NEW: Éadach T-shirts

ÉADACH Erin Harp T-Shirt in Sugarhouse Entry, Belfast.

Back in the day, printed T-shirts were a staple part of my wardrobe & the wardrobes of anyone else who ‘liked music’ (read: snobby music nerd, although may not look it) When I moved to Belfast, this area was our punk stomping ground, our flat was on Donegall St & Giros/ The Warzone Centre & the Front Page just down the street. Merch stalls at gigs were the best for T-shirts as you could get the nichest (read: rarest/ coolest) tees there. As a general rule you don’t wear the band T-shirt to the gig, you wear something similar but more niche so the person in the band sees it and thinks you’re cool, we could be friends. This doesn’t apply if it’s your mates’ band, then you wear the band tee to be supportive. Anyway, over the last few months I’ve been working on a print about 1790s Belfast & the vibe of that reminds me so much of that punk time in Belfast, in exactly the same streets 200 years before. That & the graphic style of the new print meant I had to give tees a go, so I roped in a bunch of mates to trial them over the last month and they are good to go!

The harp is a small part of a larger print, this inspired by The United Irishmen insignia, which alongside the 1792 Belfast Harp Festival (held around the corner from here in the Assembly Rooms to celebrate & revive the dying tradition of Irish harping) combines cultural preservation with political radicalism.

With the Éadach shop on Skipper Street in Belfast in the Merchant Hotel, in the heart of the United Irishmen’s stomping ground, I’m more obsessed than ever with this class part of our history. ‘New strung & shall be heard’, (which was their slogan) feels relevant right now as more people, especially the younger generation, are embracing & taking ownership of Irish identity, culture, music, arts, language more than I remember in my lifetime, in a confident, contemporary & inspiring way. These photos are in Sugarhouse Entry, where the United Irishmen used to gather in one of Peggy Barclay’s Taverns (the other in Crown Entry) This Entry was closed off for years & it’s class to see it reopened now. It’s so exciting that Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann will be coming to Belfast this summer, in the very same streets.

The right hand side of the harp is based on Brian Boru’s harp, which is in Trinity College, Dublin. For the left hand side I added Celtic feminine symbols, inspired by the strong women and female characters of this island which I hope will inspire us towards a more matriarchal society & increasingly progressive, equal society and away from the patriarchal & controlling structures that defined this island for so long.. be that colonisation or church.

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