A New Voice in Irish Trad Music
A band from west Belfast is breathing new life into the oral singing tradition and native language of Ulster. Huartan, an Irish language tradtronica group, was formed in early 2023 when its three original members—trad musicians Stíofán Loughran, Catriona Gribben, and Miadhachlughain (Múlú) O’Donnell—started playing music together in the Hawthorn Bar, just off the Falls Road. Since then, the trio has evolved into a five-piece with the addition of anthropologist Anna Poloni and dance choreographer Micheál Ó Coigligh, quickly gaining attention on the local music scene for their distinctive fusion of Irish trad music and electronic soundscapes.
“I was amazed by the power singing these songs brought to the Hawthorn Bar every Thursday night,” Stíofán recalls of the band’s early days.
And off the back of Covid, he had started exploring Ableton Live (a digital audio workstation) and wanted to get into electronic music, so he asked the girls to work with him to put down some of the songs. The very first tune they did was Bean Udai Thall.
Catriona came into the studio, put it down, and Stíofán went off and tried layering it with some beats and synths. He got very excited about it because it sounded so new and different, so they just rolled with it. Next thing they knew, a friend of theirs caught wind of what they were doing and she happens to run a festival down in Ráth Chairn called the Féile na Gealaí and she asked if they’d have 40 minutes of music. They lied to her and said yes.
“So we pulled everything we’d been working on together and fleshed it out to create a 40-minute set, and that’s really what sparked it.”
While the name Huartan ties into the band’s beginnings at the Hawthorn Bar, it is also a conscious nod to Ireland’s druidic heritage, underscoring the group’s drive to reclaim cultural traditions while challenging colonial and capitalist frameworks.
“In the Ogham language, the word for Hawthorn is Hua, and that led us down this rabbit hole of research into the world of druidic Ireland. And the huartan is a magical tool which relates to the Hawthorn tree, but nobody actually knows what it is or what it was used for, which we thought fitted us perfectly,” laughs Stíofán.
“It kind of feeds into the creative side of things. Once we got the name, we were able to tap into all kinds of different Irish myths and folklore, which has been a real treasure trove of ideas for us to explore.”
Huartan’s focus on pre-Christian culture and original sound, paired with their unique pagan aesthetic, has clearly resonated with listeners in Belfast and beyond. Last year, they sold out the city’s Empire Music Hall with their Samhain Celebration show titled Death to the Empire, as well as winning the Amhrán na Laoch Irish Language competition, run by Hot Press, for their track Bean Udai Thall.
Stíofán believes the band’s popularity is, in part, a result of people’s growing desire to reconnect with their Irish heritage.
“There’s a bit of a zeitgeist at the minute,” he explains. “We’re seeing it right across the board; there’s a renewed interest in re-engaging with Irish culture, whether that’s language, art, history, or music. And I do think it’s almost a rebellious thing because these are things that for so many years have essentially been oppressed or devalued and taken from people, and now they’re starting to realize that these are the things that make us who we are.”
“Our language, history, and culture form our identity; they are so core to who we are and why we’re here, so I think reconnecting with that is something lots of people are searching for, including us—we’re also on that journey. For us, a big part of the band is about reconnecting with these ancient songs and putting them in as many people’s minds as possible so they connect and re-engage with them.”
With that sense of purpose driving them, Huartan is now preparing for their biggest Belfast show to date at the Mandela Hall, marking another major milestone in their journey. The gig will coincide with the release of their latest single, offering a taste of their upcoming debut album, which the band says captures the evolution of their sound over the past two years.
“We’re very excited about the Mandela Hall gig. We’ve really thrown everything at it, especially because it’s so close to Halloween—it’s the one time of the year where we’re not the only weirdos dressed up in costume,” laughs Stíofán.
“We’re going to be joined by a bunch of other incredible musicians on the night. We’re going to have a light show and all of these amazing visuals that we haven’t been able to do in other venues. So there’s lots of new things that we’re looking forward to testing out, and fingers crossed it will all go well—it’ll either be amazing or a total disaster, so let’s hope it’s the former.”
Huartan will be performing at the Mandela Hall on October 24. Tickets are available via Ticketmaster.ie.
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