The first time I truly appreciated one of the tangible impacts of pandemic-era funding for musicians beyond live music industry supports was when I read the liner notes of Kojaque’s brilliant 2021 album, Town’s Dead. One sentence jumped out: “This recording was supported through funding from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media as administered via the Music Industry Stimulus Package 2020.”
The Music Industry Stimulus Package was part of a range of supports for the arts introduced by the Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Green Party government during the pandemic. Included was €1.7 million allocated to funding songwriting (€6,000 per successful application); recording (€6,000 towards an album recording); and album releases (€5,000). Under the scheme launched by then arts minister Catherine Martin, 77 applications were given funding for songwriting, 184 applicants (out of 1,431 who applied) got a grant for recording, and 56 for album releases. As a result of all this money, hundreds of artists and technicians were given work on multiple projects. A total of 280 new songs were registered with the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO); 226 music industry professionals were also supported, with 58 engineers and 56 producers engaged across 60 studios.
Three of the albums made with public funding, and of course, that funding would have only made up a small amount of what it takes to make a record − were subsequently nominated for the Choice Music Prize. These were the albums by Kojaque, Elaine Mai and Saint Sister. Three more artists supported through the scheme − Ye Vagabonds, John Francis Flynn and Lorcan MacMathuna − were nominated for Best Traditional Folk Track at the 2021 Folk Awards. By any metric, this is an incredible return on a very small investment in these artists.
Last Wednesday, I arrived in Dingle in County Kerry early for the Other Voices festival which ran over the weekend. In a backroom of Dick Mack’s pub, a small group of young people were playing tunes just for themselves. One of them was MOIO. As they strummed guitars, MOIO began singing one of his own songs, Moments. This track is a good example of how tunes take time, not just in their creation, but in terms of how they land. Moments emerged in 2023, a tender song that reflected the DIY bedroom pop style that flourished − out of necessity − during the pandemic. The song didn’t go away.
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Late in 2024, he posted a clip of himself online singing the song and it caught fire, ending up as the number one track on the Spotify Viral 50 playlist in multiple countries, including Ireland, the UK, and the US. MOIO is another young Irish artist who has manifested opportunities out of talent, graft and creative brilliance. I could fill pages with other Irish musicians doing the same.
Recently, journalist Anna Cafolla wrote an excellent piece for The Guardian about how independent musicians in Ireland had created the most exciting and genre-diverse indie scene in the world. That’s what we have in Ireland. It’s not just the amount of talent that’s coming out of the country, it’s the creative diversity that is so inspiring. The warping, blending and experimentation in different genres feels astonishingly liberated. It is expressing an unprecedented vibrancy, curiosity, and artistic boldness in its exploration.
London and Berlin
So what do we do with all of this? Inevitably, because the record label infrastructure in Ireland is threadbare, many of these artists are and will continue to be signed to UK and US labels. Because the housing crisis is so acute, many will head off for London and Berlin. What we need to do is get funding directly to musicians again, efficiently and at scale. Unlike with other art forms, there is a lack of clarity as to how many emerging bands or musicians can avail of funding to develop their practice, record music, or tour in Ireland. Culture Ireland does support international touring, and the Arts Council has music bursaries − but these resources need to be funded at a far higher level and happen at scale in order to support the boom in music we are seeing on this island, and to avoid a situation where large numbers of artists are competing for small amounts.
“Right now, there are 19 arts offices who have music plans ready to go if they can get funded. Those have been written with the artists in those counties,” Angela Dorgan, chief executive of First Music Contact − which is core-funded by the Arts Council − told me at the weekend. Were the Government to inject more funding into Irish music: “They don’t have to invent any new wheels; the structures to get the money out to those artists exist. We’ve been building them.”
The VAT cut restaurants got in the last budget will cost €232 million in 2026 and €690 million in 2027. This is not a targeted support run through local authorities to support independent Irish hospitality businesses, but a blunt tool. What if, in recognising the incredible music coming out of Ireland right now, the Government established a new €100 million music fund for emerging musicians and musicians on the cusp of establishing themselves? What might happen if this was administered at a local level, recognising what is actually happening in this country right now?
The artists are showing up and stepping up. But it’s a precarious career and a constant hustle. Imagine the legacy that could be created in real time if the State matched this creative and artistic ambition and integrity with its support.
