Messed!Up
The Mary Wallopers don’t so much play Irish folk music as kick down the door and let it run riot. Hailing from Dundalk, the trio of brothers Charles and Andrew Hendy and their friend Sean McKenna have spent the past few years turning traditional songs, original material and old-school storytelling into something gloriously unruly: part folk revival, part punk racket, part communal knees-up.
Their rise began with a string of blistering live performances and homemade recordings before their self-titled debut arrived in 2022. Two years later, Irish Rock’n’Roll confirmed that The Mary Wallopers were more than a novelty act with a talent for raising a pint. Their music could be raucous and hilarious one minute, tender and melancholy the next, while their lyrics tackled class, politics, emigration and the complicated business of being Irish in the modern world.
If their early records established the formula, Paddywhackery is where they appear intent on setting fire to it. The band’s third studio album, released on September 18, 2026, sees them working with The Coral’s James Skelly, bringing an extra dose of rock’n’roll swagger to their already combustible sound. Yet beneath the noise and mischief lies something more thoughtful: a record concerned with Irish identity, displacement and what happens when tradition collides with contemporary life.
The album’s latest single, Landlord’s Demise, offers a particularly sharp snapshot of that attitude. With its provocative title and characteristically irreverent storytelling, it finds The Mary Wallopers doing what they do best: turning social frustration into something you can shout along to. It follows Crowns Of England, another track that demonstrates the band’s knack for mixing historical themes with a distinctly modern bite.
And then there’s the live show. The Mary Wallopers have built their reputation on gigs that feel less like concerts than mass gatherings, with audiences singing, dancing and occasionally losing whatever dignity they arrived with. That communal energy will be put to the test when the band take Paddywhackery on tour.
Germany gets three dates in February 2027, giving fans across the country a chance to experience the full-volume chaos for themselves. Expect traditional tunes, political fire, plenty of Guinness-soaked camaraderie and a band determined to prove that folk music can still be dangerous, funny and very, very loud.
GIG DATES
- 2 February 2027 at Knust, Hamburg
- 5 February 2027 at Kesselhaus, Berlin
- 11 February 2027 at Strom, Munich
TICKETS
