Highlighting the court cases faced by pro-Palestine activists, with proceeds going towards legal fees.
Siren Spring | Single on Bandcamp
Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin has been making waves in folk music this year. In recent weeks he has performed on The Tommy Tiernan Show, played with Christy Moore in Vicar Street, and won Best Folk Singer and Best Original Folk Track for 2023 at the RTÉ Folk Awards. When he isn’t playing music, he is busy as a political activist and has been heavily involved in the Palestine solidarity movement in recent months.
Today he releases a new single, Siren Spring, which he is using to highlight the court cases faced by pro-Palestine activists and to raise money for legal fees.
Speaking of the song, Eoghan says:
“Musically, Siren Spring is probably the most pop-like thing I’ve ever written – although that might not be saying much! It’s quite a playful song even though some of its content is quite serious. We recorded it at Hellfire Studios with Alex Borwick, who is a bit of a wizard of a sound engineer and producer. Anna Mullarkey, Kaitlin Cullen-Verhauz, Ian Kinsella and Conor Lyons all came out to the studio on Wednesday and we arranged it together. Once the bones of the music were there, I recorded the vocals – they all came out in one take, which has never happened to me before.
In terms of its subject matter, the song is an attempt to put some of the feelings a lot of us have had in recent months into song. So many people I know have been struggling with soaring rents or facing eviction. Many of the same people have also been out protesting against Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the Irish Government’s inaction in the face of it. And this week, Leo Varadkar is over in the US to hand a bowl of shamrock over to Joe Biden, Israel’s primary backer.
To me, all of these things – our housing crisis here at home, the genocide in Gaza, and our politicians heading over to Washington – are intimately connected. So much of our housing crisis stems from the red carpet being rolled out to big investment funds that have bulk-bought property and jacked up rents. Now Varadkar will engage in a week of Paddy-Washing around St Patrick’s Day to make it clear that, even after 30,000 Palestinians have been murdered largely with American weapons, Ireland is still open for business.”
Eoghan is one of several activists now facing charges for protests and direct actions in solidarity with Palestine.
Eoghan said, “In recent months Gardaí have been cracking down on Palestine solidarity activists who have engaged in protests and direct actions against Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
“Two of us were arrested at a peaceful BDS action on Grafton Street in February and charged under the Public Order Act. Another activist has been charged with criminal damage for allegedly throwing washable red paint on the Department of Foreign Affairs. Several others are also now being threatened with criminal charges for the peaceful, symbolic action of attempting to hand an eviction notice into the Israeli Embassy.”
Eoghan said, “This criminalisation of solidarity is happening at a time when the International Court of Justice has found a plausible case that Israel is committing a genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza. Under the Genocide Convention, there is a legal imperative for states to do everything in their power to stop the genocide. Instead, the Irish State is attempting to criminalise those who are doing what the State should be doing.”
“We plan to fight the charges and the release of this song is partly to highlight what’s going on. People can buy the single on Bandcamp and the money will go towards legal fees for those who are facing charges for Palestine solidarity action.”
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