LAVINIA BLACKWALL
and NEIL FARRELL
with SJ McARDLE
THE CRUEL FATHER
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SOPHIE COYLE
THE GIRL FROM SPARK’S LAKE
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new singles
out 29th May 2026
(Dimple Discs/Bring Your Own Hammer)
Two new singles have been released by Dimple Discs/Bring Your Own Hammer (BYOH) today. They continue an ongoing series for which musicians are tasked with creating songs rooted in the work of 19th century Irish writers or events of that time.
‘The Cruel Father’ by Lavinia Blackwall and Neil Farrell with SJ McArdle is based on an 1860s ballad that recounts the tale of Richard Guinness Hill. He and his wife were travelling from Dublin to London when their son was born, and it is alleged that the birth would deprive Guinness Hill of part of his wife’s fortune. He attempted to get rid of the child a few days after its birth by leaving it with a woman in Drury Lane, London, but at the age of two he was ‘rescued from a loathsome den in the purlieus of Drury Lane, after having been suckled and fed from its birth among thieves, prostitutes and beggars’. Guinness Hill was charged with wilfully falsifying the register of the birth, but was never convicted.
‘The Girl from Spark’s Lake’ by Sophie Coyle is a tells the tale of ‘A.M.’, whose father asked magistrates to send her to a reformatory school in the early 1860s. The girl was described as being of a ‘roving and unsettled disposition’ and was accused of theft and keeping bad company. She was sent to Spark’s Lake reform school in Co. Monaghan, Ulster but fled during prayers to look for ‘bird nests and bluebells’. BYOH is grateful to Dr Geraldine Curtin (author of ‘Young Offenders: Children and Crime in Ireland, 1850-1908’) for sharing the source upon which this song is based.
‘The Cruel Father’ will be included on an upcoming BYOH label compilation entitled ‘From The Tombs’, a barnstorming double album set featuring 21 songs that takes the listener on a journey through the history of crime, law and order in Ireland and its diaspora in the 19th century. Participants include Sean O’Hagan (Microdisney, High Llamas), Luke Haines (The Auteurs, Baader Meinhof, Black Box Recorder), Damian O’Neill (The Undertones), Michael J. Sheehy, Kelsey Michael, Brigid Mae Power, SJ McArdle, Miriam Ingram, Fergal Lawler (The Cranberries), June Miles-Kingston (the Mo-dettes, Everything But The Girl, Fun Boy Three, the Communards), Marcus Holdaway (High Llamas), Bernard Butler (Suede, McAlmont & Butler, The Tears), Terry Edwards (The Higsons, The Near Jazz Experience), Hugh Bunker (Fatima Mansions), Lavinia Blackwall (Trembling Bells), Anne Gilpin (Morton Valence), Neil Farrell (Toasted Heretic), Audrey Riley, Adrian Crowley, Lisa Lambe, Tony Higgins, Michael Walsh, Linda Buckley, Cian Nugent, Inni-K and NQL.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
LAVINIA BLACKWALL
Lavinia Blackwall is best known for her work as a singer and arranger with the critically acclaimed Trembling Bells, contributing to seven celebrated albums. Since launching her solo career with ‘Muggington Lane End’ in 2020, she has toured extensively and recorded several live sessions for BBC 6 Music. Her second album, ‘The Making’ (2025), garnered universal acclaim, earning stellar reviews from Uncut, Shindig!, Songlines, The Scotsman and more.
NEIL FARRELL
Neil Farrell is an Irish musician, songwriter and producer from Galway. He was a founder member of the band Toasted Heretic, whose four albums released between 1988-1994 yielded a Top 10 hit as well as rave reviews all over Europe. He has more recently issued the solo albums ‘A Trip to the Sewers of Paris’ (2018) and ‘A War About An Egg’ (2022), both under the moniker of The Melancholy Thug.
SJ McARDLE
Stephen Joseph McArdle is a songwriter, musician and curator, known for his 2022 album ‘Old Ghosts In The Water’. Its accompanying song cycle/stage show PORT was described by The Irish Times as “an impressive song cycle, intriguing and evocative, rooted in folk but coloured by expansive and imaginative arrangements”, with BBC Ulster adding “it has all the ingredients of great folk songs”. SJ’s songs and performances have been featured in radio, film and television and he has toured and recorded extensively in Ireland, mainland Europe and North America.
SOPHIE COYLE
Sophie Coyle is a singer-songwriter, illustrator and horticulturist based in Dundalk, Ireland. Her 2018 debut album, ‘Blame Me for the Storm’, was nominated for the International Songwriters Award and Choice Music Awards. It includes the gothic-folk song ‘Delirium’, which features in the horror film ‘Spiderhole’. Its 2024 follow-up, ‘Cuentista’, is a set of songs in Spanish and English chronicling a journey through South America. Coyle has recently worked as a creative facilitator for Women In Waves, a local project encouraging young women to consider a career in music.
