2007
The Verbal Hand Grenade

2018
Once Upon A Time In Ireland

In these days of relative calm in the north-eastern section of Ireland the Police Service of Northern Ireland proudly claims to be ‘Making Northern Ireland Safer’. They’ll have you believe that they’ve moved on from the notorious days of the B-Specials and Royal Ulster Constabulary. The residents and Ciarán Murphy know differently and Once Upon A Time In Ireland opens with a angry blistering attack on Northern Ireland’s police force that is more punk rock than any punk song I ever heard.
Armed only with an acoustic guitar, Ciarán comes across sometimes as a one-man punk army.
londoncelticpunks

2018
Once Upon A Time In Ireland

‘Nine hours’ is again an incredible song where Ciaran, in jail for Republican activities, is given nine hours compassionate leave to attend the funeral of his father. During the song Ciarán recalls childhood fishing trips with his Da and the history he taught him of the places they visited while he follows his Dads coffin in utter personal agony, regretting years of non contact. Nine hours later that day a steel door slams shut and that’s fucking it.
“I never thought that things would end like this,
not in my wildest dreams.
But life is cruel and sometimes twisted,
like their judges and it seems.
that nothing here is sacred and I know what that means.”
A song that will take your breathe away the beauty and sadness of it.
londoncelticpunks

2018
Once Upon A Time In Ireland

The guitar picking on ‘You Cried for Ten Men Dead’ is simply outstanding. This track never fails to leave me in tears, as Ciaran sings to his father about the impact of Ireland’s struggle on the old man. From fighting for Great Britain in World War II, to joining a revolutionary army in Ireland, to crying for the ten hunger strikers who died in the Maze prison in 1981. The old man fell under the spell of whiskey and was unable to keep it together. Simply breathtaking.
londoncelticpunks

2006
The Verbal Hand Grenade EP

2018
Once Upon A Time In Ireland

This song recounts the tragedy of 15-year-old Catholic Michael McIlveen, known as ‘Mickey 'Bo’, who was cornered and beaten to death by a gang of loyalist youths in Ballymena, County Antrim in Northern Ireland on the 8th of May, 2006.

The killing revealed a divided Northern Ireland, with rampant violence between protestants and Catholics. His last killer was not apprehended until 2018.

2006
When We Take Control

2018
Once Upon A Time In Ireland

Armed only with an acoustic guitar, Ciarán comes across sometimes as a one-man punk army. His songs cover a multitude of topics relating to life in modern day Ireland (and to that north-eastern bit in particular). ‘A Word to the New Irish Racist’ damns those Irish people who suffered racist attitudes from British imperialists for decades, and who themselves now target new arrivals into Ireland
londoncelticpunks