Writing
Journalism for various print and online outlets.
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GNOD R&D: “Leave the Bullshit at the Door”
One of the UK’s most transgressive and experimental bands, GNOD, are on an ‘R&D’ excursion next week, including a stop at An Spailpín Fánach. Mike McGrath-Bryan talks to co-founder Paddy Shine. Since coalescing in 2007, Salford, Manchester-based collective GNOD have taken to casually chipping away at such dated restrictions as genre, medium of presentation, and…
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The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock: ‘History Rarely Repeats, But Often Rhymes’
Retelling the story of the 1913 Strike and Lockout with an eighteen-piece guitar orchestra was always going to be a big ask. Allen Blighe and Enda Bates of Dublin folk-rockers The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock discuss the endeavour. For over a decade now, Dublin-based five-piece The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock have been fusing…
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Alison Spittle: “It’s Weird, Trying to Make a Career as a Comedian”
She’s arguably Irish comedy’s brightest light, with the first series of ‘Nowhere Fast’ doing well on RTÉ, and a weekly podcast beloved by her cult following. Alison Spittle sits down with Mike McGrath-Bryan for a chat about telly, podcasting, and sharing with others. Life for a stand-up comedian is vastly different from that of the…
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O Emperor: “A More Oblique and Meandering Way”
O Emperor return to Quarter Block Party on the Friday night, headlining the festival they helped place on the map with its first headline show in 2015. Mike McGrath-Bryan chats with guitarist/vocalist Phil Christie. It’s been a while for formerly-Cork-based psych-rockers O Emperor: two years, to be precise, since their last set of live excursions,…
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Spekulativ Fiktion: “I Sense a Storm Building”
One of Irish hip-hop’s most authoritative voices is back. Corkman Seán Murphy, aka Spekulativ Fiktion, talks about his new EP, the scene in Cork, and even improvises a short tale for Mike McGrath-Bryan. 2017 has been a year of profound change and development for Seán Murphy, a Cork wordsmith, rapper and beatmaker plying his craft…
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Cara Kursh: “I Sit Down and Wait to See What Pops Up”
There are many strings to the bow of Cork-based Galwegian Cara Kursh. Mike McGrath-Bryan sat down with a poet, a singer-songwriter, and a promoter of the arts in the city. Since opening its doors over two years ago, the Friary pub, situated at the corners of Shandon Street and North Mall, has become something of…
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Wallis Bird: Home is Where the Heart Is
Enniscorthy singer-songwriter Wallis Bird has undertaken a great journey along the Continent in recent years. Ahead of her next swing of Irish gigs, including headlining Ballincollig Winter Music Festival, Mike McGrath-Bryan hears about the road, the process and the future. As the noughties wore on, music was shedding its skin, emerging from an almost unrecognisable…
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Rubyhorse: Ready to Shine
Having blazed a trail around the world for Cork’s indie scene in the late nineties and early noughties, Rubyhorse are lined up for a return this January at Ballincollig’s Winter Music Festival. Mike McGrath-Bryan speaks with guitarist Joe Philpott. One of the great hopes of the city’s music scene as the nineties wound their way…
Mike McGrath-Bryan 