Rock and punk with a trad twist

BY ANTOINETTE GIBLIN

As hundreds of students across the country struggle with the compulsory Irish language policy in schools, one group of Galway teenagers are doing their bit to ensure their native language stays very much alive by introducing their unique take of Gael-punk to the County.

Ronan Flaherty (16), Ciarán Conneely (17), Eoin Conneely (16) and Peadar Gill (16) have two things in common – their love of music and their passion for the Irish language.

“When I finished sixth class, I loved music and I wanted to keep it going. I have also always loved Irish so wanted to find a way to keep them both going,” says Ronan Flaherty from Knocknacarra.

After jointly entering a competition held by TG4 which required the boys to write and perform a song through Irish, the four Gaelgeoirí who hail from Inis Mór, Rosaveal and Knocknacarra decided to form an All-Irish group.

“First TG4 asked us to do a song. It was a competition and we entered it. We were only 13 at the time. It didn’t really go anywhere but because we had so much craic doing it, we decided to form our own band,” they explain.

At the young age of 13 having merged their love of music with their love of Irish, the rock band named The Temporary started out small by doing covers, later writing their own material in Irish.

“After our first song, we really got going,” the group recall.Although all four of the Irish fanatics stress that there is nothing short-term about The Temporary, they did consider renaming themselves ‘as Gaeilge’ for a short period but quickly realised that doing so could alienate the growing number of fans and followers who had come to know the band by the name.

“I was trying to create a Bebo profile for the band. Myself and Peadar couldn’t agree on a name so he said ‘oh just put down a temporary one’. So I did just that and the name The Temporary has stuck with us since then,” says Ronan.

The pioneers of Gael-punk have already managed to attract a strong line of followers including the well known Irish rockers The Coronas who they performed with in a youth concert held in Carraroe last January.

“It was such a great opportunity for us. They are really good guys. They told us we had a really good career ahead of us after the gig and that has meant so much to our confidence as a band starting off,” Ronan says proudly.

“We still send some stuff off to them. They have a listen and let us know what they think.”

The Irish language, the band claim, is also being revived in many others ways by well known personalities such as Des Bishop and through the introduction of multilingual shows in popular youth stations such as iRadio.

“I think it is turning a corner. It’s cooler now. People like Des Bishop have done a lot for it. It’s progressing more than it was a few years ago anyway. 

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.