Ireland’s most outspoken folk group The Mary Wallopers: ‘Enough bands pretend not to be Irish – like U2’
On a grey day in central Manchester, the three founding members of The Mary Wallopers are chatting to me on the upper floor of the university’s concert hall. They play traditional Irish music, raucously, with the wildness of The Pogues and the heart of a young Christy Moore – with harmonies all their own. They’re not short of an opinion either. “We said something like, ‘F*** the Catholic Church’ in some article,” one of the trio, Charles Hendy, tells me, “and some f***ing p**** of a priest down the country read mass, saying, ‘There’s a band called The Mary Wallopers. They’re turning people away from the church.’” How did they feel? “F***ing delighted! That’s the biggest compliment you can get.”
The group – fronted by vocalists Charles, 30, his brother Andrew, 29, and Seán McKenna, 31 – seem to have a take on just about everything and everyone.
