I clearly remember my mam saying to me and my two brothers when we were growing up: ‘You’re only English because you were born here.’ And with a mother from Mayo and a father from Co Meath, there’s not a drop of English blood in me. I recently had a child with my Scottish girlfriend, and there’s no English blood in him at all.
“I feel as Irish as the next person. The first music I was ever exposed to was the rebel songs the bands used to sing in the Irish club in Manchester. Do you know, I think that’s where Oasis songs get their punch-the-air quality – from me being exposed to those rousing rebel songs. It was all rebel songs and that godawful Irish country and western music.
“I grew up an Irish Catholic. I remember my mam would only buy Irish butter and milk. But then, during the 1970s with all the bombings, our local co-op wouldn’t stock Irish produce, so my mam went elsewhere. I clearly remember my parents coming back from the Carousel Club in Manchester, the Irish club, and telling me about how all the cars in the car park had been vandalised by an anti-Irish crowd. It was scary.”
“The happiest time of my life will always be when I was eating at a Brunch bar – do you remember those? – in Charlestown in Co Mayo. Brunch bars and Silvermints will always have a special place in my heart because you could only get them in Ireland. We used to spend six weeks every year in Charlestown. It was magnificent. We were coming from a council estate in Manchester – and we lived at the end of cul-de-sac – to these 360-degree panoramic views. We loved it as kids. We could go fishing in the river or help with bringing in the hay.
“One of my earliest-ever memories is of going to the well by the house in Charlestown to get the water, because we had no running water there when I was a child. I still go back at least once a year, and even just the smell of the place immediately brings me back to those happy, happy childhood days.
“I still have a very strong sense of identity, a sense of being a working-class son of Irish parents. That’s why I could never be like Pete Doherty and go out with dirt under my fingernails, a top hat on and my shirt hanging out. Working-class people take pride in their appearance. They’d never go out looking like that.
“One of the worst things that ever happened to me was when I said that thing about Blur [in an interview in 1995, Gallagher said he hoped Damon Albarn and Alex James would “get Aids”, which he later retracted and apologised for]. My mam rang me up when she saw that and she was really angry and she said to me ‘I didn’t bring you up to talk like that,’ and that stung me so much.
Also both brothers are massive fans of the Wolftones
I’ve met Peggy at one of his gigs and she is definitely the stereotypical Irish Mammy.
Noel on the [Late Late](https://youtu.be/5R94Dp-RZR4) in 1996 (says he’s half-Irish, not that he can’t change his mind).
Legend is a word bandied about to easily these days but the Gallaghers are both musical legends and Icons.
what? he wears butcher apron coats and plays butcher apron guitars?
What the story?
Noels a fukn tory
From Duleek, Co Meath
As tories go, he’s one of the better ones
He is in his arse Irish .He’s Anglo Irish . He has plenty of Irish influences and heritage and good for him .
Yet had a guitar he played for years that was covered in the Union Jack 🙄
Hey we don’t want the fucking idiot☘️he’s English
I never thought much about it until i said to my two cousins that they were English.
They both were born and grew up in England to an irish mum and English dad. But they said no we’re Irish.
The irish identity persists and i was blown away.
Irish is a state of mind.
I had no idea
He’s 115% Irish I heard
Just on the football/ethnicity and immigration debate, I think this anti racism campaign during the last Euros was interesting.
15 comments
[“Irish”](https://guitarplayer.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/noel_maineroad.jpg)
Another quote from a few years back
I clearly remember my mam saying to me and my two brothers when we were growing up: ‘You’re only English because you were born here.’ And with a mother from Mayo and a father from Co Meath, there’s not a drop of English blood in me. I recently had a child with my Scottish girlfriend, and there’s no English blood in him at all.
“I feel as Irish as the next person. The first music I was ever exposed to was the rebel songs the bands used to sing in the Irish club in Manchester. Do you know, I think that’s where Oasis songs get their punch-the-air quality – from me being exposed to those rousing rebel songs. It was all rebel songs and that godawful Irish country and western music.
“I grew up an Irish Catholic. I remember my mam would only buy Irish butter and milk. But then, during the 1970s with all the bombings, our local co-op wouldn’t stock Irish produce, so my mam went elsewhere. I clearly remember my parents coming back from the Carousel Club in Manchester, the Irish club, and telling me about how all the cars in the car park had been vandalised by an anti-Irish crowd. It was scary.”
“The happiest time of my life will always be when I was eating at a Brunch bar – do you remember those? – in Charlestown in Co Mayo. Brunch bars and Silvermints will always have a special place in my heart because you could only get them in Ireland. We used to spend six weeks every year in Charlestown. It was magnificent. We were coming from a council estate in Manchester – and we lived at the end of cul-de-sac – to these 360-degree panoramic views. We loved it as kids. We could go fishing in the river or help with bringing in the hay.
“One of my earliest-ever memories is of going to the well by the house in Charlestown to get the water, because we had no running water there when I was a child. I still go back at least once a year, and even just the smell of the place immediately brings me back to those happy, happy childhood days.
“I still have a very strong sense of identity, a sense of being a working-class son of Irish parents. That’s why I could never be like Pete Doherty and go out with dirt under my fingernails, a top hat on and my shirt hanging out. Working-class people take pride in their appearance. They’d never go out looking like that.
“One of the worst things that ever happened to me was when I said that thing about Blur [in an interview in 1995, Gallagher said he hoped Damon Albarn and Alex James would “get Aids”, which he later retracted and apologised for]. My mam rang me up when she saw that and she was really angry and she said to me ‘I didn’t bring you up to talk like that,’ and that stung me so much.
Also both brothers are massive fans of the Wolftones
I’ve met Peggy at one of his gigs and she is definitely the stereotypical Irish Mammy.
Noel on the [Late Late](https://youtu.be/5R94Dp-RZR4) in 1996 (says he’s half-Irish, not that he can’t change his mind).
Legend is a word bandied about to easily these days but the Gallaghers are both musical legends and Icons.
what? he wears butcher apron coats and plays butcher apron guitars?
What the story?
Noels a fukn tory
From Duleek, Co Meath
As tories go, he’s one of the better ones
He is in his arse Irish .He’s Anglo Irish . He has plenty of Irish influences and heritage and good for him .
Yet had a guitar he played for years that was covered in the Union Jack 🙄
Hey we don’t want the fucking idiot☘️he’s English
I never thought much about it until i said to my two cousins that they were English.
They both were born and grew up in England to an irish mum and English dad. But they said no we’re Irish.
The irish identity persists and i was blown away.
Irish is a state of mind.
I had no idea
He’s 115% Irish I heard
Just on the football/ethnicity and immigration debate, I think this anti racism campaign during the last Euros was interesting.
https://preview.redd.it/sk39l4ww4l1d1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c4e71c3875e1eadd2df81b5b5a3ef338bd89a295
If you were Irish you’d correct people that it’s Galla-her not Galla-ger