At the Courthouse Tavern in Cork, Irish folk-rock band Kingfishr perch precariously on the world’s smallest stage while their fans, a few hundred strong, cram as close as they can to the front. They roar the lyrics to Kingfishr’s recent No 1 single “Killeagh”, written for bassist Eoin “Fitz” Fitzgibbon’s local hurling team and led by singer Eddie Keogh in his barrel-chested baritone: “They’d go raring and tearing and fighting for love/ For the land they call Killeagh and the Lord up above.”
“It’s like Beatlemania,” the pub’s stunned bar manager Emmet tells me, squeezing past to draw another pint of Guinness. Outside, around 1,500 fans are clamouring for Kingfishr to emerge for an acapella session. The gardai (police) turn up to tell them to leave, to no avail. Just your typical Monday evening for a band at the forefront of a massive resurgence in Irish trad (traditional) music.
