Irish language group IMLÉ who performed at Áras Mhic Reachtain in North Belfast recently are a talented trio mixing “different musical styles and artforms together” in a unique way “never seen or heard before in the Irish language musical sphere".

Founded by Dublin-based musician and producer Cian MacCárthaigh, IMLÉ have worked with a range of musicians and most recently Róisín Seoighe and Ríona Sally Hartman joined the group performing in Belfast.

Speaking with the Andersonstown News Cian MacCárthaigh and Róisín Seoighe spoke about the establishment of the group and the new sound it brings to the Irish language music scene.

“We’re from all over the place. IMLÉ is a collective instead of a band that I set up years ago. I’m based in Dublin. Different people play all the time. For the gig in Belfast and the two main people playing in IMLÉ at the minute are Róisín Seoighe from the Gaeltacht in Conemara and Ríona Sally Hartman from Dublin originally but living in Wexford,” says Cian.

The group were founded in 2016 with different musicians looking at different styles of music including rock and hip-hop all in Irish.

“The idea was a bit like The Gorillaz. We would have different singers on each song and produced with different people such as MC Muipéad and Fergus Moloney. We launched our first album in 2017 called IMLÉ,” added Cian.

“Our sound now is electronic with elements of R&B and Hip-Hop. It used to be a lot more rock. What we moved away from was using real drums and instead using beats.”

Róisin take up the story: “I have been on and off working with Cian from the band since 2020. I like working with other artists, it’s fun to bounce ideas off people. I play a mixture of trad accompanying myself on guitar and I play concertina in terms of trad music but it’s more singing and song-writing that I do.

“We’re in Armagh in a couple of weeks, it’s good to sing some of the songs from the new IMLÉ album especially because we didn’t really get a chance to perform too many of the sings live yet. It’s great to get back after Covid.”

Cian continues: “We’re writing new songs at the minute. Róisín has her own solo album. We’re going to write more tunes as well. The music is always as Gaeilge, that’s how it started. We’re not against singing in another language like English or anything else. We like to collaborate with a lot of rappers, it doesn’t have to be in English it could be groups from other countries like French or German or Scots-Gaelic.”

Founder Cian MacCárthaigh playing guitar
2Gallery

Founder Cian MacCárthaigh playing guitar

Róisín agrees. “It’s great for people like myself who have had Irish from the day I was born to take that and make art out of it and have it in a contemporary way and not just the same kind of traditional stuff. I think it’s important for language to develop and for the next generation to have something they can listen to."

“We’ve been up in Belfast before but that was the first time for me, Ríona and Róisín up on stage in Belfast together. IMLÉ have always gotten great support whenever we’ve played Belfast, so hopefully it won’t be three years again before we’re back” adds Cian.