldiers known as the Irish Volunteers. These men were not professional troops nor rebels in hiding; they were farmers, merchants, tradesmen, and patriots who took up arms to defend their country while England’s army was distracted by war in America. The Volunteers began as a force to protect Irish shores from invasion, but their spirit quickly turned toward freedom. They saw that a people willing to defend their land should also govern it. Across Ulster, Leinster, Munster, and Connacht, the green and gold banners of the Volunteers rose over towns and fields, and Ireland for a brief and shining moment stood tall in the pride of self-respect. The song itself ...

The Rath of Mullaghmast stands as one of the darkest and most haunting places in Irish history, remembered for a massacre that symbolised the total betrayal of Ireland’s ancient clans. In the late sixteenth century, as English rule tightened its grip across Leinster, the Gaelic chieftains were invited to a grand assembly at Mullaghmast in County Kildare. The summons came under the seal of friendship, a promise of peace and protection from the Lord Deputy of Ireland, who claimed that reconciliation would end the turmoil between the Irish lords and the English Crown. Trusting in his word, the chiefs of Leinster came unarmed, accompanied by their families and followers, dressed in the rich garments of their rank and carrying the pride of generations that had ruled long before foreign power came to their shores. What awaited them was treachery. Hidden among the English soldiers and servants who welcomed them with smiles were the very men chosen to destroy them. At a prearranged signal, the...