The Mary Wallopers: Glasgow Barrowland (December 2025) Irish folk-punk return to the Barras for bedlam floor-springing residency (review)

For the third December in a row The Mary Wallopers are playing Glasgow Barrowlands and this time round they are engaging in a five-night residency. The Dundalk band appear to have made quite the impression with the Glasgow audience and playing five nights, the week before Christmas is no mean feat.

The most notable difference with this year’s gigs is the departure of founding member Sean McKenna, who left the band several months ago to pursue a solo career. This does not diminish the performance and the audience roar with approval as the band burst into opener ‘Bould O’Donoghue’. Like many of the Wallopers set this is a traditional song given its own Irish folk-punk twist. 

It’s Friday night and it’s Glasgow so it’s the perfect recipe for an evening of mayhem and that’s exactly what we get. The mosh pit is in full flow by the time the band batter out ‘The Holy Ground’, you can feel the ballroom floor springing to the bounce of the crowd, a tune that’s been performed by countless artists including The Dubliners, The Clancy Brothers and Pete Seeger. 

‘Building Up and Tearing England Down’ is introduced by singer Charles Hendy as a song that highlights ‘immigration works’. Last year when this was played at the Barras you could hear a pin drop, but unfortunately this time round the quieter parts are filled with mass chatter. This is evident with all the acoustic laden songs tonight and is the only blot on an otherwise excellent set. 

‘Streams of Whiskey’, the first song written by Shane MacGowan, when he was in The Pogues, is a regular fixture in the Wallopers live shows and tonight’s rendition gets an extra level of mystique thanks to Spider Stacy, of Pogues fame, joining the band onstage. 

It’s fair to say the one track that never fails, when played in this iconic venue is ‘Cod Liver Oil and the Orange Juice’. A Scottish folk song, it tells the story of a one night stand between ‘The Hard Man’ and ‘Hairy Mary’ and is set in the Dennistoun Palais. It’s one of the best sing-a-longs you’ll witness at the Barras.

Stacy rejoined the band for the encore to which he shouts ‘let’s play a fenian song’. Hendy replies ‘are there any fenians here tonight?’ Queue bedlam and the subsequent delight as ‘Come Out ye Black and Tans’ and ‘The Merry Ploughboy’ are belted out, with Stacy sharing the vocals on both.

With a new album due next year 2026 may be an even more successful year for the Wallopers. Let’s hope the Barrowland tradition continues next winter.

The Mary Wallopers, Glasgow Barrowland, Friday 19th December, 2025 

Setlist:

Devil’s Waitin’

The Turfman from Ardee

The Rich Man and the Poor Man

The Holy Ground

The Banks of Red Roses

Smuggling the Tin

Worker’s song

Gates of Heaven

Rothsea-O

Madam I’m A Darling

The Night the Gards Raided Owenys

Landlord Song

Building Up and Tearing England Down

The Juice

Streams of Whiskey (With Spider Stacy)

The Blarney Stone

Eileen Og

Cod Liver Oil and the Orange Juice

Frost is All Over

Encore

Wexford

Come Out ye Black and Tans (With Spider Stacy)

The Merry Ploughboy (With Spider Stacy)

All For Me Grog