Henry McDonald said in his memoir: “Beyond the macho men in the woolen masks toting their rifles and laying their bombs, stands another narrative, a hidden Ireland” – this hidden Ireland needs to be uncovered. The figure of the ordinary person is often in the shadows of history but punk brought their reaction to the forefront. Punk music is a genre which has a philosophy of cultural revolt and has a do-it-yourself ethos, which made it accessible for many young people. The punk movement spread to Northern Ireland in 1977 when The Clash’s concert in Belfast was canceled. This was the first mass gathering of punks from all over the province and ended in a riot in true punk fashion.
The violence that ensued in the seventies affected almost every facet of life, including young people’s social life. Venues in the city centre of Belfast were closed by 9pm and in 1971 alone 73 pubs were bombed out of business. This meant that nightlife disappeared and people ultimately forgot how to socialise. The destruction was illustrated by Bloody Friday in 1972 when the music venue The Pound was turned into a makeshift morgue for the nine people killed. Due to the immense conflict, the realm of music was deeply changed as the myth of sectarian-free music was shattered. In 1975, members of the Miami Showband were killed by members of the Ulster Volunteer Force while returning from a concert in the North. Cross-community communication was a thing of the past as bands didn’t travel to Northern Ireland to play. Punk strived to fill this void while also creating a non-sectarian centre for young people.
It was in the abandoned city centre of Belfast that punk was founded, precisely because it provided a non-sectarian hub of activity rather than the young person’s working class housing estates. Venues like The Harp and The Pound provided a sphere in which people from all forms of life could gather. Band practice as well as gig after-parties allowed young people to venture to neighbourhoods marked out by their parents as being the “other side”. This is attested by a contemporary viewpoint , Dee Wilson, who said: “it was only because of the punk scene that I met people from Catholic, Republican communities and in doing so forged lifelong friendships”. Terri Hooley opened the record store Good Vibrations and, according to his autobiography, it was a “hub for people of all ages and creeds” and inside it was like the violence outside “didn’t matter anymore”. The crucial symbolism of these venues for punk music is clearly evident in photographs of The Clash and other punk bands posing outside the Harp. According to Brian Young, a member of the band Rudi, in these venues “you were a punk rocker first”.
During the Troubles, sectarianism became a key component of youth culture. Young men became central to the paramilitaries and were involved in gangs, such as the ‘Tartan Gangs’ who would attack Catholic youth. Many had grown with a diet of violence and had no choice but to fall to sectarian violence. Estates underwent sectarian ghettoization, demonstrated by the painting of curbs a certain color to denote which side the estate lay. Conversely, it appeared that punk offered an alternative to this divided youth culture and offered a form of expression that didn’t focus solely on brutality. The genre of music didn’t immediately have sectarian connotations, unlike, for example, the GAA’s connection to republicanism, so it brought a unique cross-community element. Moreover, punk used instruments that were seen as neutral and separated itself from the more sectarian genres like traditional music. The punk-rock guitar was a neutral symbol in comparison to traditional music’s use of the bodhrán which was inseparable from republicanism.
The religious discrimination and ferocity that existed in society made punk incredibly relatable for young people. As Terri Hooley said: “New York had the bands, London had the fashion, Belfast had the reason”. Joe Strummer, lead singer of The Clash, said that punk provided “the perfect soundtrack” for the “ravaged cities” as they could understand the violence of punk because they experienced it every day. Additionally, punk was based on revolt that allowed young people to express anti-sectarianism ideals. The sentiment against sectarianism was established through zines, which formed an immediate and cheap expression. Zines enabled young people to construct their own narrative that was not dictated by outside sectarian forces, such as their parents and the media. There was also an attempt to mimic the Rock against Racism campaign, which began in the UK to combat the growth of white nationalist groups, by creating the Rock against Sectarianism and Repression. This illuminates that punk was an attempt to attack the chaos that these young people were surrounded by with music.
The genre also allowed for a discussion of normal life that didn’t necessarily have a key focus on the Troubles. The Undertones’ song ‘Teenage Kicks’ didn’t reference the brutality of the Troubles, but rather examined the experience of the young individual. The word ‘teenage’ itself, which at the time was a relatively new word, suggested that this song was truly the reaction of the youth. Rather than express their frustration towards politics, The Undertones expressed the frustration of being a young person in general. The lyric “I need excitement/ Oh I need it bad” demonstrates the boredom of youth in a place torn by violence. When it was played on Radio 1 by John Peel, it proved that Northern Ireland was more than just “bombs and bullets”. The Undertones confirmed that an existence without was possible for young people. They fought against the Troubles because they were forced to confront the crisis “every single day” and “lived and breathed” it.
The insistence of The Undertones on ordinary experience was a political statement in itself in the face of the highly charged atmosphere in Northern Ireland. Punk didn’t deny the politics of the time but rather offered a pathway to survival during an overwhelming attack upon a community’s social freedom. Being neutral was met with hostility by the people of Derry, the band’s hometown. Fergal Sharkey, lead singer of the band, explains that punk was a way of escape – “People used to ask early on why we didn’t write songs about the Troubles: we were doing our best to escape from it”. Sharkey himself was from the Creggan Estate, which was notorious for its battle between the IRA and the British army. The Undertones protested by simply existing as they brought both sides together through their impartiality.
Bands like Stiff Little Fingers imagined an Ulster that was neither republican or Loyalist in songs like ‘Alternative Ulster’. Hence, the shows that they played appealed to a mixed demographic from both sides, which encouraged their communication.The band would also play in central Belfast which was a neutral territory for both sides to congregate. Lyrics like “Grab it and change it, it’s yours” doesn’t define exactly what this Alternative Ulster will be, but signifies possibility. The song commands the savagery as a form of communicating anti-sectarianism the idea of change with the RUC “barking at your feet”. Their other songs look to the young person to take responsibility for their lives in such a tumultuous time, such as ‘Suspect Device’ which urges one to “question everything you’re told”. Poet Paul Muldoon has said that the song ‘Alternative Ulster’ highlights the “power of imagination over nation” and called it a “key moment in the artistic life of Northern Ireland”.
Punk acted as a force for young people to communicate the events of the Troubles and also as an escape. Although it was a small movement, it profoundly affected those involved. As Gavin Martin said, creator of the zine Alternative Ulster, “Did punk make a difference? You bet your life and tomorrow’s breakfast it did.”
Illustration by David Boyd.
