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PaperclipPerfector  15d ago (text post)   2892 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for October 9, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Kingfishr aren't that bad, I think it's mostly that the singer does definitely have a recognisably Irish accent rather than the usual assumed mid-Atlantic one. The Sawdoctors are their ancestors, and I don't mind (too much) that kind of exploiting a regional identity (anything outside of Dublin is a novel change). It's a bit like the American country music scene, is Beyoncé country? No, but she managed a decent attempt at it.

The really annoying ones are the plastic paddy generated for a foreign audience types, as you describe; the aural equivalent of the "Irish pub" chains.

I find Kingfishr's claims to be authentic trad/folk musicians more than a little suspect when by their own admission one of their biggest influences is that famous Irish ceoltóir Uilliam Ó'Ióéil, composer of such storied tunes as "Fear Pianó", "B'fhéidir Ceart Agat", "An t-Am is Faide" and "An Cailín Thuas-Bhaile".

It's a bit. Kingfishr have admitted to borrowing the hook for one of their songs from the song "She's Always a Woman" by Billy Joel.

I haven't heard that claim but I only know them from songs on the radio. though I do remember a good few years back now, one Late Late Show about the evolution of Irish traditional music, with Tony MacMahon being one of the hold-outs about modernising it. So "taking influences from popular culture, it has to innovate and move with the times, if it's a living tradition you can't ossify it" is an old argument.

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