Cliffords frontwoman Iona Lynch talks Cork, creativity and gender disparity on Irish radio
Fresh off their UK and Ireland tour, a summer playing massive support slots and festival sets, and the release of their new single ‘Marsh’, lead singer of Cork band Cliffords Iona Lynch sat down with Sarah Gill to talk about the band’s whirlwind year, songwriting, Sing Street, and sexism in the Irish music industry.
A little over a year ago, I saw Cliffords playing in Cyprus Avenue during RTÉ’s Sessions from Oblivion alongside I Dreamed I Dream, The Love Buzz, and Iris, all of whom were at the time up-and-coming Cork bands to know about. By that point, Cliffords were about a year and a half on from their first official gig (UCC Battle of the Bands of course), and in the intervening 12 months, their star’s been on a pretty rapid rise.
“It’s been a crazy year,” Iona Lynch, the band’s frontwoman reflects. “I think in a way, your body doesn’t quite catch up with you. I don’t know when I’m going to process that we played Glastonbury. We just kept working and didn’t have time to step back and consider how different our lives are now to how they were last year. It’s a blessing that we got to keep the ball rolling.”
The band—made up of Iona on vocals and guitar, Gavin Dawkins on bass and trumpet, Harry Menton on lead guitar, and Locon O’Toole on the keys—just rounded off their UK and Ireland tour with a gig in Cork’s City Hall, which Iona has dubbed the scariest of her career thus far. “We’ve done shows to much bigger crowds, we’ve supported Queens of the Stone Age with about 15,000 people there but that didn’t feel as scary because there’s only so many people your brain can handle,” she explains. “But in Cork, we knew everyone, so the volume of people felt very real.”
Before tours and Glastonbury and the Battle of the Bands that would kickstart it all, before a handful of teenagers watched Sing Street for the first time and began practicing in earnest in their garage, there was a young Iona with one great passion in life: Taekwon-Do. Bet you didn’t think I’d say that.
“When I was 15, all I wanted to do was do Taekwondo for Ireland,” Iona recalls. “I tore my ACL and didn’t know what else I could do. My mom found this thing called Voice Works in Cork, and I had this amazing woman called Dora as a vocal coach. She was the first person that told me I could do this as a job, and I remember that so clearly. I couldn’t believe that.”
Always a musical theatre kid (she threatened to recite Hamilton from start to finish during our phone call), Iona also credits her dad’s robust record collection for introducing her to the greats, i.e. Kate Bush. The first iteration of Cliffords was born when Iona was in fifth year, and having grown and stretched and taken different shapes before emerging from the chrysalis in their current form, Cliffords float between a dreamy, ethereal musical landscape and a much more propulsive, assertive sound.
That contrast is evident in their lyrics too, moving from soft vulnerability and introspection to direct confrontations. “To me, songwriting is the best therapy I can get,” Iona says. “It’s the thing that makes me feel most myself. It’s such a scary world and it’s so stressful being alive, and writing lyrics really helps me get my thoughts in a row.”
“I feel like I don’t know what I think or who I am until I start writing lyrics. It sometimes feels like it’s coming from somewhere else, but it’s coming from a place inside that can be quite dark, that I mightn’t look at so often. I also find it very satisfying. Writing a song is like finishing a jigsaw when you haven’t seen the box.”
You could trace lines from Cliffords to Wolf Alice, Smashing Pumpkins, boygenius, or closer to home, NewDad and The Cranberries, but what makes Cliffords all the more unique are their reference points. In true Corkonian fashion, Cork and its many landmarks serve as touchstones in many of their tracks. Middle aged dads in the UK or teenage girls in Eindhoven, they’re belting out every word, shouting out Cork city street names and places from their childhood.
Ireland has this vast, diverse music scene, but Irish radio seems to only want to play one thing. I don’t understand it, because it’s not representative of what’s present here at all.
“What I love most in the world is when someone takes a completely different meaning from the lyrics I wrote. Once you release a song, you have to realise that it’s not yours any more. It’s serving other people as it needs to serve them.”
Listening to their lyrics, it’s clear Iona has a poet’s heart. Sure, each band member has a list of sonic influences a mile long, but it’s in the books and films and media they consume that the story comes into focus. “A lot of my lyrics come from books, I’m a big reader. ‘My Favourite Monster’ is basically a Frankenstein rip off. It’s one of my favourite books of all time, I think it’s beautiful. I wrote a few songs about Cléo from Cléo from 5 to 7, which is a beautiful French film by Agnès Varda that is all about your perspective of yourself and your reflection and vanity and your true self.”
“What really inspires me the most is Blindboy. I’m an obsessive Blindboy listener, and his way of looking at creativity and his curiosity for things and his attitude towards the creative world opens you up. He’s a proper seanachaí. The world is very depressing right now, and being able to protest that by finding fascinating, beautiful things in the darkness and not shy away from that feels like a lifeline.”
A truly compelling frontwoman, Iona looks to Debbie Harry and CMAT as key inspirations in this regard. “As a performer, I can get in my head, thinking I’m being too much, which may be an Irish thing, but any time I see CMAT, I remember I’m a theatre kid and I know how to perform. In many ways, she’s one of my biggest inspirations,” Iona says.
Fashion as a form of expression is something that’s becoming increasingly important to the band, with Iona opting to don a Keffiyeh at their Queens of the Stone Age gig. “Fashion is a language that I’m trying to learn,” she says. “I’ve always had my own aesthetic growing up, but being on stage is interesting because it really does matter. For this tour I wore a lot of A?ine King, who’s an amazing Irish designer. The fashion coming out of Ireland is absolutely amazing, and it’s such an inspiring art form. In many ways it’s like playing dress up. When you’re on stage you get to play into a persona, and I love being able to be this elevated, different version of myself.”
While in college, Iona wrote her dissertation on sexism in the Irish music scene, a topic made all the more pertinent now that she’s working within the space.
“It’s complex, because in one way it’s getting better, but we also seem to be forgetting to keep talking about it. I’m still seeing these lineups that have no female or non-binary acts at all. There’s a feeling that we did the whole diversity thing a few years ago. Music should just be diverse, it’s for everyone.”
We talk about Linda Coogan-Byrne’s annual ‘Why Not Her?’ statistics, which serve to highlight the extremely dismal radio play of Irish women on Irish airwaves. “Ireland has this vast, diverse music scene, but Irish radio seems to only want to play one thing. I don’t understand it, because it’s not representative of what’s present here at all. I adore Sinéad O’Connor and The Cranberries, they’re everything to me, but we have great new Irish music that’s getting made every day and it’s not getting played at all.”
“When you’re talking about sexism in the industry, it’s a boy’s club. It’s getting better, but that mentality is still there and talking about it, you do face criticism,” Iona says. “I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t mind annoying men about it because every time I talk to other women or non-binary artists in Ireland about it, they’re still upset about it. Boys in indie bands getting a little bit annoyed is much less important to me than a constant cry of a whole other side of the industry who aren’t getting listened to or aren’t getting respect. The good men in the music scene, they listen and they acknowledge that it must be tough. They don’t see it as an attack on them.”
When we speak, it’s the morning after their set on the Jameson Other Voices Green Street Stage down in Dingle, the best festival of the year, according to Iona. Over the weekend, Dingle’s Green Street transformed into the Jameson Green Street Stage, one of the festival’s largest spaces. All about celebrating the best of Ireland’s thriving music scene alongside international acts gaining adoration around the world, the lineup also included HAAi, JayaHadADream, creative collective NiNE8, Shame, and a DJ set from Mount Kimbie. It was the place to be for the masses down in Dingle.
I ask the singer to share some up-and-comers that we ought to have on our radar. She doesn’t disappoint. “I saw Theatre, a band from Limerick, who are simply amazing. They’re about to go on tour with Gurriers. I’ve been listening to Rua Rí lately. He’s from Cobh and he’s just unbelievable. He makes this out of this world, stunning folk music. Jean Pack is sick. It’s Niamh from I Dreamed I Dream’s project, and she’s really cool, as a person and musically. I saw her in The Roundy and it felt like you’re in New York in the ‘90s seeing a cult classic band. She’s one of those artists who has a whole world built around her.”
Currently in the studio, writing music and melodies, 2026 is shaping up to be a good one for Cliffords. Watch this space.
Photography by Aiesha Wong and BobbyV.
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