By Andrew Mosley

WHEN?: 20 March 2025, tour runs through 19 September 2025

As Conor McGregor vows to stand for the Irish presidency on an anti-immigration platform after meeting Donald Trump, it shouldn’t need The Mary Wallopers or myself to point out the stupidity and ignorance behind his message.

• Read on for reasons including how difficult times provoke bands like The Mary Wallopers

It does though as McGregor is a dangerous man inside and outside the ring and clearly doesn’t know his history, as The Wallopers will later point out.

Support act Sexy Tadhg’s goth opera “erockita” (yes, I know!) induces a mix of rapture, big smiles, minor shock and clear bemusement in the eyes of a man in a Dropkick Murphys T-shirt.

Think a sexy Freddie Mercury with a Meat Loaf snarl dressed in a fishnet body stocking while delivering a cover of Donna Summer’s I Feel Love, which leaves no-one in doubt of their potential, though they still perhaps need a few more strings to their musical boa (!) before they take a headline slot.

The Mary Wallopers’ brand of Irish folk, punk, raucous singalongs, balladry, politics and dance could not have arrived at a more apt time.

They don’t shy away from their influences and The Dubliners and The Pogues would not begrudge their success.

The Hendy brothers Charles and Andrew take the vocals in turn and slow the pace with some skilful balladry.

Thanks to the quick fire bass of Roisin Barrett, the thumping drums of Ken Mooney and the brilliant Finnian O’Connor on uilleann pipes and tin whistle, the Wallopers deliver a heady mix of bawdy originals, covers and arrangements of traditional songs.

McGregor gets a verbal kicking, the police a light-hearted nudge in the ribs and the British a jab in the eye meted out with a wink.

They’re serious as well as fun, as were The Pogues, and when they say “this is a song about joining the IRA” you realise music can still deliver a potent message.

The Blarney Stone and Cod Liver Oil & The Orange Juice spark a mosh pit and some amateur crowd surfing while Building Up And Tearing England Down (“They’ve the concrete master race for to keep you in your place”) is a poignant reminder of who built our land and who will rip it down and replace it in the name of profit for the construction industry.

The Night The Gards Raided Owenys is raucous, the Turfman From Ardee just gorgeous and The Idler a lesson in humanity, while Rothesay-O disintegrates into farce after several crowd-related incidents. No matter, it’s still bloody good.

The band leave to a cry of “Free Palestine” and the strains of Dirty Old Town, a big nod to their influences which causes hundreds – and the audience here, a lot in Irish green or sporting the shirts of GAA teams, is late teens to 70s – to partake in a huge communal jig.

Difficult times provoke bands like The Mary Wallopers – there’s always some good to come from the bad.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Andrew Mosley and The Mary Wallopers and Sexy Tadhg Tickets
• Mozza’s 1st novel The Choreography Of Ghosts is published next month and you can read more about him on his website and buy it here.
• Have you seen a gig by The Mary Wallopers and Sexy Tadhg before and what did you think of this 1? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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