Wolfe Tones: a search for Irishness?

The renaissance of Irish rebel band the Wolfe Tones has drawn much debate since their appearance at Electric Picnic last Sunday, with one expert observing a “complete separation” of real knowledge and understanding of what the Troubles were about among young people and another describing it as a “storm in a teacup”.
An aerial view of the tens of thousands of people, kitted out in Ireland jerseys, scarves and flags, who attended the Wolfe Tones’ 5.30pm performance at the Stradbally site painted an astonishing picture of how popular the band is in 2024.
The three-piece rebel music group featuring Brian Warfield, 78, Noel Nagle, 79, and Tommy Byrne, 80, formed in Dublin in 1963, are due to perform three sold-out shows at the 3Arena in October and another at the SSE Arena in Belfast.
Last year the FAI was fined €20,000 after the women’s senior team sang Celtic Symphony after qualifying for the World Cup. Its chorus of “Ooh, aah, up the Ra” has long been a source of controversy, bringing complaints from IRA victims and unionist politicians.
Warfield, the lead songwriter and vocalist of the band, believes social media has played a huge part in their recent popularity.
“For many years we were blacklisted and banned from the radio — our music was not allowed to be played since Section 31 [of Ireland’s Broadcasting Authority Act],” he said.
“We were an underground band hidden away from everybody, except for the fact that we travelled around the world singing our songs and that’s the only way we got to people.
“Eventually, the internet came around and people had a choice of what they wanted to hear and I think that’s what’s brought a surge in young people to our shows.”
Mike Hynes, a lecturer in sociology and political science at the University of Galway, believes the band appeals to young people as part of a normal course of “rebellion”.
Hynes claims a more serious observation is that there’s a “complete separation” of real knowledge and understanding of what the Troubles were in an Irish context.
He said: “Us Irish don’t do trauma well at all, we tend to bury it and we bury it deep. I lived through the Troubles and I remember every morning waking up to almost the death score of three killed here, two killed there. It’s very easy for us to point fingers at a new generation who know nothing about this because we as adults and as leaders, we’re not talking about it.”
Hynes believes the new interest in the Wolfe Tones is happening due to an “upsurge in confidence” in being Irish which is being led by music.
“Two obvious examples to me are Kneecap and the Mary Wallopers. I think the Wolfe Tones are almost riding on the back of this newfound confidence in Irishness through new music. A really interesting question is whether this is nationalism or is it Irishness? Our society has changed so profoundly over the recent past that there may be that void to what real Irishness is.
“I would describe the Wolfe Tones’ songs as very much akin to the idea of football songs and chants.”
John Millar, a researcher and communicator specialising in music and culture, agreed that a new sense of “Irishness” was linked to the band’s revival.
“The last five to seven years you have bands like Lankum, Lisa O’Neill and John Francis: acts that are within the Irish ballad tradition that are socially engaged and politically conscious,” he said. “There’s an awareness and realisation that acts like the Wolfe Tones are very much still doing that. Music is a very powerful thing and can carry all kinds of different meanings for people.”
Diarmaid Ferriter, a professor of modern Irish history at University College Dublin, believes people are looking at the Wolfe Tones’ music differently. “I notice with history students who were born after the late 1990s that they can have a very sympathetic attitude to Sinn Fein or attitudes to the Republican side. Part of it is being attracted to those who they regard as historically having been oppressed or the underdogs.”
Brian Hanley, an assistant professor in 20th-century Irish history at Trinity College Dublin, said some people’s reaction to the new interest in the Wolfe Tones was a “storm in a teacup”.
He said: “I don’t think it’s very significant. [A lot of people freely admit] that they don’t even really like their music, that [their attendance] was just swept along in ‘everybody was doing this’ and it goes perfectly with drinking.
“I don’t think there’s a lot behind it. People don’t realise that the Wolfe Tones are not very cutting edge, they’re not serious.
“I can remember when Republicans were very contemptuous of the Wolfe Tones — if anything they were seen as classic Provos. But their biggest hits are not about the north. Their biggest hit in the 1980s, The Streets of New York, was about the New York police department not the IRA.”