For many, Alanis Morissette’s blatant misuse and abuse of the word ‘ironic’ is surely the greatest strike against her. The young songwriter’s malapropism arguably overshadows the other many strikes brought against her by detractors: accusations of misandry; a strong, distinctively wailing vocal style; and lyrics that ooze anger and angst in equal measure. But worst of all, she doesn’t know what irony means. Irony: “the expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite” or “a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects.” So not, when you have “ten thousand spoons / and all you need is a knife,” or even “rain on your wedding day.” Well, at least, not without a pretty big stretch of the imagination.

Yet the fact that Alanis Morissette doesn’t even know what irony is, is in fact her strongest trait. Morissette’s music, much like herself, is raw, sincere, honest and full to the brim with emotion. Morissette has surely sound-tracked the coming of age of a generation of passionate feminists, myself included. As a proud and vocal feminist and activist, if ever asked how or why I became so interested and engaged with feminism, I generally tend to struggle to find an answer any bit more concise than just growing up being a girl. Maybe it was listening to Under A Rug Swept in the car on the school run as a child that did it though: growing up understanding that women could, and maybe should, feel angry and passionate and express and communicate those feelings openly and honestly and unapologetically. (Having a Morissette-loving mother surely helped as well though.) In our age of cynicism and irony, where we are all too aware that appearances and reality rarely mesh, we should listen to and cherish Alanis Morissette now more than ever. True authenticity may be slippery and impossible to truly come by (especially in the smoke-and-mirrors world of pop music and entertainment), but that doesn’t mean we can try, or that there’s no merit in doing so.

Alanis Morissette didn’t always wear her heart as openly on her sleeve as she famously does in Jagged Little Pill. Her first two albums, released under the moniker ‘Alanis’ were the fare of typical Eighties teen-pop, and a far cry from her later work. In 1995, however, Morissette released Jagged Little Pill, a grungy, angst-filled album that touched on disappointment, anger, and failed relationships, co-written with Glen Ballard in Los Angeles. JLP was released on Maverick records and sold 33 million copies worldwide. It was nominated for nine Grammys, winning Album of the Year, and Morissette toured it for two years, a period which she describes as manic and exhausting.

“You Oughta Know,” the leading single of the album, set the tone for the album, and in a sense, much of Morissette’s subsequent career and reception. Morissette’s lyrics are frank and candid as she addresses her ex-lover: “Well I’m here to remind you / Of the mess you left when you went away.” The direct and explicit lyrics used to make my sister and I blush and giggle in the back seat of the car (“another version of me / Is she perverted like me? / Would she go down on you in a theatre?”) but looking back surely hearing a woman speaking without fear about sex and sexuality could only have been a good thing. Morissette’s vocals range from soft barely sung speech, to her distinctive whoops and wails in the chorus, and her emotions are visibly raw — it’s hard to imagine that this is anything other than her own direct experiences and emotions, set to lyrics.

In the twenty-three years since the release of Jagged Little Pill, Morissette has had a successful and meandering career. Although never matching the huge success of Jagged Little Pill, Morissette has released five studio albums, and there is a rumoured new one on the way this year. In July, she is playing Live at the Marquee in Cork on the 4th, and a show in Iveagh Gardens on the 5th. It’s a momentous time to welcome such an iconic feminist to our shores. This academic year has been the year women across the world rose up in anger against sexual harassment and assault, saying, #MeToo, the year we celebrated the centennial anniversary of women’s suffrage, and, by July, it will be the year we will have finally seen a referendum on the 8th Amendment. If you’re proud to be a woman (or proud of women) and are ready to drop the cynicism, this is a concert not to be missed. Get ready to stand alongside thousands over other amazing feminist Morissette-lovers and throw some plastic spoons in the air as you sing along: “It’s like raaa-in / On your wedding day…”