Directory Services

Organized by category, here's a list of web resources related to the punk scene in Ireland and independent music here more generally - including record labels, radio stations, news websites & zines.

If you created anything in this directory and would like for me to remove it, please contact me. Equally, feel free to contact me if you have created a webpage about Irish punk and would like for me to add it to this directory.

Bands

Self-described "post punk geriatrics" Ricky Dineen and Liam Heffernan (plus their horsey Boris) sing as Béarla and as Gaeilge and are from Cork. Ricky Dineen used to be in Five Go Down To The Sea? and Liam Heffernan used to be in Glenroe. They release singles online and play the odd gig.

Post-punk from Dublin. I think the chorus to their song "Our City" would make a good protest chant.

Dublin punk band. Their 2020 general election special release, the "White Water Rafting" EP, was really good. Give them a listen.

Peer Pleasure are from Wexford & as of the time of writing they have released 1 studio recording, Weed Addict ("I'm a habitual user/I'm a perpetual loser"). I saw them play in the Boh's Bar: maybe it's because there is no separation between the stage & the pit there, but they really got the crowd going bananas. The live videos on their YouTube account were mostly taken at a gig in the Ionad Sean Heuston, a squat ran by the Revolutionary Housing League (MLM front group). Maybe it was the lack of heating in the squat, maybe it was the no-craic Marxist-Leninist-Maoists lurking around, but the crowd doesn't seem enthusiastic enough in the linked clip. Just go to their gigs.

Post Punk Podge (fka Paddy Courage) burst out of the GPO in 2016 & has been making music ever since with a revolving cast of Technohippies (variously: Dr. Asparagus Montague, Mr The Boom Is Back, DJ Carey, DJ Jurassic Park). Their music is a brain-bending mix of punk, trad, techno, hip-hop & scauld that sometimes is savagely beautiful & sometimes makes me feel like I've been spinning around too fast & I'm going to throw up. You can buy their entire discography on bandcamp for 30 quid & then you can go see them wherever they may be.

Blistering punk from Ballina. My mate Chivo says they "sound like a proto-grindcore band". I don't listen to metal so I don't know what that means, but I like them a lot.

Dublin "garage noise" band. Maybe a bit more indie than punk? What I like about these is that they have a post-punky kind of sound but their lead singer actually tries to sing.

Scaldy punk from the Déise.

Cathal Coughlan was one of the most singular voices to emerge from Irish music. In the year & a half before he died, he made 2 & a half albums as Telefís with fellow Irish emigré Jackknife Lee. They took a trip to Ireland in the mid-to-late 20th century, a trip to the hauntological corners of an Irish past that is so different to the Irish present that it feels like it could never have been real.

News & Journalism

Anois, Os Ard

A semi-regular column in the Quietus covering underground music in Ireland, past and present (but mostly present). I don't know much about author Eoin Murray but this column introduced me to 60s Irish folk-psych band Dr Strangely Strange, which is enough to put him in my good books.

Website for news about punk and hardcore in Ireland and abroad. Run by the same guy as Distroy Records and Distrotable.

Sporadically updated hardcore news site based in Dublin. Has some nice pictures and suchlike.

Online Irish music publication featuring all kinds of new Irish music, including punk. Print edition can be found for free in various Dublin shops on an irregular basis.

Radio and Podcasts

A Dublin city centre community radio station. The station broadcasts a number of alternative music programs, including Rip It Up and Songs to Learn and Sing.

Not-for-profit independent digital radio station. They do punk shows sometimes.

Dermot de Faoite presents a program on Indie Rocks called "Where's Me Jumper". It's an indie music program with an emphasis on new and little-known Irish music.

Comps, Distros and Record Labels

A Litany of Failures

A series of compilation albums focusing on new Irish independent music. Three compilations released so far.

Distro for Paranoid Visions and the F.O.A.D label as well as a number of other Irish bands.

A series of charity fundraiser compilation albums featuring Northern Irish punk & indie artists (and a few of their friends).

An Irish punk record label and distro. Their website has interviews, links to their podcast and a whole section for recipes, which gets them massive points in my book.

A label for droney, folky, experimental music from Ireland.

Punk and hardcore label and distro from Ireland.

Irish punk and hardcore label, Irish punk and hardcore distro. See also: D-Beat Beater. Currently Distroy's website features some of the most comprehensive punk gig listings currently available.

Independent punk distro and record label from Ireland. Home of Nomatrix, Jobseekers etc.

Independent label operating out of Cork. Has one punk and one ska-punk band on their roster.

If you like punk because you're interested in music on the edge of listenability or music outside the mainstream, this art music label might interest you. None of their signings are conventional punks, but they have put out stuff by Irish punk veterans who've moved onto more sophisticated things.

Dublin practice space and occasional record label. See this article from the Dublin Inquirer for more information (and a few pictures).

Not a record label, compilation album or distro, but a streaming service based in Ireland. Minm claims to be "a fair and transparent streaming platform for independent music". The gimmick is that the money from each individual subscription goes to the artists that subscriber listens to most. So if you give them a fiver a month and listen to nothing but Big Boy Foolish, the whole €5 goes to BBF. If you had Spotify and listened to nothing but BBF, €4.99 of your fiver would go to people who were not BBF. A number of Irish indie & punk artists are on it.

Vinyl manufacturer run by Peter Jones from Paranoid Visions. They print album covers as well & can distribute various stuff through Advance Records.

The only record label in the world specifically devoted to "North Kerry Noise". This crew are also the patrons of Scauldwave Records, devote to the genre of the scauld. I'm still not sure what Scauldwave actually is, but some of the releases from that label are so unpleasant to listen to that they actually make me feel physically sick. That's punk, surely?

Irish record label based out of North Kerry. None of the artists on their roster are straightforward punk bands but they may still be of interest.

"arts group" that does lots of different things, such as releasing zines, cassettes and vinyl, running an internet radio station and putting on exhibitions.

The label of the Ballina punks. I don't know what's in the water in Ballina, but the scene is strong there and the music being produced is fairly diverse.

Zines

Another Subculture is a monthly newsletter for London punks, & Alternative Strategies is their quarterly zine. No, they're not Irish. However, editor Ben did let me write an article for Alt Strat. As if that wasn't enough reason to include them in this directory (I'm JOKING), that same issue included a big spread of photos by Irish punker Leigh Arthur & endorses a number of Irish zines in its backpage spread. Honorary gaelpunks in my book.

Heavy Metal fanzine out of Dublin looking at current local bands and broader trends in the world of heavy metal. I am only a distant acquaintance of editor Haz but I am reliably told he is not just a good drawer (he did all the art in the zine) but a sound lad.

A zine about living in Dublin, and nonsense from old Irish newspapers. Editor Eddie also plays in Dublin hardcories Special Branch. The first 2 issues of City Rocker are now also out of print but can be had online for the price of a small donation to the Laois Domestic Abuse Service. Same for his previous zine, The Punks....

Drogheda zine (put out by thirtythree-45) that comes with a CD. I haven't read/listened to it but it looks interesting.

Leigh Arthur

An august personage of Irish feminist punk, Leigh Arthur plays in Sissy & Extravision & presents the DDR radio show State Secrets: she also does the odd photozine like The Last Gig.

Feminist authors and zinemakers out of Cork.

Other Directories

Website listing new Irish bands by genre and location, including punk bands. It's a bit bland but lookit I found out about Gender Chores from there so it can't be too bad.

A directory of bands with women members as well as woman musicians, DJs and music business types. Can be sorted by genre and they do have twenty-odd punk bands in the directory.

Miscellanea

Two recording booths are available to patrons of the Ballyfermot branch of the Dublin City library. Sessions can be booked to record music, podcasts or oral history.

Whether you're a girl or not, if you're 18 or younger and have a Dublin City library card, you can borrow all sorts of gear from this library, just like you'd borrow a book. Guitars, synths, amps, pedals, the works.

The Dublin branch of the Small Trans Library is a volunteer run library by/for trans people. The library has a collection of LGBT+ books and zines it lends out, and it has also broken into running events such as film screenings, sea swims and a Trans Punk gig the week of Trans & Intersex Pride 2023. Keep an eye out for more events...