WEST Belfast indie rock band The Shan Vans have announced their upcoming new single due to be released this Friday, which will also coincide with their Saturday night slot for the last day of Féile na Carraige.

The band finished their music video last week in collaboration with West Belfast artist Stephen McGrath. It was filmed entirely on the Falls Road and in the Falls Park, Belfast City Cemetery and Bog Meadows.

Frontman Jake Óg Mac Siacais explained the inspiration behind the new song 'This Is Our Religion'.

“All religions came from nature originally and focus on the circle of life and the regeneration process," he said. "We know religion and spirituality draw their symbolism from nature and that’s very much the case in Ireland with the rivers, the lakes and trees. 

“The song is inspired by the writings of Máirtín Ó Cadhain, the visionary Irish language writer and activist who said if you lose the Irish language, you lose the story-telling aspect of our culture and the connection to the land.

"His writings were critical of neo-liberalism before the term was coined and he said we couldn’t have our own national identity without our own language otherwise we’d just be feeding off the markets of the bigger state to the east and become a little Britain.

“We wanted to look at the role of nature in indigenous Irish beliefs and to say that as fellas in West Belfast, modern religion doesn’t dictate who we are and it’s not the label we want to be painted with. The other inspiration was Henry David Thoreau and his book ‘Walden’ and Ralph Walso Emerson’s essay ‘Nature’ from 1836. We wanted to express some of their thoughts on humanity and nature and how it all fitted together.”

INSPIRATION: Jake said the song was inspired by Thoreau, Emerson and the writings of Máirtín Ó Cadhain
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INSPIRATION: Jake said the song was inspired by Thoreau, Emerson and the writings of Máirtín Ó Cadhain

Jake explained that the current environmental crisis affecting Lough Neagh had brought the issue sharply into mind in recent months and led the band to reflect on how something as important as the lough was effectively stolen from the people through colonialism.

“We’ve all been thinking a lot lately about the crisis at Lough Neagh and how colonialism has robbed this place of its relationship with the land and with nature.

“In terms of Lough Neagh, The Earl of Shaftesbury, or the absentee landlord of Lough Neagh, looks at our lough only as an ‘investment’, and through eyes with such a narrow field of vision, you could never see the true value of Loch nEachach, the lake of Eochu."

Jake added: “We’re seeing the Israeli-Zionist colonisation of native land, putting in an apartheid system and forcibly displacing Palestinians. It should be front and centre of current debate and it isn’t.

“Systematic oppression with the intent to maintain domination constitutes a crime against humanity. The Palestinian people have the right to resist by all means. Israel, as the colonial aggressor/power, has no right to claim the right of self-defence.

“Palestinians have their land taken, their olive trees torn up and their streams cemented over. It’s very similar to what happened in Ireland wherein the coloniser actively destroys the indigenous people’s relationship to the land.”