The Mary Wallopers: 'I much prefer folk when it’s dangerous'

"We did so much in the festivals over the summer, it was non-stop and you didn't really get the same buzz off it, and also the travel is so mismatched, but I'm really looking forward (to the tour). I love being on the road, especially playing venues that are booked for our gigs particularly."

Audiences here seem to be fast cottoning on to the band, who have now expanded to a seven-piece. At Deer Shed festival in July the tent was packed to the gunwales during their rabble rousing set, and Hendy says such scenes have greeted them pretty much everywhere else they've performed in the past few months.

"We're kind of lucky that we haven't really played any empty concerts," he says. "Even in Europe, where we did a three-week tour, and every concert was jammed."

Hendy sees The Mary Wallopers, who combine traditional tunes and their own material, as ostensibly a live act. "Even when we were doing livestreams during the pandemic, one of the most integral parts to it was the communication with the audience," he says. "As far as we're concerned, it's as much their show as it is ours - unless they're talking during the slow songs, then they're absolutely our shows.

"For us, and for me particularly, the live performance is the be-all and end-all, I don't think there's ever going to be a point in my life where I don't perform live. I don't get the same fear and adrenaline when we're recording, even performing on television I find a bit boring, definitely compared to the concerts."

The large line-up has helped the founding trio realise their original vision for the band. "As we got asked to play bigger and bigger venues, we couldn't have done the same energy without particularly the bass and the drums," Hendy says. "There's something tribal about it and it helps. It's rock 'n' roll at the end of the day. We don't want to be just a sit-down listening band, we want people to shake it all out."

Theirs is certainly not a polite, Aran-sweater version of Irish folk music. Hendy sees a kinship with their forebears such as The Pogues, The Dubliners and the Clancy Brothers. "For a long time when we were a three-piece I think we had more in common with the Clancy Brothers than anyone. Maybe The Dubliners as well, but for sure the Clancys were a huge influence.

"I suppose after a time, anything becomes somewhat twee or a bit naff, but surely at the time it was incredibly rock 'n' roll. The Clancys, I know for a fact, were wild in America, in New York and Greenwich Village. Bob Dylan wouldn't be singing without the Clancy Brothers.

"As far as The Dubliners were concerned, I remember hearing that bands like The Who were kind of afraid of The Dubliners on the touring circuit, and I can see why. They don't put across the most docile appearance.

"And then beyond that, The Pogues, of course, are in a league of their own when it comes to rock 'n' roll. For a while people were saying, 'Oh, it's folk music, that means it must be saying nothing, it's kind of safe music', but I don't think so at all. I much prefer folk when it's dangerous."

Hendy recalls that when they were booking support acts for their first UK tour, all the bands they were being offered "were kind of twee, very quiet, sensitive" or acoustic singer-songwriters. "The reason they were being billed was because we were down as a folk band, but in reality folk is much more than that," he argues. "Hip-hop has elements of folk in it. I think hip-hop has more in common with folk than acoustic singer-songwriter music about the trees and love and stuff like that. I would consider folk quite militant music."

The Mary Wallopers have come a long way from their first gig in the corner of Macmanus' pub in Seatown, Dundalk on St Patrick's Day, 2016. "It's unfortunately closed down now because of the renovation problems," Hendy notes. "It's actually where The Corrs started playing music, they used to work in the pub.

"We used to start playing music by going around asking for free drink and it worked until people started giving us money. They probably realised that it was cheaper to just give us the money than give us the free drink, we'd bankrupt the pubs.

"So Macmanus' gave us our first gig, they gave us 250 euros to play on St Patrick's Day and we played for nine hours with no amplification. I remember we were trying our best. We got amplification but we didn't know how to use any of the equipment, so we just put it in the corner and played ourselves. We did nine hours in the pub because we didn't know how to play gigs, we didn't realise you normally do about two hours. So that was funny, but it certainly made us who we are."

The band's latest single, The Blarney Stone, is one of the more lighthearted numbers in their repertoire. Hendy sees it as important to blend the comedic with their harder-hitting political songs. "Everything is a tool in creation and expression, and the last time I checked, the human condition is all-encapsulating," he says. "It has many different modes to it, and when we see a band that are just the one thing... I think a lot of bands are afraid of not being taken seriously and so they overcompensate. Everything they do is so serious and so dire, everything is grave, but who wants to go and be lectured? People are paying to come to our gigs, so yeah, we'll put across our political views and our serious ideas, but we also want to entertain people, that's the name of the game at the end of the day. Life is hard, so why not cheer people up as well? Sometimes I'm happy, sometimes I'm sad, it's an easy concept."

Despite the fact that some of the songs they play date back centuries, Hendy sees them as "painfully relevant" to now, and that's why The Mary Wallopers have struck a chord with people. "This is going back to folk music, it is music for the people," he says. "I think Woody Guthrie said something about folk music being there to soothe the poor and torment the rich, and that's really what it is.

"The people in the upper echelons of society, it's not their music, they don't get it and they can't have it. It's for the masses, and the songs are painfully relevant – and I say painfully because if you sing a song that's 400 years old about landlords and the feudal system essentially and how so little has changed in our age where we think we're so far removed from all this, that's the trouble, landlords are still extorting. It's very everyday stuff that has not changed at all."

As musicians, Hendy says The Mary Wallopers are "viciously against" the idea of being put on pedestals. "There's nothing special about us," he says. "In fact, there's nothing special about any musician, they're just musicians. I find it happens more as people get older, their stuff becomes legend, and people fall into that. There is an element of magic with music in general, but for the sake of encouragement and accessibility, it's important for us to say there's nothing special about us because people listening to us have as much right to express themselves as we do. We want to encourage everyone to sing or to express themselves and make it accessible. There's no barriers as far as we're concerned. There are too many barriers in an artistic industry, whether that be music, acting or the visual arts. There are so many barriers that allow the sons and daughters of the established and rich to walk into the industry, and we just don't like that."

The band's second album, Irish Rock 'n' Roll, is out now. Hendy says; "There are songs about what happens to rich people when they die, there's a song about the Blarney Stone, there's the odd love song in there and there are originals on it. We've always written our own songs but we just feel comfortable about putting them out now, so go easy on it, but they're all amazing songs. They're the best songs you've ever heard in your life. If you ever feel lost in life you won't after this."

The Mary Wallopers play at The Leadmill, Sheffield on November 25. https://www.marywallopers.com/