Damien Dempsey

Born in 1975 in Donaghmede, north Dublin, Damien Dempsey developed a songwriting voice rooted in Ireland’s social realities, blending folk, Irish tradition, acoustic balladry and reggae inflections. Steeped from an early age in the songs heard at home and later educated at the Ballyfermot College of Further Education, Dempsey began to attract attention in the 1990s with the EP The Contender (1995) and the single “Dublin Town” (1997), before releasing They Don’t Teach This Shit in School in 2000. His trajectory gained new momentum in the early 2000s when John Reynolds accompanied him in the studio and Sinéad O’Connor invited him on tour; Brian Eno also contributed during this formative period. Dempsey honed a direct style, sung in his Dublin accent, situated between urban chronicle, historical memory and popular spirituality, mainly in English with occasional use of Irish. After Seize the Day (2003) and Shots (2005), he followed with To Hell or Barbados (2007), the covers album The Rocky Road (2008), and Almighty Love (2012). Subsequent releases — No Force on Earth (2016), Soulsun (2017), Union (2018) and Hold Your Joy (2024) — confirm a body of work placed between sung tradition, contemporary folk and civic commitment, presented both on folk and rock stages and at festivals across Ireland, the UK and beyond.