The best new Irish songs this week feature emerging tracks we’ve selected from artists from the island of Ireland, with more playlist additions below the main list.
Explore the best new Irish songs alongside our curated playlist for the week.
For more extensive Irish and new music coverage, read the Irish section for individual track features.
Olan Monk
Pomegranate
The experimental Connemara artist Olan Monk has a new album Songs for Nothing out on the AD 93 label on November 7th.
Lead single ‘Down 3’ featured Maria Somerville and was a dark metallic rock tune that reminds me of recent Mount Kimbie productions.
‘Pomegranate’ continues in that vein, with a similar sound, distilled into something of a gentler nature, perhaps a reflection the quiet tumult of growing up in the Galway coast – as the record is apparently seeped in its influence – with the video shot in Cois Fharraige.
Olan Monk plays Bello Bar, Dublin on December 13th presented by Foggy Notions, and supports YHWH Nailgun tonight in Dublin.
Habi
For All I Know
The Dundalk bedroom pop artist HABI offers up a serious earworm indie pop track on her debut single ‘For All I Know’.
Citing beabadoobee and local heroes Negro Impacto as influences, the song is produced by Alex O’Keefe (Lyra, Anna Leah, Crybabyamy).
You may have seen HABI on stages since 2018, and recently playing with Ezra Williams, Trinkets, Katie Phelan, Hotgirl and David San Clair.
An EP is to follow.
Pebbledash
O The Wind
The Cork shoegaze and alternative rock band Pebbledash continue their frequent output with the To Cast the Sea in Concrete EP on November 5th.
After last week’s song ‘Cell’, the band’s latest ‘O The Wind’ has nods to a traditional Irish music style in the vocals of Asha Egan McCutcheon, while holding a restrained but disquieting arrangement alongside it.
They have gigs in Dublin, Cork, Belfast, London, Manchester and Leeds in November.
Kaeyan
Watch The Greatness
Irish rapper Kaeyan dropped the Who TF is Kaeyan mixtape last week and top of the pile from the record is this drill-rooted track that has production percussion touches that fires the imagination as it plays, a trick replaced through the 8-track 20-minute release.
Cardinals
The Burning Of Cork
The Cork rock band Cardinals release their debut album Masquerade in February 2026 on So Young Records which was recorded with producer Shrink at RAK Studios in London, and so far there’s been different shades of the band’s sound on display in the singles, with ‘Big Empty Heart’ reminding me of early 90s British rock, and the title song giving Pavement or Grandaddy.
‘The Burning of Cork’ then is more sticking in the ’90s era with a Trent Reznor-style vocal, albeit softer and less foreboding. It’s hard to know exactly what the album is going to sound like but the nineties are in fashion with Cardinals for sure.
The band say:
“The song takes its name from the act of terror inflicted upon Cork City by the British Army’s Black and Tan forces in December 1920. It’s the record at its heaviest and most menacing.”
The video is directed by Greg Purcell.
For more extensive Irish and new music coverage, check into the Irish section for individual track features…
For this and more Irish songs, follow the Nialler9 New Irish playlist.
Other Playlist additions this week:
- Barbagianni; Amy Naessens; Gary O’Reilly – Queen Of Verona
- Travy – Bully
- anamoe drive – hurry up & wait
- Rory Friers – HOME II
- TroyOkay – Sunshine
- Seamus Fogarty – I Passed Your House
- PostLast; Birthday Problem – Scavenge – Birthday Problem Remix
- Def Nettle – Nothing For It
- Malaki – First Last Time
- Christian Cohle – Oh It Must Be Nice
- anna leah – Sugarloaf
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
