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WRITTEN BY
ROBIN MURRAY / FEATURES / 15 · 09 · 2025
“I think it’s important the novelty doesn’t wear off,” says Kingfishr lead singer Eddie Keogh. “We want to hold on to that ‘pinch yourself’ attitude”.
The Irish band have come an astonishingly long way in a short space of time. Just over 12 months ago, Clash caught the trio at Glastonbury, playing an out-of-the-way tent at noon on Sunday morning. To their surprise, it was packed – the spark that lit a fire which still burns.
“We were all a wee bit hungover,” admits Eoin ‘Fitz’ Fitzgibbon. “We’d been enjoying ourselves! We watched the previously band, and it was a wee bit quiet… so we thought, that’s fine. Play, and get out. All good. Five minutes before going, we put our heads round the stage and… it was just packed!”
Clash is chatting to Kingfishr backstage at North London boozer the Faltering Fullback. Famed for its beer garden and its long-standing connection to the area’s Irish community – typified by its seldom-bettered pint of Guinness – the bar is set to hold a very special show by Kingfishr. The band’s debut album emerged mere days ago, and the bleary-eyed group have been thrust here, there, and everywhere promoting it. To say they’re having a blast is an understatement – it’s literally their dream come true.
“Things have changed so quickly,” says Eddie Keogh. “You’re just so frazzled by what’s going on. It’s just good news after good news – we’ve actually banned good news from the green room now… as it’s just so intense!”
The group got together while studying in Limerick, and – as the fates would have it – release day saw Kingfishr back where it all started, playing a colossal show to friends, family, and many, many fans. “It felt like a victory lap, in a sense. And it was poetic, as the album release was moved a bunch of times, it’s a coincidence that it all came together like that,” Eddie marvels.
Band mate Eoghan ‘McGoo’ McGrath is resting on a nearby chair, rousing his energies once more for tonight’s special show. “We’re obviously physically tired,” he notes, “but it’s a dream come true. You make up each day, and it’s like – we’ve been changing our arms for so long with this, and now it’s a real thing. It’s a total privilege.”
A band bonded by friendship, Kingfishr’s journey started almost the minute their studies ended. Completing their final exams, the band were invited to support Hermitage Green at a mammoth Limerick show, symptomatic of the positive, everyone-helping-out nature of the city’s music scene. “We’ve been continuously lucky,” Eddie Keogh marvels, “almost a sketchy, unnerving kind of a way. But I suppose the biggest part of music is that knack of being luck enough to be in on the right moment, at the right place, and the right time.”
He adds: “I guess we’re very, very fortunate to have found each other when we did.”
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Perhaps the most potent example of that right place / right time attitude is the success of Kingfishr’s song ‘Killeagh’. Penned in 20 minutes – essentially to fulfil a promise to a friend – it’s slow burn success has seen the lilting, softly inspiring song become first a local anthem, and then an Irish sensation. Hitting No. 1 in their homeland, it’s a hurling ode, but it’s sense of community and place could well seal its position in the Irish folk songbook for perpetuity.
At that evening’s show, it’s status is evident – the mammoth crowd, spilling out far into the street, know each and every word. It’s a modern day ‘Fields Of Athenry’ – rousing and wonderfully heart-on-sleeve, ‘Killeagh’ feels like it could have been written decades ago, or yesterday.
“So, when I promised a mate I would write it, I didn’t actually tell the lads,” reveals Eoin ‘Fitz’ Fitzgibbon. “It came after a few pints. I was like, it’ll never happen.”
Pushed into fulfilling his promise, the band convened and after 20 minutes or so ‘Killeagh’ came into being – named after the titular Cork village, it finds Kingfishr working instinctually. “It was all unconscious,” Fitz adds. “It was like: this bits goes here, that bit fits there.”
Eddie Keogh still feels it highlights how together, how tight the three musicians are. “I felt it was probably the tightest – narratively speaking – song we’d ever written. It plays out like a nursery rhyme – there’s no fat on it, no piece that could be removed.”
‘Killeagh’ is unapologetically Irish, both traditional in the broadest sense and specific to the band’s own lives. It’s yet another moment of magic from Ireland’s music scene – the week after Kingfishr’s debut, CMAT releases her titanic ‘Euro-Country’. There’s something in the water, Clash suggests.
“It just seems to be an absolute cultural Goldmine, yes, for whatever reason!” Eddie laughs. “The past decade or song in Ireland has been quite chaotic… and I think being able to see into that chaos gives you a well to dip into that maybe not everywhere can dip into. And for sure, Irish people have certainly dealt with an awful lot of chaos.”
Tonight the trio are in London; tomorrow, they’re packing their bags for in-stores around the country, before grabbing their passports for some long-anticipated shows in the United States. “There’s so many shows coming up,” Fitz gaps, “that I can’t quite grasp them all! I know what’s happening this week, and I’ve just been told what’s happening next year, but in between that I’ve no idea!”
Kingfishr are still sketching out new ideas – Eddie Keogh reckons the best place to invent something new is the shower, or the car. “Places you can distract yourself, I guess,” he says with a chuckle. “It’s all about finding those little pockets of time.”
Kingfishr’s debut album ‘Halcyon’ is out now.
Words: Robin Murray