{"id":615373,"date":"2026-09-05T14:34:28","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T14:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/615373\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T14:34:28","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T14:34:28","slug":"mik-pyro-and-republic-of-loose-will-go-down-in-history-as-irish-musical-legends-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/615373\/","title":{"rendered":"Mik Pyro and Republic of Loose will go down in history as Irish musical legends \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last weekend at a soupy and sodden Electric Picnic<\/a> there was a glorious moment when the setting sun broke through the clouds, treating the waiting crowd at the main stage to a brief golden hour bath of amber and gold hues. CMAT<\/a> burst out a little later, rousing the crowd to belt out her iconic Eurocountry bridge: \u201cAll the big boys, all the Berties, all the envelopes, yeah they hurt me.\u201d She had introduced the song, a lament about the financial crash and disastrous decisions that led Ireland to economic ruin in 2008, with a speech about her hopes for the future of Ireland, isolating the last line of that bridge: \u201cI know it can be better if we hound it.\u201d <\/p>\n

If there was a golden hour before the Celtic Tiger issued its last roar, it was probably 2006. It was a cracker of a time to be young and working in media in Dublin. I had just landed a dream job as a journalist on the newly legal Phantom radio station. Wallets around the city were full and while the canaries might have been singing, they couldn\u2019t be heard over the sound of gigs, festivals and 100 per cent mortgages being signed off on. I didn\u2019t have much money, fresh out of college and sharing a flat with two friends, but what I did have was spent on live music and double vodkas and Red Bull. The Irish music scene was vibrant with bands such as Director, Delorentos, Bell X1 and Future Kings of Spain, and festivals were popping up like dandelions \u2013 Indiependence in Cork and Castlepalooza in Tullamore debuted in 2006. <\/p>\n

That summer solidified my love of Republic of Loose. The large ensemble formed in Dublin around frontman Mik Pyro and several musical associates in 2001. By 2003 they had released their debut album, This is the Tomb of the Juice, and were already regarded as one of the best live acts on the Irish scene. Hit singles Comeback Girl and You Know It came in 2005, and by 2006 they were on their second album, Aaagh! That summer they played a now legendary set on the main stage at Oxegen at 2.30pm in the pouring rain, drawing a huge crowd that descended into euphoric chaos when \u201cThe Loose\u201d played Break, a reggaeton-inspired banger whose filthy lyrics got the song banned by a radio station in South Africa after it made the charts there. <\/p>\n

I was in that crowd at Oxegen that day, sweating and going berserk in my plastic poncho. There\u2019s a video of the performance on YouTube. One commenter says: \u201cI was about three rows from the front waiting for some band later. Never heard Republic of Loose before and they came on and tore the place a new arse. Cheered the whole place up, got everyone dancing and helped us forget that we were soaked to the bones. Thanks ROL.\u201d <\/p>\n

Twenty years later, last weekend, Mik Pyro played Break on The Salty Dog stage in the woods at Electric Picnic and I lost my mind all over again. Sarah Breen, my writing partner and fellow Republic of Loose fanatic for two decades, spotted him on the line-up for EP and we made it our business to be there. We weren\u2019t the only Pyro-maniacs there to pay our respects. I kept hearing \u201che\u2019s a legend\u201d and the old chant of \u201cLoose! Loose! Loose!\u201d as he and his large band powered through impressive solo material and a number of Republic of Loose classics. <\/p>\n

Pyro has been pursuing several things since The Loose disbanded in 2014, notably sobriety and solo music. In a candid interview with Andrew Lahart\u2019s podcast Bulletproof Dad, Pyro (given name Michael Tierney) makes references to being \u201coff his head\u201d or \u201cpartying more than everyone else\u201d before revealing the extent of his addiction. He achieved five years of sobriety following a treatment programme, but the loss of both of his parents derailed his recovery. He\u2019s now back on a positive path, telling Lahart that it was either give up the drink or face death. <\/p>\n

I had tears in my eyes listening to the interview, thinking Pyro and Republic of Loose were somehow both of their time and before it. His beautiful voice, musicianship, charisma on stage, earnest beseeching of the crowd to \u201cjump a bit, will yiz? Come on, move for us\u201d is still there. He will go down in history as one of our musical legends and I hope even more people sit up and take notice. A Republic of Loose reunion has been teased a few times, and I\u2019ll be front and centre obeying every order to \u201cDance, yiz pricks\u201d. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last weekend at a soupy and sodden Electric Picnic there was a glorious moment when the setting sun…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[893,12421,25772,93,631,61,60],"class_list":["post-615373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-cmat","tag-electric-picnic","tag-emer-mclysaght","tag-entertainment","tag-for-you","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}