Two new singles have been released by Dimple Discs/Bring Your Own Hammer (BYOH) today.
They continue an ongoing series for which musicians are tasked with creating songs rooted in the history of crime, law and order in 19th century Ireland.
‘Dark / Light’ by Cormac O Caoimh tells the tale of John Connery from Waterford county. For most of the 1830s Connery and his brothers were were frequently charged with crimes that included murder and manslaughter. However, it wasn’t until 1838 that they were successfully prosecuted and sentenced to fourteen years transportation to Australia. Once there, John married an Irishwoman and worked at a reservoir near Sydney. In 1851, he participated in the Australian gold rush, but came into conflict with locals in the gold fields and was badly beaten. He died that July.
‘In the Dark’ by SJ McArdle and Lisa Lambe is rooted in a court case heard in Fermanagh in 1833. Margaret McDermott, described in a local newspaper as a ‘shameless harridan’, was arrested on the accusation of pickpocketing eighteen shillings from John Monaghan, an ‘idiotic looking wretch’. They apparently knew each other ‘very well’, with McDermott claiming that she was ‘tipsy’ on the day in question and that Monaghan had brought her ‘into a field for an improper purpose.’ The newspaper added that she ‘so confounded’ Monaghan ‘and created such laughter against him as to make an impression on the court that he was not perfectly correct in his conduct.’ She was acquitted.
‘In The Dark’ will be included on an upcoming BYOH label compilation entitled ‘From The Tombs’, a barnstorming double album set featuring 21 songs that takes the listener on a journey through the history of crime, law and order in Ireland and its diaspora in the 19th century. Aside from SJ McArdle and Lisa Lambe, participants include Sean O’Hagan (Microdisney, High Llamas), Luke Haines (The Auteurs, Baader Meinhof, Black Box Recorder), Damian O’Neill (The Undertones), Michael J. Sheehy, Kelsey Michael, Brigid Mae Power, Miriam Ingram, Fergal Lawler (The Cranberries), June Miles-Kingston (the Mo-dettes, Everything But The Girl, Fun Boy Three, the Communards), Marcus Holdaway (High Llamas), Bernard Butler (Suede, McAlmont & Butler, The Tears), Terry Edwards (The Higsons, The Near Jazz Experience), Hugh Bunker (Fatima Mansions), Lavinia Blackwall (Trembling Bells), Anne Gilpin (Morton Valence), Neil Farrell (Toasted Heretic), Audrey Riley, Adrian Crowley, Tony Higgins, Michael Walsh, Linda Buckley, Cian Nugent, Inni-K and NQL.
CORMAC O CAOIMH
Cormac O Caoimh is an Irish singer-songwriter and former frontman of the acclaimed indie-jazz-pop/rock sextet The Citadels. His intimate vocals, magical melodies and exquisite guitar playing have consistently attracted favourable critical reviews across six solo albums released since 2007. All have been quick to point out his unique style, while a wide range of comparisons have included the ethereal pop of The Go-Betweens and Prefab Sprout as well as the introspective and folkier likes of Nick Drake and Leonard Cohen. He will release a new album in late 2026.
SJ McARDLE
Stephen Joseph McArdle is an Irish songwriter, musician and curator best known for his 2022 album ‘Old Ghosts In The Water’. Its accompanying stage show PORT was described by The Irish Times as “an impressive song cycle, intriguing and evocative, rooted in folk but coloured by expansive and imaginative arrangements”, with BBC Ulster adding “it has all the ingredients of great folk songs”. SJ’s songs and performances have been featured in radio, film and television and he has toured extensively throughout Europe and North America.
LISA LAMBE
Lisa Lambe is a singer, songwriter and actress who is also one of Ireland’s leading cultural voices. The BBC have hailed her as “an absolute standout artist,” with The Irish Times describing her as “the finest singer and actor of her generation.” Working at the intersection of traditional song, folklore and contemporary performance, Lambe creates immersive concerts and theatrical works that bring Ireland’s cultural heritage to new audiences worldwide. Her recent projects include Nightvisiting, Mamó and Banríon Mhúscraí | The Queen of Múscraí, all rooted in extensive archival and field research into Irish traditional song, folklore and oral history.
BRING YOUR OWN HAMMER
Bring Your Own Hammer (BYOH) brings historians and composers together to create new song cycles based on historical sources and to reinterpret song material rooted in the history of 19th century Ireland and of the Irish diaspora. It is not a band, a group, an ensemble or even a collective. If anything, it is a faction, but unlike 19th century Irish factions, who met, armed with sticks and two-handed wattles in fairs and markets, it is armed with voices and instruments and dedicated, as no faction before, to the reinterpretation of historical material in song form.