Oasis's Croke Park gigs are a homecoming for the 'Irish' band

RTÉ News​

4 days ago

What's the Irish for 'mad fer it'? Liam and Noel Gallagher may be asking that very question before taking the stage at Croke Park next month for the highly anticipated Irish leg of their Live '25 reunion tour. The gigs at Heaton Park last weekend were a return for the Mancunian-born brothers, but their return to Irish shores will be a different kind of homecoming.
As everyone knows, the brothers' parents Peggy and Thomas are Irish emigrants. Peggy left Charlestown, Co. Mayo in 1961 at the age of 18, originally working as a housekeeper in Manchester. There, she met her fellow Irish emigree Thomas 'Tommy' Gallagher, who hailed from the Co. Meath village of Duleek. Their first child Paul was born in 1966, followed by Noel in 1967 and Liam in 1972.
The brothers made regular trips to Ireland as kids, and one photo from the 1970s depicts them standing at the wall of their Irish granny Annie Gallagher's home in Downstown, Duleek with their uncle's dog. Many school holidays were spent in Charlestown with their maternal granny Maggie Sweeney, too. Noel recounted those summers in a Late Late Show interview in 1996, telling Gay Byrne: "My mam used to religiously drag us by the ear across the Irish Sea to spend summer holidays there. We had never seen the likes of nettles, fields and stacks of hay and all that - so she was determined to give us a bit of Irish culture, 'cos we were used to concrete and flats, and all that stuff. It was a bit of a culture shock for the first four or five years, but we grew to love it and we still do."
As adults, both Liam and Noel have embraced their Irish roots wholeheartedly - and they've made regular returns to Charlestown, too. In 2015, footage emerged of Liam joining in a session and having a sing-song at JJ Finan's pub which has become his local while holidaying in the Mayo town (according to reports, he also bought nine bags of Tayto in the local shop on the same trip, lest his heritage ever be questioned.)
Noel, meanwhile, made the headlines last year when he was interviewed after a Man City match. When asked about City player Phil Foden playing for England in the Euros, he said "I'm not an England fan. I'm Irish. Goodnight." Tongue-in-cheek, perhaps, but we'll claim him nevertheless. We'll even overlook the Union Jack guitar.
Indeed, the issue of that particular guitar was once put to him in an interview with comedian and podcaster Matt Morgan. "Somebody said last week "If he's so Irish, why does he have a Union Jack guitar?" said Morgan. Gallagher responded: "Because somebody got it for me for my birthday, and I guess it's like a pop art thing, I suppose. It's not a nationalistic thing. I think I only played that guitar at like, two f**king gigs ever. I think that's in some museum somewhere now."
Noel also reckoned that the Irish music and rebel songs that they were raised on had an impact on Oasis's music, and its "punch-the-air" quality. "I feel as Irish as the next person," he said.
"The first music I was ever exposed to was the rebel songs the bands used to sing in the Irish club in Manchester. Do you know, I think that's where Oasis songs get their punch-the-air quality - from me being exposed to those rousing rebel songs. It was all rebel songs and that godawful Irish country and western music." So far, at least, the influence of Big Tom and the Mainliners has gone undetected.
Will there be a divergence from the setlist for an a capella version of A Nation Once Again? Will the Wolfe Tones' Celtic Symphony replace F**kin' in the Bushes as their intro music?
Noel has gone as far as to proclaim how the band owe practically everything to their Irish heritage.
"Oasis could never have existed, been as big, been as important, been as flawed, been as loved and loathed, if we weren't all predominantly Irish," he said in Simon Spence's Oasis biography Feeling Supersonic, noting how all of the band's founding members - Paul 'Bonehead' Arthurs, Paul 'Guigsy' McGuigan and original drummer Tony McCarroll were also of Irish descent. "There is rage in Oasis music and let me explain that to you. If I say to people there's rage in the music, people might think about screaming and shouting - but you can rage joy. When the Irish are sad they are the saddest people in the world, when they are happy, they are the happiest people in the world. When they drink they are the most drunk people in the world. There is one rule for the Irish and different ones for everybody else. Oasis could never have existed, been as big, been as important, been as flawed, been as loved and loathed, if we weren't all predominantly Irish."
Watch: Noel Gallagher on The Meaning Of Life with Gay Byrne
It does concur with his previous comments about his cultural identity, however. "I clearly remember my mam saying to me and my two brothers when we were growing up: 'You're only English because you were born here'," he said in an interview in 2007. "And with a mother from Mayo and a father from Co Meath, there's not a drop of English blood in me. I recently had a child with my Scottish girlfriend, and there's no English blood in him at all."
We'll have to wait and see how it plays out at Croke Park, the first Live '25 date tour date that's not on British soil. Will there be a divergence from the setlist for an a capella version of A Nation Once Again? Will the Wolfe Tones' Celtic Symphony replace F**kin' in the Bushes as their intro music? Will they wear matching Irish football jerseys donated by Bono, come out sipping pints of Guinness or have a tricolour hanging off an amp?
No matter what happens, there's no doubt that the Brothers Gallagher will be welcomed as hometown heroes.
And 'mad fer it' is 'ar buile', by the way.