Finnegan’s Hell – Glorious Mess

There used to be a bar in Munich called Gunther Murphys. What finer testament to the Irish cultural diaspora and the crashing together of two cultures could there be? Of course, there are Irish bars all around the world, with antiqued Guinness advertising and rusty bicycles hung on the walls next to ‘Dublin – 5000 miles’ signs. But they are Irish Irish bars. Welcome to Finnegan’s Hell, the Swedish Celtic Punk band, the Gunther Murphys of rock music.

What is Swedish Celtic Punk? Well, it’s a smorgasbord of Irish tropes – whiskey, hard times, far away, pints, rebellion, whiskey, prison, Molly and/or Mary, fighting and whiskey – set to a rollicking ceilidh rock band soundtrack. Celtic punk takes a heavy backdrop of driving rock and overlays the traditional instrumentation of banjo, whistle, fiddle, accordion in a greater or lesser degree. It’s music to throw yourself around to in drunken abandon. 

Glorious Mess should be the playbook for non-Irish Celtic Punk bands. While bands like the Dropkick Murphys have ploughed this furrow successfully since the mid-90s, they draw upon their country’s Irish roots and traditions, connected by heritage even if at one remove. Finnegan’s Hell are entirely a Swedish imagining of that culture. And they’re brilliant at it. They use the musical templates affectionately and in doing so, create a credible and energising homage to the culture they are drawing on. OK, they are to Ireland what UB40 are to reggae but that doesn’t negate their passion or their flawless execution.

Glorious Mess is anything but a glorious mess. The musicality is first class and authentic. Better yet, among the songs of drunken wistfulness, hard times and loss, there is a hard core of sharp political observation. When they sing ” … the king becomes a clown … it won’t take long ’til you are gone, before you lose your crown,” you can’t help but feel that they have a particularly orange-coloured ‘king’ in their sights.  On the whole though, this is an album of drinking songs, rousing ballads of regret and loss to be bellowed along with. And as for that wistfulness, well, the album ends with an affecting ballad, a kind of Celtic Wind Of Change called I’m Dreaming On.

If Family Guys‘ stereotypical European dudes ever formed a punk band, this would be it. And that’s not a criticism. Their appropriation of the Celtic form has provided a vehicle for them to express universal themes in a universally recognisable and beloved format. Necessarily derivative but utterly wonderful without being too po-faced about it. Go n-éirí an bóthar leat, Finnegans all.

Glorious Mess is now available through streaming platforms and on CD and vinyl via Sound Pollution