A Loud, Sanctimonious Roar At Those Wrecking This World: An Interview With NYC’s O’Laochra

by Dan Dellechiaie | November 11, 2026

How many times have I listened to O’Laochra’s EP Foclóir? The answer to that question would be the same answer to “How many Smithwicks did you drink last night, Dan?” Too many, but not enough.

So you can imagine how psyched I was when I found out that this Gaeilgeoir punk band were recording new music and were willing to speak with me. I had a craic with O’Laochra in a dimly lit, run-down pub before the release of their new single “All Society Lost.”

Where does your band's name come from? How did you guys meet?

Michael (vocals, lyrics, bass): O’Laochdha is my surname (Leahy). In Gaeilge (Irish), it means “Of Heroes.” So I sorta bastardized the name to make it more accessible as a band name. I also knew most non-Irish speakers would not pronounce O’Laochdha correctly!

I met Egor playing in another band sometime in 2022. He was the guitarist, and I was playing bass. We immediately hit it off and tried fighting each other in a bar to prove who knew how to fight better—Russians or the Irish. Both of us coming from immigrant backgrounds also brought us together. He encouraged me to get my own band going and I asked him to be a part of it. Egor is one of those musical virtuosos who can play anything, so he loves playing punk.

I met Chad as he was leaving a rehearsal room in Rivington that I was going into sometime in 2023. He had just moved back to the east coast from California and said he lived around East Harlem where I was living. So we exchanged numbers and I texted him to meet up a few weeks later. Turns out he was from Philly and grew up in the punk and hardcore scene there playing drums in a load of different bands including Flatwaves. The rest, as they say, is history.

Can you talk about the surrealist streak in your lyrics? I'm thinking of “Drown A Goddess.” What’s your writing process?

Michael: I’m a big fan of surrealist writing (Flann O’Brien, Blindboyboatclub, as some examples). In today’s world, it’s hard not to appreciate, or at least notice, the absurdity of life. People have weird thoughts going through their heads all day. I like to write them down and make songs out of them.

“Don’t Waste My Time” is probably our most surreal song, lyric-wise. It starts with a redundant sentence (“living on borrowed time that’s not mine”) and meanders into more stream of consciousness stuff as the song develops. That one follows a pretty basic punk song pattern and just came out of me naturally, like a beautiful, basic baby.

“Drown a Goddess” was written with more purpose. I wanted to explore Irish mythology more in my songwriting and put a modern bent on it. So the Irish goddess Sionnan (who is said to be the creator of the largest river in Ireland, the Shannon) was my muse for that one. The whole song centers around her search for greater knowledge. She delved too deep into a holy well. It ruptured, causing the river to burst forth from that source and casting Sionnan out to sea. I wanted to juxtapose that with the development of AI today. Humans have a great knack for going too far in our search for something, without much consideration for the unintended consequences.

Who are your influences from Irish music? And who are your influences from punk?

Michael: I hated Irish trad as a young lad just because it was all around me growing up in Galway. When I started going to the Gaeltacht (Irish speaking parts of Ireland), I developed more of an appreciation for it. My biggest traditional influences would be Christy Moore, Luke Kelly & The Dubliners, Dolores Keane, Sinead O’Connor and the Pogues (even though I used to have dreams of Shane McGowan chasing me as a monster when I was a kid). A lot of them were introduced to me by my family in the West of Ireland (h’yup the Cradock clan).

There’s this amazing resurgence of Irish trad at the moment that I take great inspiration from too: the Scratch (who combine metal with acoustic trad elements), the Mary Wallopers, Lankum, Lisa O’Neill. I could go on but these artists are taking Irish trad to a whole new generation and it’s amazing to see.

Ahhhh the punk influences, how long is a piece of string?? I was introduced to punk through the early 2000s pop-punk pipeline (blink 182, Sum 41, Simple Plan, etc.) and then graduated to the “harder” 90s stuff (NOFX, Rancid, Against Me, Bad Religion, etc.). But my first true musical calling was Avril Lavigne. I went to see her in Dublin by myself when I was like 12 hahaha. I like a lot of different music but really love old-school 80s punk too like the Clash, Crass, Dead Kennedys. There’s something more authentic about the music from that era to me: rawer production, rooted in working class communities and spoke out against racism, sexism and classism. I love a catchy pop-punk love song, but it’s important to remember where the punk ethos came from and not just write about individualistic shit.

There are a few Irish bands in NYC: Shillelagh Law comes to mind. But there aren’t as many Irish punk bands. Why do you think that is?

Michael: Blame Irish Americans LARPING as pirates… Nah, just messing :p

I feel there’s an intrinsic tie between Irishness and punk: anti-authoritarian, working class by nature, a slight melancholy. But there’s also a side to Irish culture that I really hate: begrudgery. If someone does something different they’re seen as having “notions”: acting above their class, going against the grain. That was a big block for me to start my own band for a long time. I think there’s more of an acceptance of other rock genres, like metal, classic rock etc., than punk in Ireland and here, but I think that’s changing now.

I could make a comment here on the difference between Irish Americans and first generation Irish immigrants in NYC, but I don’t want to be divisive…

Talk to me about your upcoming single “All Society Lost.”

Michael: This was one of the first O’Laochra songs I finished. Don’t ask why it wasn’t on the first EP. It’s a song about inequality, feeling left behind, and the absolute greed we see in modern society. It was my first year in NYC, and I was blown away by people in $5K suits walking over people begging on the subway for a buck. Just total disregard for those on the bottom rung of the ladder, and more people feel like they’re getting stuck there by the day. I tried to write a nursery rhyme like melody for it to draw the listener in and then the chorus is a loud, sanctimonious roar at those wrecking this world so they can have an extra yacht in the Caribbean. Egor produced and mixed this one for us.

How has your sound changed since your stellar debut EP Foclóir? How has it stayed the same?

Michael: We’ve started working with different producers to broaden our sound a bit, but there’s still a lot of the same bass-heaviness from Foclóir in the upcoming songs. Some are definitely gonna be different though, in style and instrumentation, not just production. You’ll have to fucking listen to it and find out, folks.

Talk to me about your debut album that’s coming out in 2027.

Michael: So far we have about seven songs, I’m hoping to get two more written before wrapping it all up. Aiming for a springtime release next year. We’re making this all ourselves, no outside help. It’ll be a fucking miracle if there are no hiccups for the release, but it’s gonna be ours and that’s all that I want from this. There’s so many special interests in music and streaming now, and the industry in general is just in the gutters. The most important thing to me is to stay as independent as we can, even if it means playing to five people on a Tuesday night.

If you were to cover one KNEECAP song, what would it be and why?

Michael: Ah Christ hahaha. Probably “Your Sniffer Dogs are Shite” because it’s class live. I’m partial to older KNEECAP, so another song I’d love to cover would be “Hood” purely for the whopper chorus.

Alright, same question but Fontaines D.C.

Michael: This is starting to feel repetitive! As a West of Ireland musician, I would never cover a Dublin band like Fontaines D.C. Dublin has an incredible music scene, but some of the bigger bands really suck up all the oxygen. Go listen to Sprints, Gurriers, or Enola Gay for some fresh Irish bops.

You played in my old stomping grounds, Boston, recently. How was that?

Michael: We played at Midway Cafe in Jamaica Plains. The opening band were basically kids so we felt really old and fragile. We killed the set, as usual, and went out in the city that night. Great Guinness in SOME bars of Boston, some real shite in others. Driving home was an absolute joy the next day—thank you, Chad!

What do you think of the resurgence in interest in the Irish language and Irish republicanism?

Michael: This is an interesting one, especially as an Irish speaker living away from Ireland now. I love seeing people learning Irish, even if they have no Irish roots. We saw generations of Irish people being told it was a waste of time to learn their native language because of inept governments and imperialist hangovers. There’s a Pop-up Gaeltacht held in NYC, and I try to attend whenever I can just to chat “coupla focail” with others. I’m delighted to see a renewed interest in it and hope more people pick up the language. Gaeilge abú!

Irish Republicanism (not to be confused in any way with American Republicans) is definitely on the rise, but I hope not in a way that breeds the sort of violence we saw for fifty years in the North. I believe in a united Ireland, but not the sort that would leave behind those in the North of Ireland or make us beholden to capitalist interests in the South (not that that’s been going too well anyway). I have a lot of issues with the Irish government at home, and I don’t believe the current government are capable of bringing unification to the table without selling out some core beliefs. People died of starvation, torture, and bombings to bring about the united Ireland they believe in: thirty-two county, socialist republic that would look after the people, not landlords or special interests.