While Heather Humphreys received the endorsement of Daniel O’Donnell over the weekend, Catherine Connolly’s camp knitted together a line-up of buzzy, current Irish acts targeting a young audience on Monday night.
Tickets for the Vicar Street event sold out in about half an hour, with discounted €10 passes available to those who signed up for a national youth canvass for Connolly in the afternoon.
That rallying call was central to the evening’s message – a focus on youth activism and an appeal to younger voters to turn out on Friday.
Connolly emerged to kick off proceedings, flanked by a slew of party leaders and backers who have committed to her cause – Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald, the Social Democrats’ Holly Cairns, Paul Murphy of People Before Profit-Solidarity and Labour’s Ivana Bacik among them. Emcee Kevin Twomey, of I’m Grand Mam podcast fame, joked that he and McDonald were sharing Baby Guinnesses backstage.
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“This is a night to celebrate and it’s a night to realise the changes that we have made by coming together,” Connolly said. “I’m only a symbol of the movement. Ye matter.”
Despite the emphasis on youth, it was 80-year-old folk-singing legend Christy Moore who emerged for the first of many mini-sets. He was dressed for the cold, ripping off a hat and rain jacket before sitting down to play Viva La Quinta Brigada.
“What a woman, what a president she will make,” Moore said, raising his right fist. He spoke of unlikely groups coming together, and the feeling of energy in the room. Appropriately, he included the Dominic Behan song Connolly Was There in his 20 minutes on stage.
Moore was followed by singer-songwriter Emma Langford and poet Emmet Kirwan. Then came Huartan, a Belfast tradtronica five-piece who sing as Gaeilge and wear horned, Pagan masks.
Earlier in the day, Huartan’s Stiofán Ó Luachráin told The Irish Times that the band was supporting Connolly despite not being able to vote in the presidential election. To that end, “this gig represents an opportunity for us to come and weigh in behind Catherine Connolly”, he said.
Commitment to a “disenfranchised Irish” population of two million in the North was later affirmed by a member of Youth for Connolly, the division of supporters that had canvassed earlier in the day.
As well as her vocal opposition to the rise of far-right groups, Ó Luachráin said that “to have a president that platforms the Irish language is so important to us”. Both sentiments were echoed by many of the acts across the night.
On top of language, they mentioned a contemporary sense of Irishness they believe Connolly encapsulates. The campaign team seems aware of it – the event art, and indeed much of Connolly’s promotional material on social media, is built around swirling Celtic crosses.
Dream-pop outfit Cable Boy called it “neo-trad”. Also speaking earlier in the afternoon, their frontman Semi Olusa said Connolly was “trying to uphold an Irish identity that is inclusive and not focused on a toxic nationalism. A very inclusive idea of what Ireland is.”
“Not only the idea of an inclusive Ireland, but also an energetic one,” added his bandmate Corneille Tshibasu. “If we look at the populists right now, we have a lot more younger people wanting to be involved and wanting to have a say in how the country’s run.”
Fast-rising folk group Madra Salach followed Cable Boy, thrilled to have commanded the same font size as Moore on the event poster. They teed up The Mary Wallopers, who said it takes an awful lot for a politician to convince them to play a gig on their behalf.
Finishing the night off, many miles away from its acoustic opener, was DJ and producer Cóilí Collins, better known by the moniker Shampain. Sporting an ageing Galway United jersey, Collins said he had experienced Connolly’s work on a local level.
“Catherine’s an Independent, and also on top of that, she’s a very inspiring, honest, forthcoming person that actually backs up her words with actions – which is something that I’ve seen in Galway.”
Collins said Connolly was “someone you can disagree with” on occasion, but that her arguments always have a basis. He sees strong opinions as an important function of presidency.
“She said it too – the president isn’t this person who has no influence,” he said. “She has a lot of soft power. To have a voice like that – I love Michael D, but sometimes he was so arts-focused, and I think right now, there’s bigger fish to fry and she seems like she wants to fry them.”
