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The Guardian
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘We rattled it out in 20 minutes': how Kingfishr made a hurling team song into an Irish folk smash hit
'Welcome to the best thing we've ever written,' jokes Kingfishr lead singer Eddie Keogh, in a video recorded in a studio in October 2024, before he knew just how right he was. Keogh, flanked by bandmates Eoin 'Fitz' Fitzgibbon on guitar and Eoghan 'McGoo' McGrath on banjo, reads from his phone as he lends his chesty baritone to the just-written chorus of Killeagh: 'They'd go rarin' and tearin' and fightin' for love / For the land they call Killeagh, and the Lord up above / Kill-la la, la la la la la la la la la / For the green and the white I adore / For the parish to last ever more.' It has since spent 18 weeks in the Irish Top 10, gone four-times platinum, and become the first traditional, folk-leaning song to see this level of success since The Fields of Athenry was a hit for numerous artists in the early 80s. But the trio wrote Killeagh in 20 minutes: 'It literally could not have been more of a slapped-together job,' says Keogh. Last summer, Fitz was back home in his east Cork village, having a drink with his friend and former hurling coach Phillip 'Yank' O'Neill (so-named 'because he tried to go to America once', Fitz explains). All the other teams round here, said Yank, have a song to sing in the changing rooms when they win. We don't. You're in a band. Write a song for Killeagh. Fitz says playing hurling for Killeagh GAA club for 20 years was 'the biggest thing in my life, the only thing really' before the band took off in Ireland: they broke out in 2022 with their poppy breakout singles Eyes Don't Lie and Flowers-Fire. His aunt Mary is the club's secretary, his uncle Moss played for them, his grandfather Tom was their president and also a player. The junior team features Fitz's brother Cathal, and is coached by their father Ger. Fitz said he would write a song if the juniors got to an east Cork final in 2024. In his head, 'it was not going to happen. Killeagh haven't been in the final since 2001, there's no way they'll get to a final this year. And lo and behold, October arrives and they get to the final, and Yank texts me almost immediately.' Kingfishr were recording their debut album at the time, which is now titled Halcyon and set for release in August. The band, who started making music together as a way to pass the time during lockdown-afflicted degrees at the University of Limerick, were in a decent place – they had supported Bruce Springsteen and Dermot Kennedy, and were booked to play a few 5,000-capacity venues in Ireland over the summer. But what was about to happen in that studio would lead, Keogh says, to 'conversations about next year's venues that are hard to make sense of in your brain'. While McGoo was laying down some moody banjo stuff for the album, Fitz and Keogh turned to their hurling song. 'We just ran off for 15, 20 minutes,' Fitz says, 'and I started rattling it out.' They wrote about local spots the River Dissour and Glenbower Wood. 'Thinking nothing of it because it was all a bit of a joke. Then we showed it to McGoo, who said: 'What if instead of la la la, it's Kill' la la?' And sure, the three of us were screaming and shouting: this is the greatest thing ever!' The song is a heart-on-sleeve tribute to the sport of hurling and the focal point it provides for the people of Killeagh – and, by inference, communities like it all over Ireland. The first time it reached a crowd, it wasn't sung by the band, but the Killeagh junior hurlers, who went on to win their final. A few days later, despite some reluctance from Fitz – who viewed the song as 'a pisstake' and says it took him 'a long time to come round to the idea that it was about more than just my hurling team and the river that flows through my village' – the band recorded it, and it was released in December as a B-side on their single Bet on Beauty. No dials were moved until St Patrick's Day, when for some reason – perhaps its visceral Irishness, perhaps its mention of green and white – the song began to feature in a series of 'get ready with me' videos posted on TikTok, primarily by teenage girls. 'I remember saying to someone that we'd get a great weekend out of it, but once Paddy's Day is over, it's dust,' says Keogh. 'And he said: 'You haven't thought about this – the hurling's about to start,' and the penny dropped. I thought: Oh Jesus Christ, this could be massive.' The song was written for the people of Killeagh, and has permanently connected the band to the town – their sponsorship of Killeagh's new under-10s jerseys is testament to that. But it was adopted across the entire county of Cork as it became an anthem for an inter-county season in which the Cork team won the National Hurling League, the Munster Hurling Championship (their regional knock-out competition), and were – according to the bookmakers, their fans, and every expert going – supposed to win the biggest prize of them all, the All-Ireland. Alas, they capitulated in the second half of the final last Sunday and let a six-point lead become a 15-point loss to Tipperary. But on their way there, the song expanded its zone of endearment from Killeagh, to Cork, to everyone in Ireland who'd ever been involved with a GAA club, to seemingly just about everyone in Ireland. Sign up to Sleeve Notes Get music news, bold reviews and unexpected extras. Every genre, every era, every week after newsletter promotion Dr Sandra Joyce and Dr Róisín Ní Ghallóglaigh, who lecture in traditional Irish music at the University of Limerick, attribute the song's success to an alchemical blend of factors. Beyond the timing and TikTok virality, Killeagh has a certain musical familiarity: it employs phrasings typical of Irish traditional music, with a verse's second line ending on a minor note before resolving itself on a major one, for example. There's the enormously singable chorus – 'any eejit can sing la la la la,' points out Joyce – and its evocation of an aspect of Irish life, the community-anchoring GAA club, that so many people either participate in or feel nostalgia for. Joyce says that although she initially thought the song 'a bit stereotypical', she's found herself singing it around the house and would 'bet my bottom dollar that it'll be sung at [folk] singing sessions around the country.' Ní Ghallóglaigh's first words are 'what a great song!', and thinks Killeagh is 'a modern addition to the Irish folk canon. 100%'. Joyce agrees. When I tell the band this, they're gobsmacked. Keogh says he always thought of Ireland's canon of folk ballads as a fixed entity, not something anyone could hope to add to. I ask him if adding to it is, more than streams or venue bookings or TikTok fame, the ultimate success for Kingfishr. 'For me, personally,' he says, 'success is being in the middle of a crowd of people and singing it with everyone, grabbing on to the lads next to you and looking at the people around you and thinking: you'll always remember this. I think that's what sport is, and what music is. People are absolutely crying out for that: being part of something bigger than yourself. Being part of a fucking team.'
Extra.ie
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Extra.ie
Even in rival Youghal they'll belt out the Killeagh song if Cork topple Tipp today
Kingfishr's surprise hit of the summer, Killeagh, will be sung 'everywhere' around Cork if the Rebels win the All-Ireland hurling final today – though one club mainstay has admitted she can't resist 'rubbing it in' over Killeagh's nearest rivals. The east Cork village and hurling club has been immortalised in Kingfishr's ubiquitous folk track, which has spent the last 18 weeks in the Irish top 10 charts and was used in RTÉ's ads for today's decider against Tipperary. Written for Kingfishr bass player Eoin Fitzgibbon's home parish and former team, the song features references to local places including Killeagh's GAA grounds, Páirc Uí Chinnéide. Helen Kennedy, at the Pairc Uí Chinnéide, Killeagh GAA Grounds, Killeagh, Co. Cork. Helen Kennedy is the grandmother to Charlotte, 4 years old, Hugo, 6 years old, and Poppy, 2 years old. Pic: Seán Dwyer Helen Kennedy, whose brother-in-law Robert 'Danno' Kennedy the pitch is named after, said 'everybody's talking about' the song in the village of around 900 people. 'I've seen it everywhere,' she told 'In fact, it's on the television nearly every night. I've seen videos of people singing it…' The veteran club member said locals don't talk about Kingfishr. 'Instead, we say young Fitzgibbons – Ger Fitzgibbons's son,' she explained. 'And his grandfather – I remember the night the cup came to Killeagh, he danced down the street to the bus. These were dedicated GAA people, even with so little.' Kingfishr. Pic: File The volunteer continued that she 'just can't believe how popular' the song, which has more than 16 million plays on Spotify, has become. She said: 'I think it's wonderful. And I think there's a lot of credit due to the other boys [in Kingfishr, who are from Limerick] who agreed to play it and it has taken off.' Ms Kennedy agrees with a take she read online that the song is relatable to 'every village in Ireland'. Helen Kennedy, at the Pairc Uí Chinnéide, Killeagh GAA Grounds, Killeagh, Co. Cork. Pic: Seán Dwyer 'It is, because villages are different from towns and cities,' she explained. 'I suppose we just don't have other facilities like they do, and all the kids go to the hurling field.' The song has even been readily belted out by supporters from other Cork clubs, possibly helped by Killeagh's underdog status – they have never won a senior championship and are 'not doing very well at the moment'. But there remains a 'next-door-neighbour hurling rivalry' with nearby Youghal. 'I be saying to my little grandson, 'That's your granduncle [in the song] – Páirc Uí Chinnéide!' Ms Kennedy laughed. 'And of course his father's from Youghal and I know it's driving him simple. I just love rubbing it in. They love to have one up on me whenever they can.' But even in Youghal, they are singing the catchy ballad, 'and if Cork wins it'll be sung everywhere', Ms Kennedy said. Killeagh's current home, officially opened in 1996, was named in honour of the man who 'was so dedicated he put his own money in to keep the club going' and offered his own fields as sporting pitches, clearing cattle off before matches'. 'It was usually my late husband and my brother-in-law's land that the matches were played on,' Ms Kennedy recalled. 'I remember when I was a child – nobody told me I was going to be his sister-in-law then – going to a match above in Kennedy field. 'And the older fellas would tell you they'd have to take the cow sh*t off the field and then they'd play the match.' The long-serving club member continued that the 'proud people' of Killeagh are 'very proud of our youth', who have 'served us well' and kept the GAA grounds busy generation after generation. 'Every kid went to the hurling field, and that's why Páirc Uí Chinnéide means so much to everybody,' she said. 'And now there's children coming in from other countries and going to the schools and learning to hurl and play with the children here, which I think is lovely to see.'
Irish Independent
6 days ago
- Climate
- Irish Independent
From ‘Brown Eyed Girl' to ‘Heyday': The greatest Irish feelgood hits of the summer
As Sabrina Carpenter and Kingfishr dominate the airwaves and playlists of the last couple of months, Chris Wasser asks music industry experts for the best tunes by homegrown artists that they associate with long, balmy days All hail the Irish summer anthem. Ironically, for a country that isn't always blessed with the brightest summers, we've had our fair share of infectious sunshine bops. Some of them soundtracked holidays and international football tournaments, others dominated chart playlists and defined entire music careers. Related topics Chris Wasser
Irish Examiner
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Five For Your Radar: Graham Norton in Bantry, Roger Waters on screen, Cian Ducrot
Literary: Graham Norton Maritime Hotel, Bantry, Friday, July 18 Wrapping up this year's West Cork Literary Festival on Friday evening is Graham Norton - now the author of five books, the most recent of which is Frankie - who will be in conversation with Ryan Tubridy. The former RTÉ presenter promised on social media that one thing it definitely won't be is boring. There are multiple events around Bantry on the final day of the litfest, including Wendy Erskine, author of The Benefactors, in conversation with Lisa Harding at Marino Church at 2.30pm. Graham Norton is in Bantry for West Cork Literary Festival. Picture: Darragh Kane Gigs: Cian Ducrot, D-Block Europe, Kingfishr Live at the Marquee, Saturday-Thursday, July 19-24 Live at the Marquee is nearing the end of its run for another summer with a whole host of sold-out shows to round things off. Local hero Cian Ducrot makes a triumphant homecoming this weekend, with D-Block Europe bringing the hip-hop vibes on Tuesday and Wednesday, before Kingfishr, who look primed to be one of the biggest acts in the country by the time 2025 is out, take to the stage on Thursday for their second gig of the series. Cinema: Roger Waters This Is Not A Drill Live From Prague - The Movie Omniplex, Wednesday, July 23 Directed by Sean Evans and Roger Waters, This is not a Drill is being screened in cinemas around the world, including Omniplex outlets in Ireland. Pink Floyd founding member Waters plays songs from his Pink Floyd days and his solo career, a timespan of 60 years, in this 2.5-hour show. Recorded in Prague in 2003 as part of his Final Farewell tour, it's a huge operation and immersive experience, that, if not seen live in the flesh, is best experienced on cinema screens. Roger Waters' live concert runs in cinemas around the world. Exhibition: Enchanted by Marlay Marlay House, Thursday, July 24 Celebrating Marlay Park's 50th anniversary of being in public ownership, Enchanted by Marlay is a joint art exhibition featuring local artists Kate Bedell, Helen Hyland, Yelena Kosikh, and Jennifer Rowe. The exhibition will be hosted in the ballroom of Marlay House and runs for three days. The opening will be officiated by historian Peadar Curran. Streaming: Mr Bigstuff Sky Max/Now TV, Thursday, July 24 A bit of a surprise hit when it hit TVs last year, notching Danny Dyer a Bafta for best male in a lead performance, Mr Bigstuff returns for season two on Thursday. Promising a host of guest stars, the opening episode picks up two weeks after the revelations of the season finale. Mr Bigstuff is created by Ryan Sampson, who stars alongside Dyer as two estranged brothers. Set in suburban Essex, the series was a huge hit with audiences, becoming Sky Max's highest-rated new original comedy in three years.
Irish Examiner
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Kingfishr review: Gig of the summer at the Marquee as Cork fans raise the roof with 'Killeagh' singalong
On the first of two sold-out nights, fans flocked to see Kingfishr at Live at the Marquee on Wednesday evening. With their viral hit 'Killeagh' becoming the unofficial anthem of Cork GAA fans right now, it felt like both the gig of the summer in the Rebel County and a pre-All-Ireland Hurling Final celebration. This is exclusive subscriber content. Already a subscriber? Sign in Take us with you this summer. Annual €130€65 Best value Monthly €12€6 / month
