Cork band Cliffords return with new song, "Rod For My Back"

"Rod For My Back" follows Cliffords' single "Marsh" released last November. The band have spent most of 2026 writing and recording their debut album and relocating to London, and are fresh from a UK tour supporting The Mary Wallopers.

"'Rod For My Back' is a story about being misunderstood and commodified for a culture in which we always felt like outsiders," says vocalist Iona Lynch. “As a queer woman who didn’t fit the conventional norms of GAA clubs and the Catholic Church, I never quite felt 'Irish' enough."

“When we started touring around the UK for the first time, we were quickly put into a cultural box, as were the rest of our Irish peers," she continues. "It felt as if our unique identities as Irish people were distilled down to an idea of culture which we never felt a part of, as if we had been washed away in a new wave of G-splitting Plastic Paddy enthusiasts.”