Damien Dempsey

"I don't think there's ever been anyone like him. I think he represents the sort of voice in Ireland that is not allowed to be heard. “Sinead O’Connor.

Damien Dempsey is an enigma. Born in 1975, in Donaghmede, a suburb of Dublin, Dempsey is that rare gem of an artist, an ex boxer – no less! – with the soul of a poet, whose heroes and influences are as diverse as Christy Moore, Shane McGowan, Luke Kelly and Bob Marley. Dempsey has released eight albums to date and is now something of a hero himself in his native Ireland, but it is his connection to the human condition that sets him apart from most of us. This gentle giant of a man has an extraordinary heritage that stretches back for generations: his great aunt, Jennie Shanahan, fought in the 1916 rising (in the Irish Citizen Army with James Connelly) as did his great uncle Ned Bridgman who was imprisoned in Frongoch detention camp in Wales where the Irish War of Independence was planned which he played his part in, as did Jennie. Years later, Bridgeman would receive the freedom of the city of Dublin from Ireland’s greatest civil rights campaigner, Daniel O’Connell, after O’Connell’s successful campaign to restore the Catholic vote. Bridgeman was himself a Catholic and grandfather a Protestant, and It’s this curious, but essential, dichotomy that informs much of Dempsey’s work.

Dempsey spent his teenage years playing the guitar and singing in his bedroom, and a self-penned tune about homelessness, Cardboard City, earned him second place in an Irish radio station - 2FM - competition. Despite this independent acknowledgement of his musical prowess, Dempsey, together with his two older brothers, took up boxing, competing for Dublin on an amateur level. His passion for music, however, led him to quit the ring and study musical performance and management at Ballyfermot College of Further Education, where he graduated in 1995, releasing his first EP, The Contender, on the school’s record

label in the same year. Two years later, his first commercial single, Dublin Town - "an underground anthem for disaffected youth and closet balladeer alike" (Hot Press) – reached 18 in Ireland and Dempsey’s musical career was well and truly underway.

“I want my music to give kids a bit of hope and strength, and they'd know that I was telling the truth and I wouldn't lie to them."

In 2000, Dempsey released his debut album, They Don’t Teach This Shit In School, and two years later his Negative Vibes EP featured Sinead O’Connor - "I don't think there's ever been anyone like him. I think he represents the sort of voice in Ireland that is not allowed to be heard", she said at the time – and led to an opening slot on her Irish, UK and European tours. A second album, Seize The Day, released in 2013, reached No.5 in Ireland and led to Dempsey headlining his own shows, supporting Bob Dylan and appearing at Womad and the Fleadh. It was around this time that Morrissey became transfixed by Dempsey’s work, inviting him to support him in the UK, Ireland and the USA throughout 2004 and signing him to his record label, Attack. In 2005, a third album entitled Shots became Dempsey’s first Irish No.1.

In Spring 2006, Dempsey supported the Levellers on their UK tour, releasing Live at the Olympia and touring the US later in the year. The following year, he toured the UK and Ireland with Willie Nelson before a fourth album, To Hell Or Barbados – confirming “Dempsey’s position as one of Ireland’s greatest singer-songwriters” (The Guardian) - reached No.2 in Ireland. A fifth album (of covers) featuring The Pogue’s A Rainy Night In Soho came out in 2008 and a sixth album entitled Almighty Love reached No.3 in the Irish charts in 2012.

“Listening to Marley gave me the reggae tinge that you hear in my music now. A lot of the songs I’ve written wouldn’t be possible without what I went through.’

If Dempsey’s rise to fame and cultural significance – he was the only double award winner in the 2004 Irish Meteor Awards, subsequently winning best Irish Male in In 2006 and 2007 and "Best Folk/Traditional" in 2008 - seems effortless, then we have done him a disservice. In his teens, he took drugs and drank heavily, ending up in street fights and suffering from depression. Surprisingly, listening to Bob Marley pulled him through and he has subsequently suggested that he would like to be able to do the same for kids, “to give them a bit of hope and strength, and they'd know that I was telling the truth and I wouldn't lie to them."

Several years later and unemployed for lengthy periods of time, Dempsey became a regular visitor to Donaghmede library and it is here he began learning about Irish history. Correspondingly, it would be a rare beast indeed, who could rival this No.1 artist – a best of album entitled It’s All Good would also hit the top spot in 2014 – for a grasp of their own country’s political and religious development.

Dempsey’s depth of compassion, knowledge and genuine concern for the plight of his homeland led to Dempsey’s most culturally significant album to date. Released in 2016, No Force On Earth featured both original and cover versions of songs to commemorate the 1916 uprising, including James Connolly, a traditional song Dempsey had been regularly performing at protests against water charges – he believes the poor should pay less for their water – imposed by the Irish government. It is here you will find a song written to celebrate his great aunt Jennie Shanahan (who fought in the 1916 uprising) together with another song to commemorate an ancestor of his friend, Love/Hate actor John Connors, who also fought in the rebellion. It’s enough to make you weak.

On the politically-charged, Soulsun, Dempsey’s 2017 release, you can sense Dempsey’s hackles rising further, and perhaps, a final refusal to let his better instincts hold him back: Soft Rain is a celebratory immigrant song, Sam Jenkins casts centuries of Irish oppression by the English through the eyes of a colonial foot soldier, and Simple Faith questions the wisdom of church and state institutions. It’s an apposite response, therefore, to accept that latest release, Union, as a record that acknowledges Dempsey’s cultural wealth and religious heritage in spades. And it is no stretch of the imagination to say, that it’s his masterpiece.

“On a fine summers day in his back garden in the

Dublin foothills over cups of tea and a few rollies, Finbar played me many magical songs.”

Produced by long-term collaborator John Reynolds, Union kicks off with an absolutely gorgeous rendition of Irish tradiional song, Singing Bird, a collabaration with one of Dempsey’s heroes Finbar Furey. The song is about Irish socialist James Larkin speaking – and lifting people’s hearts, just like a singing bird – on a boat on the Liffey whilst evading capture by the authorities and it segues perfectly into Soulsun, a reworking of the title track from Dempsey’s last album. The song features the sublime vocals and harmonies of John Grant, a performer who came to the attention of Dempsey after he heard Sinead O’Connor’s version of Grant’s The Queen Of Denmark and who, according to Dempsey, is “a totally unique, fearless and original songwriter who throws the rulebook out the train window.” As if this wasn’t sublimeness personified, next up we have, Apple of My Eye featuring female indie/folk trio Wildwood Kin – “their wonderful harmonies lift my heart” – a song that Dempsey wrote “in a boiling basement in Brooklyn in August 2001”. The song’s “New York, New York, I’m Coming” refrain is both poignant and heartfelt, given the relationship between the Irish people and that vital populace.

Threre’s a tempo change – though perhaps not a mood change – on It’s Important, a song that nails its antipodean reggae-tinted colours quite firmly to its masts. The song has its roots in a meeting between Dempsey and Australian singer songwriter Dan Sultan on the latter’s first day in Ireland; Sultan was playing a show in Mullingar, Westmeath, a town his ancestors had departed for Australia two generations ago. Subsequently, during a visit to Australia, Sultan, whose mother is Aboriginal, told him about the songlines that run the length and breadth of Australia and how indiginous aborogines have mapped the entire country through song – to such an extent that they can find their way across the continent without maps, just songs. It is chiefly these

sentiments – and the importance of respecting and preserving traditions – that inform the subtext and context of this haunting song, And of course, we can only concur with the belief that, “Nelson Mandela was a gem of a fellah!”

“For a long time I've sought out true Irish history because a lot of what we were taught in school and in Irish history books is a very sanitised version of it.”

There’s reggae of a more urgent nature in the form of A Child Is An Open Book – rewritten from Born Without Hate from the Almighty Love album - featuring an incredible rap by the poet/musician/novelist/playwright Kate Tempest. The refrain, “a child is an open book/so please, people, don’t mess them up” has barely retreated from our speakers, before Gaelic Ireland touches on anoher subject close to Damien’s heart: British coloniaiism - and the recurrent scandals in the Catholic Church that have forced people to turn to atheism rather than explore the ancient spirituality of druidic religion which existed in Ireland for thousands of years before Christianity. (Or is that two, or perhaps three subjects? Sometimes it’s hard to tell when Dempsey gets going!) Contemporary, traditional Irish singer, Pauline Scanlon co-stars - she also appeared on Pretty Bird Tree on Soulsun – on this extraordinarily poignant song - “Gaelic Ireland is broken but her song still remains/Gaelic Ireland can be woken in the hearts of young wains/Community hospitality and sweet artistry are we/If we hold on to hatred then our hearts won’t be free” - which gives way to You’re Like The Water, which showcases Hackney-born, New Ross-raised, reggae-soul singer Mick Stafford (AKA Maverick Sabre) dueting with Dempsey on a song that uses a clever analogy about water and support.

On The Keepers Of The Flame, featuring Lisa O’Neill, Demspey voices his concerns about the largely misunderstood travelling community who he feels a paricularly strong affiliation to, maintaining that much Irish traditional music has been preseverved by travelling pipers, fiddlers and singers and this

needs to be acknowledged. Indeed, it is no doubt true to say, that travellers and the Irish community in general, have much in common, as both are much maligned and tend to sit around campfires – or fireplaces! - telling stories and singing songs, and both are on the wrong end of racial abuse and victimisation. After this, Celtic Tiger – a nickname for the supposed “economic boom” that Ireland “experienced” at the turn of the millenium – features long-term friend and fan, Sinead O’Connor and addresses the subject head on: Dempsey believes that the “boom” was manufactured by corrupt politicians who knew a crash was coming and that they could wield even more power by ensnaring people - and entire countries - in debt; the line “socialise the debt and privatise the profit” is actually borrowed from Brian Eno, who incidentally, is another advocate of Dempsey’s fine prose.

“Seamus Begley out of West Kerry is one of the best singers I've ever heard, and one of the finest Irish traditional musicians around. I share his heartfelt love for the beautiful old story ballads of Ireland and the history of our broken little island.”

There’s very little let up – how could there be!? – on Kevin Barry – “Another martyr for old Ireland/Another murder for the crown/Whose brutal laws to crush the irish/Could not keep the spirit down/Lads like Barry are no cowards/From the foe they will not fly/Lads like Barry will free Ireland/For her sake they’ll live and die” – a song that celebrates the life and vision of Barry who was only eighteen years old when he became the first Irish republican to be executed by the British since the leaders of the Easter Rising. Naturally, Barry’s execution at such an early age – and so soon after the death of hunger striker Terence MacSwiney - polarised Irish public opinion and it is hardly surprising that Dempsey feels incensed: “Kevin Barry gave everything for his people,” he says now, “and people who jeer the likes of him are usually out for themselves in life and can’t fathom the likes of

Kevin, so they mock them instead of grudgingly commending their bravery if they didn't agree with their cause.” Union closes with two heartfelt self-penned songs up there with anything Dmpsey has recorded to date. The frst of these, Big Big Love, featiures Irish singer songwriter and

multi-instrumentalist, Imelda May – who Dempsey describes as “a stunning singer, and can truly connect with her inner soul when she sings and awake the listener’s soul.” He also says that “the passion and emotion she conveys in this song moved me to tears when I first heard it” and it’s entirely likely that you’ll know what he means when you hear it. Finally, Human, a collaboration with Dublin-born poet/hip hop artist Paul Alwright, is innovatory enough to make Dempsey suggest that “if Eminem had written this song, he would be lauded as a groundbreaking genius.”

Those of us who’ve been following events closely will no doubt be aware that Dempsey has made a recent foray into the world of acting – he appeared in Irish cirme thriller BetweenThe Canals as well as Cardboard Gangsters – but there’s no acting up on Union: put simply, it’s the kind of focused yet visionary, left-field yet commercial, record Dempsey has always thereatened to make – and just what you’d expect from this gentle giant with a soul of a poet.

Kat Scott14 April 2021