Episode Details

They marched peacefully. They were fired on. They sang anyway. This week on the Irish & Celtic Music Podcast #749, sixteen artists remind us that protest songs aren't history — they're a mirror. Dropkick Murphys, Wild Colonial Bhoys, Medusa's Wake, House of Hamill and more. From Diggers of 1649, to Bloody Sunday 1972, to Minneapolis 2026. Some songs don't age. They just find new reasons to matter. -- Subscribe now at CelticMusicPodcast.com!

Amelia Hogan, Dropkick Murphys, Bealtaine, Ed Miller, Black 47, David Rovics, Wild Colonial Bhoys, Eddie Biggins, The Haar, Marc Gunn & The Dubliners' Tabby Cats, The Secret Commonwealth, Redhill Rats, Scythian, House Of Hamill, Medusa's Wake, Melanie Gruben

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0:09 - Amelia Hogan "No Irish Need Apply" from Transplants: From the Old to the New

5:02 - WELCOME

8:14 - Dropkick Murphys "Who'll Stand With Us?" from For The People (Expanded Edition)

12:03 - Bealtaine "Worker's Song" from Factories & Mills, Shipyards & Mines

Written by Ed Pickford in the mid-1970s as a direct response to arguments blaming Britain's economic woes on workers rather than the wealthy. That's a typical tactic that continues today. If we want free and fair elections, we will stop letting billionaires buy our politicians.

The was first recorded by Scottish legend Dick Gaughan in 1981, it's been taken up by everyone from the Dropkick Murphys to The Longest Johns.

16:22 - Ed Miller "Blood upon the Grass" from Generations of Change

In 1977, Scotland traveled to Chile to play a friendly match at the very stadium where, just four years earlier, Pinochet's regime had tortured and killed political prisoners after the 1973 coup. Back in Scotland, a powerful solidarity campaign urged the Scottish Football Association to pull their team from what would become known as the 'Match of Shame.'

Folk singer Adam McNaughtan captured that outrage in his song 'Blood Upon the Grass,' and Edinburgh-born singer Ed Miller later recorded it on his album Generations of Change — keeping this powerful story alive for new generations.

19:16 - Black 47 "San Patricio Brigade" from Rise Up and The Secret World of Celtic Rock

24:18 - FEEDBACK

The Great Hunger in Ireland took place from 1845 to 1852. Irish immigrants migrated to the U.S. They were treated as second-class citizens. There are still newspapers that refer to them as lazy and criminals, thus the "No Irish Need Apply" song at the start of the show.

These were hungry people. They were just looking for opportunities in a new land. Much like the immigrants of today. But they too were treated inhumanely. They were demonized.

So when the Mexican-American War broke out from 1846-1848, many Irish look