Irish folk-rockers The Mary Wallopers are unafraid to nail their political colours to the mast. Last year, they were unceremoniously ejected from the stage at Portsmouth Victorious Festival after just a few minutes, for draping a Palestinian flag over one of their amps; more recently, they performed a guerilla gig on Portadown’s Garvaghy Road, in support of Catholic residents who didn’t want Protestant Orangemen marching through their neighbourhood.
On tour to promote new album Paddywhackery, this represents a step-up to the bigger venues the band richly deserve. A huge queue outside the Great Hall pre-doors shortly becomes a venue packed with 1500 eager fans: it’s clear the Dundalk band are riding a huge wave of attention. There’s a healthy smattering of Fontaines D.C., Kneecap and Pogues T-shirts in the crowd, that latter name perhaps the most germane; one wonders why it appears to have taken so long for an Irish folk band to carry their torch to crossover success.
Suffice to say that tonight, that Palestinian flag is rightfully restored to a stage on which brothers Charles and Andrew Hendy stand at the centre. It takes some skill to recreate the atmosphere of an informal Irish pub session in front of this many people, but The Mary Wallopers do so with aplomb, the crowd singing along and plenty of misty eyes in sight.
Tonight is a heady mix of traditional Irish ballads, kick-ass anthems and, making for the evening’s most poignant moment, a spoken dedication to immigrants all over the world – including the salient point that while the social media channels that fuel hate against them are largely funded by billionaires, any given person here is more likely to be a friend of a migrant than a billionaire.
But there are plenty of lighthearted moments too, and soon enough the group are back generating a rowdy moshpit that would put most punk bands to shame. “This song’s about fishing!” Andrew Hendy tells us with a big grin, as Finnian O’Connor on whistle and pipes leads the charge and several £7.50 cans of Guinness go flying. The frenetic pace continues with an encore of Bank Of Roses and Frost All Over, a breathless finish to a sometimes breathless night.
The Mary Wallopers, Great Hall, Cardiff University Students Union, Fri 16 Oct
words and photos PAUL WINDSOR
