Dedicated to the memory of friend and bandmate Noel Larkin who passed away after a long illness in 2024, Sons of Southern Ulster released their third album Through The Bridewell Gate in July 2025. The album coincided with the release of a documentary ‘Once We Were Punks’ which premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh. The film followed the Cavan post-punk band, charting their journey from teenage gigs in local pubs to a headline show in Dublins Whelan’s in 2023. The band consisted of Justin Kelly’s vocals, David Meagher on guitar, Noel Larkin on drums, and Paddy Glackin on bass. Blending old and new footage, photographs, interviews, and original music, the film breathes nostalgia while juggling integrated themes of place, identity, and belonging. Originally known as The Panic Merchants in the late 1980s, the band briefly brushed with fame, but notions gave way to careers, adulthood and emigration. Decades later, a reunion at a funeral reignited their spark and they returned as Sons of Southern Ulster.
The band released their debut album Foundry Folk Songs in 2015, a warts and all examination of the vagaries, and occasional horrors, of a youth spent in a small border town during the dark days of the 1980’s. It’s a compelling listen, its setting dictating the tone and atmosphere of their music. From the screeching guitars at the beginning of ‘For The Love of Jesus’ proclaiming “got to get away for the love of Jesus” to the glorious imagery of punky ‘Cava Cola’ to the doom laden drums of ‘Sons of Southern Ulster’, the very soul of their experience pours out of the music on this album.
Their second album Sinners and Lost Souls followed in 2020, the vocals of Justin Kelly clearer and with an expansion of their sound but still eloquently describing their community and the characters within. If observational punk was a genre Sons of Southern Ulster would be right up there, using heavy basslines and static fuelled guitars to extol the tension of a border town in Ireland. ‘Ms McDonagh’ is heart-breaking and ‘Stubby Yellow Fingers’ says so much in the title alone, whilst at the same time adding a scratchy funky beat to the soundscape. But it is ‘They Say I Live in the Past’ which is the track that must be listened to from this album.
“This record is in memory of our friend and bandmate, Noel Larkin (1965-2024). A true Son of Southern Ulster. It was a privilege to have known you. Until we meet again.”
Sons of Southern Ulster released their third long-player Through the Bridewell Gate online and via CD in 2025. Dedicated to Noel Larkin, the band expanded their sonic world yet again with the use of trumpets, keyboards and organ. With themes including alcoholism on ‘My Affliction’, suicide on ‘Who Loves Ya Baby’ and even the unrequited love of ‘Royal Breffni’ it puts the pressures and challenges of the human existence as its centre point, but with a sprinkling of humour too, life is not black and white after all. The album is a fitting tribute to their friend and bandmate, who I’m sure would be proud that Sons of Southern Ulster’s journey is not finished just yet.
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