ShareThe Mary Wallopers performing at Rock City Nottingham on Saturday 22nd March 2025.
Images and Review by Kevin Cooper
Celebrating their second album, Irish Rock ‘n’ Roll, The Mary Wallopers took to the stage at Rock City on Saturday night and delivered a raucous, funny, and captivating evening of entertainment.
This group of very talented Irish musicians brought a very authentic mix of traditional Irish folk music, helping to keep this genre of music alive and well. Founded by brothers Andrew and Charles Hendy, they came into the spotlight during the pandemic when they played some on line shows and they haven’t looked back since.
The set itself was perfectly paced kicking off with the lively track Bold O’Donahue as the Hendy’s enlisted the help of bassist Roisin Barrett, drummer Ken Mooney and Finnian O’Conner on tin whistle and uilleann pipes who all expertly blended the jolly with the deeply political, intricately playing ballads with their riotous odes to drinking.
The crowd’s reaction to Rich Man And The Poor Man was special as the crowd sang along to the chorus, before the quiet Smuggling The Tin took their music to a new level, and during their slower songs such as Wexford the room was silenced, seemingly hypnotised by the powerful lyrics and beautiful vocals.
The playful pub ballad Rothsea-O was broken up with a sweary back and forth between the brothers before Charles’ acoustic and poignant Building Up And Tearing England Down had the crowd enthralled.
The atmosphere reached fever pitch for fans favourite, Blarney Stone, and Gates Of Heaven, a song dedicated to ‘all the people that do wrong’ was followed by the excellent Eileen Og before what was arguably the best song of the set, Cod Liver Oil And Orange Juice, a song written by Glaswegian Hamish Imlach, that elicited a roar of recognition from the crowd.
For the encore they delivered a rousing rendition of The Dubliners, All For Mr Grog, which brought to an end an evening that had never seen a lull in their energy, and their transition from gentle a capella solos to raucous upbeat songs, was seamless and solidified the evening as a memorable celebration of contemporary Irish folk music.