Plus Special Guests The Coral
Dundalk’s finest The Mary Wallopers have announced details of their third album Paddywhackery, produced by The Coral’s James Skelly and packed with their own songs; a new single and the band’s biggest headline tour to date, which include a show in 3Arena, on 10th December 2026.
Paddywhackery, which is set for release on September 18th 2026, follows up 2023’s hugely acclaimed Irish Rock’n’Roll. That album saw the band grow in confidence, writing their own songs for the first time. Paddywhackery finds them leaping forwards to create an album that sounds like it’s been made by a band with a tightness and a power that’s unparalleled in music right now.
Recorded in an intense two-week period in Liverpool with producer James Skelly and engineer Chris Taylor, Paddywhackery lets the band’s grand wildness shine through and allows their songs to flow out of the speakers with the kind of verve and potency that will make you - the listener - press play again, and again, and again.
Andrew and Charles Hendy on the album: “It’s mainly about the fact that people would call us “paddywhackery” because we are too Irish or whatever, but it’s all very fucking hip to be Irish the last couple of years, and maybe that’s performative too, it’s very sincere. If all you do is serious songs, it sterilises everything. It becomes like there’s only one human emotion and its seriousness. People are terrified of being laughed at. If people are going to call us paddywhackery anyway, we might as well just call the album Paddywhackery. So its more of a “fuck you” than anything else. We want to spread like a virus and destroy anyone who thinks they are above The Mary Wallopers”
Before Paddywhackery arrives, The Mary Wallopers release a new single today. Crowns of England is an observers view of England in 2026 that beats along with the glorious power of a London Calling-era Clash at kicking out time.
Charles Hendy on Crowns of England: “The song is about being in England and feeling like an outsider in all that colonialism. And it’s about Irish people who move to London and then assimilate by trying to get away from being Irish. That outsider status could apply to immigrants generally, or even people from small towns moving into cities. England remains an archaic place in a lot of ways. There is still a monarchy. Every pub is called The Crown. There are flags everywhere. When we sing rebel songs in England, people don’t know how to react, so you feel like such an alien because it’s geographically so close but culturally there’s a massive gap. I mean, I went to Wembley to see Oasis once and a woman asked me if we had televisions in Ireland...”
The video for the Crowns of England sees Danielle Galligan (House of Guinness, Game of Thrones, The Walsh Sisters) wandering around the streets of London drinking in establishments called The Crown, but longing for home. Directed by James Slater (Jamie T, Sam Fender, Blossoms), it shows how isolating it can be in a city where the Monarchy is omnipresent, even when you just want to get a pint.
Watch the video for Crowns of England here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFcWtsMu-1Q
