With hit songs such as ‘Galway Girl’ and lyrical references such as ‘Down by the Wexford border’ you may be tempted to assume that Ed Sheeran is Irish. Let’s find out whether this is true.
Ed Sheeran was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk. While Ed himself is English, he has Irish heritage. His father, John, comes from a large Irish Catholic family and both of his paternal grandparents are Irish. This explains the inspiration behind Ed’s hit songs ‘Galway Girl’ and ‘Nancy Mulligan’.
As a natural ginger and avid drinker, Ed Sheeran is quite rightly seen as an honorary Irishman by many people. During his teenage years, he would often take to the streets of Galway with his guitar and microphone, but just how connected is the ‘Take Me Back to London’ singer to his Irish roots? Keep reading to find out.
Galway Girl
Back in 2017 on St. Patrick’s Day, English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran dropped the lyric video for his latest single, Galway Girl. Featuring a collaboration with Irish band Beoga, the Irish-folk inspired song was the third single from Sheeran’s then-upcoming studio album, ÷.
Galway Girl went on to become a huge success – it reached the number one spot in five countries, is certified as Platinum in fifteen countries, and the music video has over 480 million views.
But who is Sheeran’s ‘pretty little Galway’ muse?
In an interview with Kirsty Young for the BBC, Ed clarified that the first line of the song (“She played the fiddle in an Irish band”) is about Beoga member, Niamh Dunne:
“It was based on the fiddle player in Beoga, Niamh. She’s married to an Irishman, a friend of mine, I had the band in my house for an extra day so I was like ‘what can I write about? She plays the fiddle in an Irish band… right, cool, let’s write a song about that’. She inspired the first line but the rest of the song isn’t about anyone I just made up a story”
So it seems the story behind ‘Galway Girl’ is not quite the drunken tale we were expecting. In this case, you may be wondering if Ed was inspired by the 2000 Steve Earle song of the same name? The answer: no.
“I actually tried to find another lyric. I did Wexford Girl and Clonakilty Girl and Cork Girl… none of them worked. But the whole point of folk is taking inspiration from the past and making something new – so people will just have to deal with it”, he told Kirsty.
Nancy Mulligan
‘Galway Girl’ isn’t the only ode to Ireland featured on Ed’s third studio album, ÷. ‘Nancy Mulligan’, one of the album’s bonus tracks, is a tribute to Sheeran’s paternal grandmother who was born in Gorey, County Wexford.
In a track-by-track explanation of Divide, Ed told Zane Lowe:
“It’s about my grandma and grandfather actually. One was Protestant and from Belfast and one was Catholic and from Southern Ireland. They got engaged and nobody turned up at the wedding […] and had this sort of Romeo and Juliet romance which is like the most romantic thing.”
Interestingly, Ed didn’t get his grandmas approval of the track before the album was released. Nancy’s first time hearing ‘Nancy Mulligan’ is caught on camera during an interview with RTÉ. While she seems proud of her grandson, Nancy jokingly says “I don’t care. As long as I’m not there while he’s playing it”.
As a child growing up in the south of England, being in a different country to his Irish grandparents didn’t stop Sheeran from forming a strong bond with them.
“I come from an Irish family, spent most of my childhood summers and birthdays and Christmases in Ireland listening to trad music bands”, Ed said during a conversation with Kirsty Young.
It seems the Irish references on Ed Sheeran’s ÷ paid off. In 2019 the album was named the fifth best-selling album of the 21st century.