“Ehm, Just Back To The Music…”

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From top: Radie Peat of Lankum; Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín; Lankum video for The Granite Gaze

This morning.

On RTÉ Radio One’s Today with Seán O’Rourke.

Singer Radie Peat, of Lankum, sang The Granite Gaze just after Mr O’Rourke finished an interview with Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín.

Following her performance, Mr O’Rourke and Ms Peat had the following exchange after he asked her about folk songs and their use as protest songs.

Radie Peat: “I am thrilled to play that song after Peadar Tóibín there because it’s basically, yeah, it’s a protest against some of his views. So I’m pretty, pretty glad I got to play it.”

Seán O’Rourke: “Ok, well, we’re not going to engage in electoral …”

Peat: “Oh no…”

Later

O’Rourke: “Your name Peat, as in Radie Peat, it’s associated with a very long-running, sadly no longer there, Peat’s on Parnell Street.”

Peat: “Yeah.”

O’Rourke: “But it gives you, I suppose, an identification with this great capital city of Dublin. Because it was an institution there for how many generations in your family?”

Peat: “So it was three generations. It would have been my great-granddad WB Peat founded that. Yeah, so it was very sad, very sad to see it go, you know.”

O’Rourke: “And I read somewhere that every time you come back from, say you’re foreign touring, you just notice something different, not all of it that you appreciate or would approve of, in just the streetscape and the shape of the capital?”

Peat: “Yeah, I’m finding it really shocking. It’s not one building, it’s entire blocks just seem to be missing. I spotted another two just yesterday, just gone. You know, so, I find that worrying, really. And I wonder what’s going up in its place and if it’s like a hotel or student accommodation. That’s not what we need.”

O’Rourke: “Just on that thing, yeah, I read that you’re not mad keen on the amount of student accommodation that’s being built but I mean every year, every autumn we, on this programme and others, we’re reading about students just struggling to find somewhere to live.”

Peat: “Yeah but that’s part of a bigger problem that there’s like a housing crisis and a rent crisis and the rents are too high. You’re not going to fix that by building student accommodation that no one has the possibility to buy.”

O’Rourke: “Yeah, yeah.”

Peat: “That’s not going to work. You need to build social housing, you need to sort out, like there’s bigger problems there than students not being able to afford, families are homeless, that’s a bigger problem.”

O’Rourke: “Yeah, ehm, just back to the music…”

Ms Peat is taking part in Imagining Ireland: Speaking Up, Singing Louder at the National Concert Hall on Sunday, February 9.

She’ll also be a special guest when Beak play at the Button Factory on Thursday, February 6.

Listen back in full here

Previously: You May Like This

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36 thoughts on ““Ehm, Just Back To The Music…”

  1. Paulus

    “Pizza parlour”…electronics shop surely…unless there was a pizza parlour as well?
    But surely Radie would know – though she doesn’t seem to have corrected O’Rourke

    1. Mick

      Came here to say that exact thing.
      I always thought it was “Peats of Parnell Street”, but maybe it was “Pizza Parnell Street” all along.

      Changed now, I see.

      1. Spaghetti Hoop

        I’d open a pizza place there just to use the vintage Peats radio ads. People would come just to check it out. Genius.

    1. Rob_G

      I mean, anyone can make a mistake of course, but god love him but Bodger has not got the first clue about the anything on the northside…

  2. Grace

    Ha yeh, Peats could sell you a stereo and a pizza at the same time – nice!
    What an epic business model – how did it ever fail

  3. Col

    “Yeah, ehm, just back to the music”
    Did he seriously say that? Musicians aren’t allowed discuss such matters?

    1. Rob_G

      I’ve heard RTÉ radio programmes where, once one candidate has been referred to by name, the presenter hurriedly names all of the other candidates in the name of balance.

      Also, I while I enjoy the music of Lankum, I genuinely couldn’t give a fig what they (or any other musician, to be fair) thinks about current events.

        1. Rob_G

          I know.

          But my eyes still glaze over when Bono starts talking about American politics, even though I enjoy boppin’ along to ‘Party Girl’.

        1. Rob_G

          Indeed; I would prefer to learn about their political stance that way, rather than them holding forth on this and that.

      1. Fearganainm

        Unless you regard Lankum’s music as some kind of background elevator music – or you’re an innocent listener like the John’s Mills character Michael in the fillum ‘Ryan’s Daughter’ – then surely you’ve noticed that the very songs that they select to sing, either their own compositions or borrowings from the songbooks of others, are infused with politics? From the historic past to current affairs the subject matter of Lankum’s music is shot through with political perspectives. They don’t try to hide it and nor should they have to.

        1. Rob_G

          I know.

          I can enjoy listening to RATM while being broadly in favour with global capitalism, I can enjoy listening to the Dubliners without supporting physical-force republicanism, and I can enjoy the music of Lankum without endorsing their dismal ‘arra the town is dying, Dub-lin is a kip’ outlook.

          I’m not suggesting anyone should hide anything; I said that I don’t really care to hear musicians talking about politics. Radie is perfectly entitled to discuss her views, but equally I’m entitled to express the fact that I don’t find this that interesting.

          1. Fearganainm

            If you imagine that The Dubliners had any grá for the promotion of physical force republicanism then you do indeed belong in the ‘Michael character played by John Mills in ‘Ryan’s Daughter’ category of listener. ‘Twould seem that your filters are blocked. And that you haven’t really been listening to Lankum very much/carefully.

          2. Rob_G

            I must have misunderstood ‘The Foggy Dew”; perhaps it was indeed a paean to constitutional nationalism.

    1. Rob_G

      I don’t know; do RTÉ presenters typcially mention their spouse’s employment?

      (Apart from that d’ose, D’Arcy)

      1. Otis Blue

        It would be appropriate to mention where a conflict of interest arises. Also a good idea to absent oneself from a discussion, if necessary in order to remove perceptions of bias or lack of objectivity.

        Should apply to Miriam O’ Callaghan as well.

        1. Rob_G

          That would in practice be any interview with any politician then, surely?

          I don’t know if you listened to SOR ‘s interview with Maria Bailey, but I don’t think anyone could accuse him of pulling any punches on account of his wife’s position in that one.

  4. Charger Salmons

    Jeez, I wish they hadn’t gone back to the music.
    Listening to it is like having your teeth drilled by a blind leper.

  5. Slightly Bemused

    I was sorry to see Peats close. I went away for work, came back and it was gone. On behalf of a grateful community, I would like to thank Radie and her family for the treasure that was Peats of Parnell Street. I still have the first CD player I bought from there.

    1. Spaghetti Hoop

      It was a treasure. Saturday mornings were very busy, yet the Peat-ers were so generous with their tech advice and product knowledge.

      1. Paulus

        “D’ya have one-a the tings with de two prongy yokes ot it dat goes inta the socket so as to attach the other thing”?

        Jeez they earned their keep listening to that all day!

    2. Daisy Chainsaw

      I bought a video camera I’m the early 90s on the never never from Peats. 36 monthly payments and I was going to be the next Spielberg… 3 payments in and my flat was robbed including said camera. I had no insurance of course so had to pay for 2 and a half years for something I barely used.

  6. Denise Dolittle

    I love Lankum but this Bonoesque pontificating they do is a real turn-off. Tóibín was actually talking sense for most of that and on she rolls with this rude and ignorant comment. I’d bet she didn’t even listen to him and knows feck about about him and Aontú other than the abortion stuff. I can make up my own mind on such things without the virtue signalling thanks Radie.

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