Dublin City Fleadh also features Sharon Shannon Big Band, Altan, Dervish and Kíla.
Two of Ireland’s most inventive folk-adjacent acts, one trad-metal, one drone-folk, take Smithfield Square on Sunday August 23rd as part of the free, five-hub festival
Dublin City Fleadh’s Sunday lineup at Smithfield Square puts two of the most distinctive bands working in Irish music right now side by side: The Scratch and Mádra Salach, alongside Kíla on Sunday August 23rd.
Sharon Shannon Big Band, Altan and Dervish play the Square on Saturday 22 August.
Dublin City Fleadh is Dublin City Council’s free, unticketed celebration of traditional Irish music running across five city centre hubs on Saturday August 22nd and Sunday August 23rd, 12pm to 6pm each day.
♡ Nialler9 is independent and reader-supported. Support us on Patreon →
The Scratch have spent close to a decade turning traditional Irish music inside out, fusing acoustic instrumentation with the physicality of heavy metal into something that plays as comfortably at Fibber’s as it does on a festival main stage. Formed in Perrystown in 2016, they built their reputation through a viral Rory Gallagher Festival appearance and a run of records that have only gotten heavier and more ambitious, most recently third album Pull Like A Dog, which refines that acoustic-and-electric fusion into something Nialler9 described as less an evolution of their sound than a detonation and reassembly of it, louder. They’ve since toured the UK, North America and Australia, and closed the inaugural Momentum Festival in Galway earlier this year, sharing that bill with Mádra Salach.
Madra Salach are a newer proposition, a Dublin six-piece formed in 2023 by Paul Banks, Adam Cullen and Dara Duffy out of pub gigs on the city’s Northside, later rounded out by Maxime Arnold, Jack Lawlor and Jack Martin. None of them come from a trad background, which is part of what makes their music work: traditional instruments played with an alternative band’s mindset, closer in spirit to Lankum’s drone-folk than any standard session. Their debut single ‘Blue & Gold’, inspired by singer Paul Banks’ scratch card habit, and follow-up ‘I Was Just A Boy’ built toward a breakout year that saw their debut EP It’s a Hell of an Age chart at number three on the Irish Albums Chart, alongside a Eurosonic slot and sold-out Irish dates.
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.
