Gareth Maguire, lead singer with Fermanagh trad sensation The Tumbling Paddies, spoke to David Hennessy ahead of the band’s upcoming UK shows that include the Páirc festival in Birmingham.
The Tumbling Paddies have just released their latest single, The Single Life.
The Fermanagh trad pop six piece have just played Craic by the Creek festival in the Manchester area and will be back over to the UK for the Páirc festival in Birmingham this weekend.
They will also play at McCafferty’s in Harrow and have just been announced as the headline act for iCap’s Irish Shindig at Electric Ballroom on 26 September with support from The BibleCode Sundays.
They also play the 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin on 6 February 2025.
Made up of Gareth Maguire, Martin Treacy, Oisin McManus, Lee Jones, John McCann and Ciaran Owens, The Tumbling Paddies have been making waves across Ireland and the UK since they came together.
The lads came together playing at traditional music sessions in their local area.
The band started when one of the lads got asked to play music at a wedding, asked the other lads for support and they found they had something together as a group.
Their first gig together at a wedding was a pretty special one and it wasn’t long before they were supporting Beoga on stage although they would have a car accident (that would give the band their name) on the way there.
Known for pulling in younger fans, the band’s performance at the Ploughing Championships went viral on TikTok.
The band are known for tracks like The Way I Am, co- written with Derek Ryan, the band released their debut album of original music The Way We Are back in 2022.
We spoke to lead singer Gareth Maguire while the band were over in Paris last week to play for Team Ireland at the Olympics.
Are you looking forward to Páirc? “We’re really looking forward to it.
“We’re on the Sunday, we’re on with Bob Geldof and Nathan Carter so it’s going to be great. We cannot wait to come to Birmingham, we haven’t played in Birmingham in a few years so we can’t wait to get back to it.”
How did you enjoy Craic by the Creek? “It was great. We were just over there last weekend, or was it the weekend before? The weeks are going so quick now, it’s hard to remember.
“Great night. It’s a great festival. One of the best in England. It was great to be back over and playing in it.”
You have been touring as far away as Australia, how did you enjoy that? “It’s been absolutely crazy.
“It’s been crazy now the last few months and really enjoying it. It’s hard to just get a grip on the whole thing because you do be moving that fast.”
Is it surreal? I get the impression you didn’t foresee a lot of it when you got started?
“Not at all, when we started off, we were playing in very small pubs in our home town and stuff so we never dreamt that we would be playing out in Australia to thousands of people. It was a very surreal moment over in Australia, and even in London we sold out the Electric Ballroom there back in May, there was 1500 people singing our own songs back to us, it was unbelievable.”
You’re coming to Electric Ballroom soon, aren’t you? “Back in September, yes. It’s going to be a great night.”
London’s BibleCode Sundays will be joining you for that one, as well as Pairc, do you know a lot about the boys?
“I’ve heard a lot of great things about them.
“We’re looking forward to meeting them.”
The line- up for Páirc also includes Ruaile Buaile, The Whistlin’ Donkeys and All Folk’d Up, three bands you are good friends with.
“It’s a great line up and hopefully it will be a great weekend, I’d say it will be a fantastic weekend.”
I mention those three bands as I remember they and yourselves did that charity Christmas single, a cover of Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? Did you enjoy doing that?
“Yeah, it was great craic. We never get a chance to meet up with the lads, we only really see them at festivals and stuff for five minutes or so before you go on stage, but it was great to be able to do it with the lads, a great bit of craic and great to do it for charity as well.
“They’re all great fellas. We’re all in and around the same age and stuff so it worked out well and it was great, great to do it.”
Did you get any reaction off Bob Geldof to your cover?
“I’m not too sure, I don’t know now. I’d say he was too busy now to pass any remarks but it was great to do it anyway.”
Well I guess you may get his reaction at Páirc, not only are all four of you on the bill but so is Bob himself..
“That’s right, we’ll all be there. I think the other fellas are on Saturday but we’re on the Sunday with Bob, so it will be great to meet him. I’m looking forward to getting a picture with him.”
What have been particular highlights of what you have done so far? “I suppose Rose of Tralee was a massive one for us now, playing on live TV to over a million people viewing on television on a Tuesday night back in August last year.
“It was an unbelievable moment and of course Australia as well.
“For a small band we started off with a bunch of lads from Fermanagh to be playing in Australia, the whole way around the world to thousands of people was an unbelievable moment, so we’re just taking it every day as it comes.”
You have also appeared on the Late Late a number of times now..
“We were on the Late Late three times last year, I suppose they were sick of looking at us on the telly last year we were on it that much.
“It was a great experience.
“It was unbelievable to do it, we did it both with Ryan Tubridy and Patrick Kielty. We did the New Year’s Eve special so it was great to get meeting them.
“To go from watching the show as children all through the years and then to be on it was very surreal and a great experience.”
And it sounds like you’re in the middle of another highlight being over there for the Olympics..
“We’re going to a soundcheck for the final show tonight.
“We’re after doing the last two nights so this is the third night now in Paris playing for the team Ireland supporters and everybody in Olympic village, so it’s great.
“We’re back home now for four gigs in. It’s flat out now at the minute so hardly time to take a breath.”
You were in Australia for St Patrick’s Day..
“It was really good now. I think that everywhere else in the world seems to celebrate St Patrick’s Day more than Ireland itself.
“Australia was amazing for it, we were in Melbourne on St Patrick’s Day for a festival there in St Kilda so it was great craic and met up with a lot of ones from home and some friends from home so we finished off the Australian tour over there on St Patrick’s Day.
“It was great old craic.”
You are known to have a young following. Do you think it’s because you’re down to earth, normal lads and they can relate to that?
“That’s it, we’re just normal lads and we have a bit of craic and get the crowd going and have them having the best bit of craic they can.
“I suppose we try and relate to the audience with our songs as well. Our songs are kind of just very normal life. We try to relate to the people through the music.
“We have a new song, brand new single that’s called The Single Life, so that will tell a few stories about the lives of many a single man.”
Is it similar to The Way I Am, one of your better known tracks?
“Similar to the way The Way I Am relates to a lot of people too, they go out drinking at the weekends and it’s just the normal kind of lifestyle, that’s the way we kind of approach the songs, something that can relate to the people.”
It was Derek Ryan you wrote that song with, wasn’t it?
“Myself and Derek wrote that during COVID so we did, me and him wrote a few songs during COVID and that was one that came out of it.
“It just worked out really well, we released it then just as COVID restrictions were lifting and it really worked out well for us.
“The crowds were mad to go back out and the song took off.”
Does your crowd go mad for that one at every gig you do? “They do absolutely, it’s done a lot for us now.
“It’s done a lot for us.”
How would you describe your sound? “It’s traditional Irish with a bit of country I suppose and then we do a bit of the modern pop stuff as well, kind of a bit of everything and a bit of the old rock and roll as well so we kind of cater for everyone.”
Who have been your big inspirations?
“The Saw Doctors were a big influence on us and I would be a big Eagles fan.
“We’d all be into the Eagles and the likes of that.
“And I suppose The Dubliners and all the old Irish acts, we kind of take from all genres of music and of course the trad as well.
“We all met each other through trad music so it’s been a big influence on us as well.”
Was it always going to be music for you? Did you grow up very musical?
“We grew up musical alright. I started playing music at 7 years of age and then I was singing and stuff from about ten.
“I always wanted to be a musician, that was a dream of mine.
“I wrote it on a page one time at school, what do you want to be when you grow up? I wrote a full essay on how I wanted to be a singer and then whenever it happened actually, I suppose it was a dream come true.”
You lads always had music but you always had your ‘proper jobs’ as well. In fact, wasn’t it just fairly relatively recently that you quit day jobs?
“That’s right, I was a mechanic there for eight years and Marty worked in a hardware store, Lee was an electrician.
“I was in a garage there in my local town mechanic-ing, working on lorries and machinery and stuff for eight years but then we were gigging so much and getting so busy that you’d be in work and you’d be half asleep, you wouldn’t be getting any work done at all nearly.
“It came to the stage where we just had to bite the bullet and go at it full-time.
“We were glad to have the jobs during COVID. It just worked out lovely for us. It worked out well that everything lifted. It just worked out well that we got to do it and got our chance, you know?”
And what did lockdown do for you? Did it give you more time to work on your sound?
“Absolutely, it actually gave us time to sit back and kind of review the whole thing.
“We learned a new set and stuff and even the songwriting, The Way I Am came out of it and stuff so I think COVID was a blessing in disguise for us, it worked out well. We were that bit older as well, we were more ready for what was to come.”
What interests do you have outside of music. I know you’re at the Olympics and Lee has played GAA for his club and Fermanagh, are you into sports?
“Ah yeah, we’d all be into the sport. We’d all be into the GAA.
“Lee used to play GAA for his team but he had to give that up, I suppose the music was too busy as well but we’d all be into the sport now.
“It’s just I suppose we don’t have time to play it or anything like that but definitely we’d all have an interest in it.”
Where did the name of the band come from? I understand it came from some sort of car accident in your early days. I hope it wasn’t too serious..
“It was actually fairly serious enough. We were going to one of the first gigs we were playing and Ciaran, the banjo player, tumbled the car and it was quite a bad crash actually but thank God no injuries or anything like that.
“We were going to support Beoga in the Ardhowen Theatre in Enniskillen.
“The name The Tumbling Paddies just kind of came out of that, I think.
“Since then we’ve been The Tumbling Paddies conquering the world.
“That’s a long time ago now. That’s about ten years ago, so it is.”
Can you believe it’s ten years? “I can surely with the grey hair, starting to go bald,” Gareth laughs.
In your set you pay tribute to some greats of Irish music that have left us in recent years. You do your own take on Pogues and Cranberries songs.
“Absolutely, We do do them all.
“We do Whiskey in the Jar, the Irish Rover, of course Dirty Old Town as well.
“It’s been a bit of a hit for us now, and then the great Dolores O’Riordan, we did a cover of Zombie as well.
“Yeah, it’s great to pay tribute to them ones and they’re a great role model for us and the younger ones. They’ll never die in that sense.”
You are also coming back to Leeds Irish Centre..
“We played Leeds Irish Centre there in May but we’re actually back in it now on 1 November, and we’re in Edinburgh on 31st October, and then we’re in Southampton there on 2 November so we’re going to be in England loads now over the next few months and the next year we’re in it nearly every second weekend, hopefully England be a great new market for us.”
Is it fun to come over? “Absolutely, I love the crowds in England. They’re a great listening crowd. It’s a great buzz when you’re playing over there.
“We enjoy meeting everybody and we’re just taking everything in our stride, and it’s great old craic.”
What’s next? “I suppose England is the next big thing to try and conquer. England is a massive area really, it’s a new audience for us as well.
“In Australia and all that, we were still playing to an Irish audience. It’s England we need to be hitting now.
“Of course we’re meant to be going to America now in August as well so that will be a huge market for us if we can crack that. This is our first time to go now.”
Although you’re doing so much travelling, you have remained based in Fermanagh, haven’t you? “Yeah, we’re all based in Fermanagh. We’re all within a ten mile radius from one another so it’s fierce handy for practice and stuff like that.
“I don’t think we’ll ever move, we don’t be at home too often now but I think Fermanagh will always be home for us.”
The Tumbling Paddies play McCafferty’s in Harrow on 24 August, Páirc festival in Birmingham on 25 August, also iCap’s Irish Shindig at Electric Ballroom on 26 September.
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