‘Irish identity is more than flags and Galway Girl’: Irish artists call out Ed Sheeran over Palestine row

For many years, Ed Sheeran has made much out of his Irish heritage. The singer-songwriter, 35, was raised in Suffolk, England; his father was born in London to Irish parents, while his mother also has Irish family members. In 2025, Sheeran said he feels “culturally Irish”, having spent many childhood holidays in Ireland and now owning an Irish passport. He’s been known to pop up at trad music sessions in Irish pubs, has posed with pints of Guinness and, to much controversy and dismay, released the Irish-influenced single “Galway Girl” in 2017, with a video starring actor Saoirse Ronan. “I’d say it’s basically my second home, musically,” Sheeran told The Louis Theroux Podcast last year. “I’d say Ireland is the place that I am most successful musically.”

So it must be a blow for Sheeran that some of the loudest backlash over the row surrounding Macklemore and Palestine has come from Ireland itself. Sheeran has been at the centre of a media storm this month over rapper Macklemore being dropped from his tour, after billionaire stadium owner Robert Kraft objected to his public statements about Israel and Palestine, which he apparently told Sheeran constituted “hate speech – not freedom of speech”. In a statement, Sheeran said he was “not complicit” in the censorship and insisted he had no choice in the decision to drop Macklemore.

But that wasn’t enough for Sheeran’s support acts, all of whom dropped out of his tour in support of Macklemore. Interestingly, all of those support acts can also claim Irish roots: singer-songwriter Aaron Rowe was born in Dublin, while the members of Sheeran’s former backing band Beoga hail from County Antrim and Derry in Northern Ireland. Macklemore and Finneas have ancestors from Cork, and Lukas Graham’s frontman’s father was born in Donegal. Unlike Sheeran, though, all of them have a track record of making public statements in support of Palestine. “The best Irish artists have never been afraid to stand up for what’s right in the world,” Rowe told music podcast On the Record in March, in a starkly prescient comment, before setting out on tour with Sheeran.

After Macklemore, real name Benjamin Hammond Haggerty, shared a statement about the row to Instagram, among those supporting him in the comments were Irish hip-hop trio Kneecap, pop star CMAT, singer Nell Mescal, Hozier and Irish trad band The Wran. Meanwhile, Irish radio station Classic Hits Radio pulled Sheeran’s music “for the foreseeable future” following protests from its listeners.

Why has the controversy struck such a chord in Ireland? “I think the Irish people see the genocide in Palestine and can’t help but link it to our own history of colonial violence, national struggle, and British rule,” Karla Chubb, lead singer and guitarist for the rock band Sprints, tells me.

“It’s like a mirror of our past. Some of the same colonial leaders who inflicted violence in Ireland were later sent to Palestine,” she continues. “Forced occupation, displacement, starvation, and sectarian conflict – these were all tactics used in Ireland by the British Empire that we now see being dished out by Israel and the IDF and supported by superpowers such as the United States. We have lived their pain, faced similar traumas, and survived; it is our moral duty not to stand by silently while they now suffer a similar fate.”

When Irish acts and institutions have been among the most vocal critics of Israel’s attacks on Gaza over the years (the death toll this week rose to more than 73,000), Sheeran’s perceived complicity in the censorship of fellow artists is hugely at odds with the Irish identity he claims. Others have cited his support of Jeremy Corbyn, praise for Keir Starmer, opposition to Brexit and statements in support of Ukraine as evidence of him using his platform to share his political views, contrary to his claim of wanting to “maintain diplomacy”.

This backlash in Ireland has arguably been a long time coming. Sheeran’s approach to his Irish heritage has been met by cynicism from many who believe he has used it as a blatant marketing tool. Indeed, Sheeran claimed in an interview with Louis Theroux’s podcast that his former record label, Atlantic, did not believe in the commercial appeal of “Galway Girl”, to which he countered, “The Corrs sold 20 million records… who’s tried it since the Corrs? There’s a huge gap in the market.”

Upon its release, the song was dubbed by The Times as “a brazen cash-in on his Irish heritage which crams more Emerald Isle clichés than you can possibly imagine into 170 seconds”, while The New York Post branded it a “hodgepodge of borderline-offensive Irish cliches”. Sheeran defended the song in a Guardian interview by claiming he wrote it to appeal to “the 400 million people in the world who say they’re Irish, even if they’re not Irish. You meet them in America all the time… and those type of people are going to f***ing love it.”

“You can claim cultural heritage until the cows come home, but identity is a lot more than flags, jerseys, and a mediocre interpolation of ‘Galway Girl’,” Chubb says now. “Artists are trying to tap into an Irish zeitgeist at the moment to make themselves more culturally relevant, but I think they’re underestimating their fans, and the public. Maybe it’s sanctimonious, but we’re a nation of storytellers, rich in history and folklore. We have used our words, music, and arts to speak for ourselves and others for centuries. If you can’t stand by your convictions, if you can’t stand for something, to most people now you’re not worth your salt and you’re certainly not Irish.”

While Rowe has defended Sheeran somewhat, arguing the focus should be on stadium owner Robert Kraft and “the Zionist lobbies trying to silence the voices of people who are shouting about genocide”, he also said Sheeran’s statement “could have been a lot better” and believed Sheeran knows the decision to drop Macklemore “was a mistake”.

Sheeran opened his first concert since the controversy erupted, at the Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, with a statement that condemned both the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023, and the attacks on Gaza by Israel, but stopped short of calling Israel’s actions a genocide. “What happened in Israel, and at the music festival on October 7th was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain,” he told his audience. “What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate.”

Chubb suggests that much of the disappointment and anger aimed at Sheeran stems largely from “frustration born out of an apathy for injustice”, she says. “We are witnessing a genocide unfold before our very eyes, and it seems like those who have the most security, safety and power, are too cowardly to speak out.” An independent United Nations commission of inquiry found that Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute genocide, a charge that the Israeli government vehemently denies.

“It’s disappointing when you have people like Ed Sheeran not using the power they have to say to a booking agent, promoter, or stadium owner, ‘I’m not going to play here. I’m going to find somewhere else I can play’,” Gurriers frontman Dan Hoff told The Irish World this week. “You can’t be an artist anymore and be apolitical, you can’t – you’re putting your head in the sand, ignorant to what’s happening… you’re a chicken. You’re not being an artist. An artist needs to be someone who goes against the system and against the societal norms.”

Many of the most vocal musicians speaking out on Palestine, Chubb points out, have been independent artists who “lack the financial security of a millionaire like Ed Sheeran, turn down shows, sponsorships, and opportunities to use their voice for good and for change”.

“I think it’s important to note though, that while Sheeran is becoming the target of this entire hit campaign, he is not the only one to blame,” she says. “Sheeran at this point in his career is more commerce than a person. Record labels are owned by millionaires, venues are owned by conglomerate brands, and we are allowing corporate greed to inch its way into every fibre of our existence. When we allow our communities and amenities to become shareholder capital, everything will be a financial decision.”

But it is Sheeran’s inaction that seems to be generating the most ire. “Sheeran’s influence in the industry is undeniable, his money countless, and his fame is global,” Chubb says. If someone with that much power is too scared to speak out, what hope does it offer to others? We cannot let the voices of the many be silenced by those of the few in power.”