Rising on

Back in 2000 Damien Dempsey released his startlingly original debut album, They Don’t Teach This Shit in School. The educational establishment the Dublin northsider had been attending just a few years previously was Mount Temple Comprehensive, where the shit they didn’t teach apparently included quite a lot of Irish history.

“I wouldn’t have been taught much in school because my mother was always worried that you could get into trouble if you were in with the wrong crowd,” the Donaghmede–born songwriter recalls. “She didn’t want me to get into trouble so she sent me to Mount Temple, down the Malahide Road, where U2 went and all that. It was grand, but I wasn’t taught much Irish history. It was more Wars of the Roses and all that sort of stuff.

“There was a war waging [in Northern Ireland] at the time,” he continues. “So I had to go and teach myself. I was sort of going, ‘What’s the story, why is this going on?’ So I had to learn about Irish history. Then from travelling all over the world I picked up more bits and pieces, and I became really interested in it. I remember going out to New Zealand, and they’re very interested in their ancestry and who they are. So I looked into mine and I found out about Brian Boru. And it started from there.”

Dempsey’s interest in, and knowledge of, Irish history is written all over the songs on his latest offering, No Force on Earth. A stopgap album released to commemorate the centenary of the 1916 Rising, it’s a collection of originals and covers ranging from the traditional ballad ‘James Connolly’, which he has been singing at water charge protests in recent times, to ‘Aunt Jenny’, a number written about a great–grand–aunt of his who ran the women’s section of the Irish Citizen Army and fought in City Hall in 1916.  

Most of the songs are fairly rough–hewn, and were recorded in just a couple of takes in his producer/manager John Reynold’s Kilburn studio. “Yeah, they’re all fairly rough and raw, just guitar and vocals,” he admits. “I lashed them out. I got a new nose job there, my septum was bleeding from all the pucks I got over the years, so I got it fixed last year. I was blocked up so John said, ‘Just stick them down, make them real rough and raw’.

“It’s kind of about the 1916 Rising and the centenary,” he continues. “It’s something a bit different. It gives fans something to sink their teeth into while they’re waiting on the next big one. So I’ll just see how it goes, and if it gets people talking and thinking about 1916, and what the people who fought had envisioned for Ireland that would be great. Actually, I’m doing a gig on O’Connell Street on the 24th of April, the actual centenary, for Robert Ballagh, the artist. James Connolly’s great–grandson will be there talking and hopefully we can keep the discussion going.”

While he has a lot of reservations about the current state of this Republic, Dempsey remains resolutely proud of being Irish. “Well, I was very proud of the Irish people last year, the way they voted for same–sex marriage,” he says. “I think that was a huge thing. I didn’t know if that was gonna happen, so that was a huge thing for equality. Then with the water charges, the huge percentage of people refusing to pay the water bills… that’s really after fucking the government up. They can’t bring us all to court!

“So we have that spirit of rebellion. I think that’s a huge thing and we’re thinking about 1916 now and the people that stood up to the biggest empire in the world. It gives us the gumption to stand up to the people who are ripping us off. So I think times are changing a good bit. I’m very happy about that.”

Following a major label 2014 Best Of, which picked the cream of the crop of his six studio albums, Dempsey is currently between record deals. No Force on Earth is an independent release with an initial pressing of 2016 physical copies. “We’re only going to sell them at the gigs. People are giving out saying they should be online, and we’ll probably get it online as soon as we can. But it’s really to give people something when they’re waiting on the next album. It’s not too far off being finished now and we just need someone to put it out for us.”

Does the next album proper have a title yet?

“It’s probably going to be called Soul Sun, as in the sun that shines from within,” he explains. “There’s a bit of a spiritual vibe on the album because I’ve gotten more spiritual as I’ve gotten older.”

Dempsey has spoken to Hot Press before about his psychic sixth sense. “I used to disregard it, you know, little signs and things I’d see. I’m kind of psychic, and I embrace it now. My mother and her mother were all the same so it must come down with the generations. I think people need a bit of faith nowadays. A lot of kids don’t believe in anything anymore. I tell them that I’ve seen things and I tell them to keep the faith. You don’t have to put a name on it – just know that there’s something there.”

Despite his current independent status, Dempsey is happy with the way his career is progressing. “For me, it’s almost easier now than when I started because I can make a living,” he says. “I have a live following, and I always give 110%. I give them my heart. You’re always assured a great night so you ought to come out and see me. My dream was to have Vicar Street, to have that all over the world, and it’s coming true. Because I have it in Glasgow and London and Liverpool, and I have it in New York and Boston and Perth and Sydney, and all over. So it’s all good.”