________  ___  ___  ________   ________     
|\   __  \|\  \|\  \|\   ___  \|\   ____\    
\ \  \|\  \ \  \\\  \ \  \\ \  \ \  \___|    
 \ \   ____\ \  \\\  \ \  \\ \  \ \  \       
  \ \  \___|\ \  \\\  \ \  \\ \  \ \  \____  
   \ \__\    \ \_______\ \__\\ \__\ \_______\
    \|__|     \|_______|\|__| \|__|\|_______|

- The Irish Punk Rock Radio Show on Belfield FM -

"Rock and roll is a con." - Joe Strummer

Origins

With the naive aim of raising the profile of Irish punk music, the mysterious upper-middle-class twit known only as DJ MAL set out to start the only dedicated Irish punk program on Irish radio. It would be called PUNC, because that was the word for punk music as gaeilge, and because there was no good term for punk music from Ireland. Along the way, she learned that there are more important things in life than punk rock (which is at the end of the day a form of pop music), and that selling records is not a form of political resistance. Nonetheless, she still thinks this show can provide something of worth, so she will keep the show going.

Raison D'Etre

This show is for playing Irish punk music (new and old, with an emphasis on the new) and providing both up-to-date coverage and historical analysis of the Irish punk scene.

See the little radio tower at the bottom of the webpage? It was borrowed from the old website of Radio Active , an Irish pirate radio station which began in the 90s and is now back on air via the internet. The radio tower is a reminder that it was the punk pirates who had it right, not the professionals. The radio tower is a reminder that we can be free. Radio Active told us in their zine Radio Is Our Bomb that during 1916, the rebels took over the school of wireless telegraphy and started making transmissions...Forget about what they do in Donnybrook. This is real public service broadcasting.

At the time of writing, PUNC is entirely presented, written and edited by DJ MAL with occasional help from friends. If you would like to contribute to the show, just get in touch. See our contact page for details.

Friends of the Show

The Usurpers are an American punk band, you might have heard them on the show once or twice. They gave us a link on their website and let us download some of their songs. You can visit them online at usurpers.com - their website has music downloads, stencils, zines, the whole enchilada.

Big Boy Foolish describe themselves as "post punk geriatrics". They replied to our emails and gave us a free download which I think makes them friends of the show. You can find their music on bandcamp.

Old News

A previous version of this website had a news page which has since been deleted. If you would like to read those past news updates, you can find them as a textfile here.