30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Daily Mirror
"Kneecap? They're the Wolfe Tones in tracksuits" says Jinx Lennon
Jinx Lennon is an artist who is always ahead of the curve.
On his latest album - released this month - it's the concept of nationalism that has him most exercised, notably on the track Stop Hiding Behind The Flag.
Jinx says he does not support flag-waving of any kind, despite being a republican and he criticises the likes of the Wolfe Tones and Kneecap, calling the latter: 'The Wolfe Tones in tracksuits.'
Perhaps Kneecap could have done with giving the song a listen, considering the controversy they now find themselves in.
He told the Irish Mirror: 'I don't bother with flags. As soon as the flags come out, there's no way to get around it. It's all about nationalism and it kills me.'
He says he's refused to stand behind flags, whether they're put up by Shinners or Brits.
'One weekend, I was doing a gig in Brighton and they had the union jack in the back, and I said: 'I won't play in front of my own flag, so I'm not standing in front of that.'
'The whole thing of the Wolfe Tones, don't get me wrong, I came out of a Republican background. The closer you get to the border, it gets more polaric and fragmented.
'We're getting our news from the BBC, but at the same time, we're Irish. It gives you the border schizo thing, a split personality, or a duality.
'I have the same problem with Kneecap - to me, Kneecap would be the Wolfe Tones in tracksuits.
'When the flag comes out it's about one thing, it's a wolf whistle to the gurriers. When I see anyone coming up with the flags, it's like MAGA, it's nationalism. It's a zeitgeist of nationalism that's sinking in.
'This time of the year up here, all the flags are brought out for St Patrick's Day and they don't go away til Easter Sunday.'
A question Jinx asks of himself is: What else would you be at? on the opening track of his new album, the 26-track album The Hate Agents Leer At The Last Isle of Hope.
It's Jinx bringing it back to basics - singing about life as a musician, and why, despite the madness of the industry, he wouldn't do anything else.
What Else? Is a frenetic, fuzzy-bass, four-minute tribute to being on the road, which: 'keeps you on your toes, makes you feel raw.
'As soon as you get to the venue, switch on, self doubt's gone' he sings, kicking off his 14th album.
Music is a vocation for the Dundalk punk poet, who is now 60, and manages to juggle his music career with a busy family life and a day job as a hospital porter.
His real-world living gives him plenty of material, and he's always been miles ahead of the rest on what matters in this country - issues like the recession, the housing crisis and immigration.
Since 2000, Jinx has been the unofficial social commentator on Irish life, like Christy Moore crossed with Frank Black. Moore is a fan, saying of Jinx: 'He matters. He doesn't sugar it up.'
He's on form with this latest release, which takes a square aim at ideology of all kinds.
From faux-republicanism to biblical online pile-ons to a la carte Catholics to far-right 'gurriers' it's all here.
Elsewhere, he's singing about keeping your own accent, how men shouldn't sing Cyndi Lauper songs and the need to tell those invading your personal space to 'get out of your f**kin' face.'
One of the standout songs on the album is The Bigot, which is about online pile-ons and cancel culture.
It's a track with a sinister, dystopian feel, where he nails the kind of 'progressive Ireland' warped Catholicism around the need to shame and cast out.
'Once a Catholic, always a Catholic, it goes back to that. People having the power to destroy your life.
'It's biblical. Attacking people online, like the Christians and the a puritanism to those who do it: 'I am holy, there's nothing wrong with me, I have no faults, no skeletons in the closet. Holier than thou.'
'When people are being attacked, it's like stonings.
The title of the album is about the emergence of the far-right, with Ireland in its sights.
Musically, he cites influences as diverse as John Spillane, Lady Jane-era Rolling Stone and glam rock.
'I love glam rock, even the dodgy stuff like Gary Glitter you can't talk about; T-Rex and The Sweet, stuff I grew up with.
'I sampled Suzi Quatro on Bouncy Castle Catholics.'
He's keen to mention the musicians he's played with on the album, Chris Barry, who recorded it, also works with Junior Brother and The Deadlians; Jamie Bishop, who also plays with psychedelic country outfit the Shamrock Showband and also features emerging singer Rois.
The title of the album is about Jinx noticing the swing to the far right. He reckons Ireland is one of the last bastions with a good perception of the world and a spirit of acceptance.
But last year, he was one of a group of locals who had to stand up to a group of far-right activists who had come to Dundalk to protest a refugee centre.
'They're not going to drag us down with their hate, we had to make a stand. You're not coming down here and telling us who we are - that's not who we are.'
Jinx Lennon's album The Hate Agents Leer At the Last Isle of Hope is out now.
