The Mary Wallopers are an Irish folk music group based in Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland. The group originally began as a trio with brothers Charles and Andrew Hendy and their friend Sean Mckenna. As a three-piece ballad group, The Mary Wallopers travelled the length and breadth of Ireland singing & collecting songs. However, they have since expanded to a seven-piece with Roisin Barret, Brendan McInerney, Seamas Hyland and Finian O’Connor.
The Hendy’s grew up around folk music, as children their sister would sing old Irish songs to them and their father was an accordian player. Charles has stated that the bands biggest influence is “reactionary stuff to poverty”. Honesty seems to be the bands rule, as they state that the best songs are the ones that are honest. The band are also influenced by other genres such as punk and hip-hop having mentioned influences such as Grand Masterflash and Jinx Lennon.
The Mary Wallopers built up their fanbase and entertained them by performing on livestreams in the Hendy’s home during lockdown. They first released their EP in 2019 named A Mouthful of The Mary Wallopers which included their incredibly popular single ‘Cod Liver Oil & The Orange Juice’ which has almost reached 1M Spotify streams. More recently they released their single ‘Frost Is All Over’ in August 2022, and have suggested that they will soon be releasing an album.
The Mary Wallopers are about to embark on tour bringing their raw energy to incredible venues across the UK starting in October 2022.
Friday 28th October – Norwich Arts Centre
Saturday 29th October – Hull Polar Bear
Sunday 30th October – Liverpool O2 Academy 2
Monday 31st October – Birmingham O2 Institute3
Thursday 3rd November – Cardiff Globe
Friday 4th November – Leicester Soundhouse
Sunday 6th November – Sheffield Leadmill Steel Stage
Tuesday 8th November – Brighton Komedia (Big Stage)
Friday 16th December – Manchester Band on The Wall