2 days ago
Ed Sheeran has as much right to call himself Irish as The Pogues or The Smiths
Ed Sheeran
rarely says or does anything controversial – but the internet has required an urgent dose of smelling salts after the
singer said that he identified as 'culturally Irish'
. Sheeran made the remarks in an interview with Louis Theroux, saying,
'
My dad's family is ... he's got seven brothers and sisters. We'd spend all of our holidays in Ireland'. He said : 'My first musical experiences were in Ireland, I grew up with trad music in the house. So I identify culturally as Irish, but I was obviously born and raised in Britain.'
His comments have generated considerable commentary on both sides of the Irish Sea – though why this should be so is a mystery. With early songs such as The A-Team and later hits like Castle on the Hill, Sheeran was following unashamedly in a bare-boned, dewy-eyed tradition of confessional acoustic songwriting – which, if not invented in Ireland, is certainly part of the country's bloodstream culturally speaking.
That isn't to suggest early 2000s artists such as Paddy Casey, David Kitt or
Damien Rice
should be given credit/blame for Sheeran – but it is surely telling that he was coming of age musically while they were at the zenith of their powers. The influence of Rice, in particular, is something Sheeran has talked about on many occasions – recalling how seeing the Kildare singer perform in Whelan's when Sheeran was aged 14 had a formative influence.
As he told Hot Press in 2022, 'I was brought up on Van Morrison's Irish Heartbeat album. Then there was Planxty, Christy Moore, Dónal Lunny, and my cousin got me into Bell X1, The Frames, Damien Rice, Mundy and Damien Dempsey. I'm really inspired by Irish music.'
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The shock is that this should be considered surprising. What could be more Irish than a singer with a guitar emoting from the bottom of their boots? Tellingly, Sheeran's biggest hit, Shape of You, was co-written with another Irish musician, Snow Patrol's Derry-born guitarist Johnny McDaid.
When it comes to his Irish identity, the obvious black mark against Sheeran is Galway Girl – not so much a song as a harbinger of the music apocalypse, with fiddles that sound like a caterwaul from Celtic purgatory. But while it is deeply cliched, is it really so different from anything put out by The Pogues or Dropkick Murphy's, 'Irish' bands whose music feels like the equivalent of a trolley dash through a Carrolls Gift Shop?
Fair enough, Sheeran is a long way from The Smiths, perhaps the most 'Irish' British band of all time, their music suffused in mordant wit, sexual repression and poetic fatalism – aka the holy trinity of Irish cultural hallmarks. But as a heartfelt singer-songwriter, he is absolutely entitled to feel Irish. As he himself has stated, he is following in the footsteps of Damien Rice and Mundy. The difference is that he has spun from these raw materials chart-topping gold. Good on him – and at least he isn't as annoying as Bono.
