CORMAC O CAOIMH
DARK / LIGHT
stream | Bandcamp
SJ McARDLE and
LISA LAMBE
IN THE DARK
stream | Bandcamp
new singles
out 14th August 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 history of crime, law and order in 19th century Ireland.
‘Dark / Light’ by Cormac O Caoimh tells the tale of John Connery from Waterford county. For most of the 1830s Connery and his brothers were were frequently charged with crimes that included murder and manslaughter. However, it wasn’t until 1838 that they were successfully prosecuted and sentenced to fourteen years transportation to Australia. Once there, John married an Irishwoman and worked at a reservoir near Sydney. In 1851, he participated in the Australian gold rush, but came into conflict with locals in the gold fields and was badly beaten. He died that July.
‘In the Dark’ by SJ McArdle and Lisa Lambe is rooted in a court case heard in Fermanagh in 1833. Margaret McDermott, described in a local newspaper as a ‘shameless harridan’, was arrested on the accusation of pickpocketing eighteen shillings from John Monaghan, an ‘idiotic looking wretch’. They apparently knew each other ‘very well’, with McDermott claiming that she was ‘tipsy’ on the day in question and that Monaghan had brought her ‘into a field for an improper purpose.’ The newspaper added that she ‘so confounded’ Monaghan ‘and created such laughter against him as to make an impression on the court that he was not perfectly correct in his conduct.’ She was acquitted.
‘In The Dark’ 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. Aside from SJ McArdle and Lisa Lambe, 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, 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, Tony Higgins, Michael Walsh, Linda Buckley, Cian Nugent, Inni-K and NQL.
