The growing pride in Irish culture through fashion, language, and music

In the past couple of years, there has been a growing sense of pride when it comes to Irish culture.

This is particularly true for Ireland’s young people, who are looking to embrace their country’s history through fashion and music and by learning or relearning the Irish language.

Brands like Pellador and Anseo are championing Irish culture through fashion, while acts like Irish language rap trio Kneecap promote the Irish language through their music.

Fashion

Pellador is a fashion label based in Limerick, founded in 2022.

Creating knitwear and sportswear, the brands draws from both the design and sporting history of Ireland.

Pellador seeks to embrace traditional Celtic symbolism and fuse it with contemporary football and fashion design.

The brand’s success is down to the appeal of its unique and vibrant garments to young Irish people, who ensure that its restocks never last long.

Unisex “Éire inspired clothing” brand Anseo, founded by Shane Morgan, has enjoyed fierce popularity for its Claddagh jerseys.

The sell-out jerseys come in green, pink, and black, and feature the Claddagh design as well as the Irish harp and the Irish word “grá”, which means love.

Language

As the well-known Irish seanfhocail goes, tír gan teanga, tír gan anam – (a country without a language is a country without a soul).

And many people are looking to learn or relearn the Irish language, with the percentage of people living in Ireland being able to speak the language growing by 71 per cent since 1991.

Irish business representative group, Ibec, said this trend has been driven by three major educational trends.

The first major driver at play is the growth of Gaelscoils. The Irish medium schools have become increasingly commonplace across the country over the last 50 years.

In 1990, 15,990 students were being educated fully through the medium of Irish on the island of Ireland. By 2021, that number had grown to 55,787, Ibec explained.

Secondly, changes to the way Irish is taught in English medium schools are starting to make an impact.

Ibec said a much greater emphasis is being placed on spoken Irish, particularly at second level, which is leaving many students with a greater ability and love for the language.

Finally, Ibec said the growth in online learning platforms like Duolingo has democratised language learning and made learning or re-learning Irish accessible for people both in Ireland and abroad.

According to Duolingo statistics, roughly 1 million people are actively learning Irish at any given time, while more than 5 million people have started learning Irish outside of Ireland using Duolingo alone.

Music

Irish language hip hop trio Kneecap champion the Irish language. The Belfast rap group merge Irish with English and satire with socially conscious lyrics.

Their film, Kneecap, was shortlisted for the Oscars in the best international feature film category and for best original song for Sick In The Head.

The comedy movie, which also stars actor Michael Fassbender, follows the Belfast group on their mission to save their mother tongue through music.

Although it did not end up being nominated for an Oscar, the trio also scooped seven gongs at the British Independent Film Awards, including best British independent film.

Desiree Finnegan, chief executive of Screen Ireland, explained that this is the second time in history that a film in the Irish language has been shortlisted for the Academy Award for best international feature film.

Congratulating the creative teams behind Kneecap, The Apprentice, and Room Taken after the shortlist announcements, she said it was an “incredible achivement” for Irish cinema to have films shortlisted for the Oscars across various categories.

The group’s debut album Fine Art was released in June of 2024.

Music magazine Mojo wrote that “the wild times end on a poignant, giddy high with ‘Parful’ – a house-y banger raving about everyday hedonism transcending sectarian violence – an irresistible distillation of Kneecap’s peacetime party music”.

DIY’s Lisa Wright described the album as “in its own warped way, as its title suggests: a fully-immersive, conceptual production that, much like their recent Sundance award-winning biopic, is far, far too clever to just be the work of three miscreants”.

Kneecap are not the only Irish group enjoying a surge in success. Irish folk music group The Mary Wallopers, from Dundalk in Co Louth, recently announced a headline show at Dublin’s Fairview Park.

Their first album, the self-titled The Mary Wallopers, has been described as “raucous, fun and captivating”, with a review of their second album seeing Irish Rock N Roll’s Alan Corr describe the band as “Irish trad punks”.

There is still much to be created by those drawing inspiration from Irish culture, and the hunger for Irish fashion and music is definitely there.

The growing popularity of the Irish language is something that can be built on, and it undoubtedly goes hand in hand with the culturally-informed music and fashion being created by young Irish people.

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