Singer CMAT says ‘fake version' of Irish culture is being ‘built up' by English

Country singer CMAT has said a 'fake version' of Irish culture is being 'being built up by Americans and English people and claimed for themselves'.
The 29-year-old, whose real name is Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, is part of a number of Irish acts to rise to popularity in recent years alongside the likes of indie rockers Fontaines DC and rap trio Kneecap, which has prompted a surge in interest in Irish culture in the UK and US.
Speaking to Glamour UK, the Crazymad For Me singer said of the situation: 'I didn't relate to any of it, like, why am I seeing Claddagh rings everywhere? The GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) jerseys? Why is everyone pretending we had this exact same childhood?
'There's this very romantic vision of Ireland but I grew up in a place where it's not very fun to grow up. This fake version of our identity was being built up by Americans and English people and claimed for themselves.'
The singer is due to release her third album Euro-Country later this year, and says the record features a song about a performance at Radio 1's Big Weekend – when the BBC had to switch the comments off due to people body-shaming her – called Take A Sexy Picture Of Me.
She told Glamour UK: 'That song is about getting fat-shamed on the internet all the time. I wanted to really dig into commercial attractiveness and how women are pruned into this marketable product until they turn about 27.
'I genuinely didn't care that people got so angry that I thought I was sexy, but it forced a lot of 15-year-old girls who love CMAT, who might even be bigger than me, to witness a level of vitriol against a woman's body against her will.'
The full interview with CMAT can be read in the May digital issue of Glamour UK which is online now.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Yahoo

5 hours ago

• Yahoo

Kneecap Glastonbury slot ‘not appropriate', says Starmer

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said he does not think Kneecap's planned Glastonbury Festival performance is 'appropriate'. He made the comments after Kneecap member Liam Og O hAnnaidh appeared in court on Wednesday, after being charged for allegedly displaying a flag in support of proscribed terrorist organisation Hezbollah while saying 'up Hamas, up Hezbollah' at a gig in November last year. In an interview with The Sun, Sir Keir was asked if he thought the trio should perform at Glastonbury, to which he replied: 'No, I don't, and I think we need to come down really clearly on this. 'This is about the threats that shouldn't be made, I won't say too much because there's a court case on, but I don't think that's appropriate.' It comes after Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said she thought the BBC 'should not be showing' Kneecap's performance at the festival next week. Mrs Badenoch said in the X post, which was accompanied by an article from The Times that claimed the BBC had not banned the group: 'The BBC should not be showing Kneecap propaganda. 'One Kneecap band member is currently on bail, charged under the Terrorism Act. 'As a publicly funded platform, the BBC should not be rewarding extremism.' The Tory Leader of the Opposition has previously called for the group to be banned from Glastonbury, and last year Kneecap won a discrimination case against the UK Government in Belfast High Court after she tried to refuse them a £14,250 funding award when she was a minister. Kneecap took aim at Mrs Badenoch in their latest single, The Recap, released just before their headline set at London's Wide Awake festival in May, with the song mocking the politician's attempts to block their arts funding and the Conservative Party's election loss. The BBC should not be showing Kneecap propaganda. One Kneecap band member is currently on bail, charged under the Terrorism Act. As a publicly funded platform the BBC should not be rewarding extremism. — Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) June 21, 2025 On Wednesday, O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was cheered by hundreds of supporters as he arrived with bandmates Naoise O Caireallain and JJ O Dochartaigh at Westminster Magistrates' Court in 'Free Mo Chara' T-shirts. During the proceedings, a prosecutor told the court the 27-year-old is 'well within his rights' to voice his opinions on Israel and Palestine, but the alleged incident at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, north London, is a 'wholly different thing'. O hAnnaidh was released on unconditional bail until his next hearing at the same court on August 20. Following the hearing, the rapper said: 'For anybody going to Glastonbury, you can see us there at 4pm on the Saturday. 'If you can't be there we'll be on the BBC, if anybody watches the BBC. We'll be at Wembley in September. 'But most importantly: free, free Palestine.' The charge came following a counter-terrorism police investigation after the historical gig footage came to light, which also allegedly shows the group calling for the deaths of MPs. In April, Kneecap apologised to the families of murdered MPs but said footage of the incident had been 'exploited and weaponised'. In an initial post in response to the charge, Kneecap said: '14,000 babies are about to die of starvation in Gaza, with food sent by the world sitting on the other side of a wall, and once again the British establishment is focused on us. 'We deny this 'offence' and will vehemently defend ourselves, this is political policing, this is a carnival of distraction. 'We are not the story, genocide is, as they profit from genocide, they use an 'anti-terror law' against us for displaying a flag thrown on stage. A charge not serious enough to even warrant their crown court, instead a court that doesn't have a jury. What's the objective? 'To restrict our ability to travel. To prevent us speaking to young people across the world. To silence voices of compassion. To prosecute artists who dare speak out. 'Instead of defending innocent people, or the principles of international law they claim to uphold, the powerful in Britain have abetted slaughter and famine in Gaza, just as they did in Ireland for centuries. Then, like now, they claim justification. 'The IDF units they arm and fly spy plane missions for are the real terrorists, the whole world can see it.' Formed in 2017, the group are known for their provocative lyrics in both Irish and English and their merchandise. Their best-known tracks include Get Your Brits Out, Better Way To Live, featuring Grian Chatten from Fontaines DC, and 3Cag. A BBC spokesperson said: 'As the broadcast partner, the BBC will be bringing audiences extensive music coverage from Glastonbury, with artists booked by the festival organisers. 'Whilst the BBC doesn't ban artists, our plans will ensure that our programming will meet our editorial guidelines. Decisions about our output will be made in the lead-up to the festival.'

Los Angeles Times

9 hours ago

• Los Angeles Times

Why this author wrote about creative women as they aged: ‘They made much of less'

In this week's newsletter, we have a chat with Susan Gubar, whose new book, 'Grand Finales: The Creative Longevity of Women Artists,' profiles seven creators who found a second wind in their advancing years. We also look at recent releases reviewed in The Times. And a local bookseller tells us what's selling right now. Seventeen years ago, Susan Gubar was handed a death sentence. A distinguished professor emerita of English and women's studies at Indiana University and the co-author (with Sandra M. Gilbert) of 1979's 'The Madwoman in the Attic,' a groundbreaking work of feminist literary theory, Gubar in 2008 was staring down a terminal cancer diagnosis. A clinical trial involving an experimental drug prolonged her life and gave her the impetus to tackle a new project about seven artists — George Eliot, Colette, Georgia O'Keeffe, Isak Dinesen, Marianne Moore, Louise Bourgeois, Mary Lou Williams, Gwendolyn Brooks and Katherine Dunham — who entered a new phase of creative ferment and productivity as they grew older. I talked to Gubar about her new book, the myth of old age and the persistent stereotypes attached to female artists who may be perceived as having outlived their usefulness as creators. (Please note: The Times may earn a commission through links to whose fees support independent bookstores.) Can you talk about how the book came about? In 2008, I was told that I had 3-5 years to live with late-stage ovarian cancer. The standard treatment was ineffectual. But then in 2012, my oncologist encouraged me to enroll in a clinical trial that was experimenting with a new drug. After nine years in the trial, she then urged me to take 'a drug holiday' since long-term use of the medication could cause leukemia. I am still on that holiday. An unanticipated old age made me appreciate the wonderful gifts longevity can bestow. In researching your subjects, what do they all share in common? All of my subjects are artists who experienced the losses of aging. They needed canes and wheelchairs and helpers while they suffered the pains of various diseases and regimens. One coped with blindness, another with deafness and still others with the loss of intimates. Yet in the face of such deficits, they used their art to exhibit their audacity, mojo, chutzpah, bravado. They're exemplars of Geezer Machismo. All of your subjects are women, who have a much tougher time in terms of earning respect and attention as they age. Can you speak to the obstacles they had to overcome as they reinvented themselves as artists in their advanced years? The stereotypical old lady is invisible or risible, but we know that many elderly women thrive. My old ladies did not approach their life stories as prime-and-decline narratives. Instead they reinvented themselves. In part, they managed to do this by changing their objectives as artists. They moved from the stage to the page or from elite to popular forms. Some of them underwent religious or political conversions that energized their last years. They fully understood the losses of old age, but they did not settle for less. Instead, they made much of less. What's interesting about these artists is that — contrary, I must admit, to what I thought would have been the case — these women were supported by men who became their benefactors, and helped them to negotiate their careers. Quite a few of the women that I write about were helped by much younger men in their lives, who became facilitators. This is true for George Eliot, Colette, Georgia O'Keeffe, Louise Bourgeoise, Mary Lou Williams and others. Williams, the great jazz pianist, was helped by a Jesuit named Father O'Brien, who helped her get control of her copyrights. Georgia O'Keeffe, in contrast, has been championed by photographer Alfred Stieglitz, but she had to leave him in her midlife to establish her autonomy late in life. He was very controlling, even though he definitely established her reputation. She was aided in her later years by a man young enough to be her grandson. You are an octogenarian, and writing a book isn't easy, as you know. Where do you find the inspiration and the strength to keep going as a creator? What keeps me going is what kept my subjects flourishing in their seventies, eighties or nineties. Any sort of creative activity involves expression, which is a great antidote to depression. It may take the form of sculpting, painting, playing an instrument, teaching a dance routine, making a quilt or a garden, establishing a park or a prize, you name it. Without my two current writing projects, I'd be lost. Even (or maybe especially) in our dismal political climate, ongoing creative projects make each day an adventure. Heather Scott Partington reviews 'Fox,' Joyce Carol Oates' mystery novel about a murdered pedophile. 'Fox has the bones of a potboiler but is supported by the sinew of the author's elegant structure and syntax,' writes Partington . Leigh Haber weighs in on Jess Walter's book 'So Far Gone,' calling the author a 'slyly adept social critic [who has] clearly invested his protagonist with all of the outrage and heartbreak he himself feels about the dark course our world has taken.' Daniel Felsenthal thinks Geoff Dyer's memoir 'Homework' is somewhat meandering, yet 'bursts with working-class pride, a fond and mournful belief in the possibility of the British welfare state.' And Paula L. Woods talked to five mystery writers about the inspirations for their new books. This week, we're talking about hot books with Nat Eastman, the manager of Chevalier's Books on Larchmont Boulevard in Hollywood, the oldest independent bookstore in Los Angeles. What books are selling in the store right now? We've been moving Percival Everett's 'James' and Ocean Vuong's 'The Emperor of Gladness' hand over fist. Thanks to BookTok, Asako Yuzuki's 'Butter' has become a mainstay on our bestseller list. We also had the honor of hosting Bryan Byrdlong for a reading from his debut poetry collection 'Strange Flowers,' and we've been handselling it right and left ever since. What are your perennial sellers? Kaya Doi's series of picture books, 'Chirri and Chirra,' is a smash hit around here. Joan Didion and bell hooks are reliable customer favorites as well. As an indie shop, though, we love the deeper cuts too — whether that's 'Água Viva,' literally any Yoko Ogawa work or something from our zine collection. Are you seeing more young people buying books? Despite all the reports about declining literacy rates among young folk, our children's section makes up a quarter of our sales. We really try to carve out a space for the next generation of readers with programs like storytime, a middle-grade book club and summer-reading punch cards. To us, messy shelves are annoying everywhere except the kids' section!

Forbes

10 hours ago

• Forbes

Post Malone's Greatest Hits Album Soars On Every Chart

Post Malone's The Diamond Collection jumps nearly 100 spots on the Billboard 200 while reentering ... More the Top Streaming Albums chart at No. 18. INDIO, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 16: Post Malone performs at the Sahara Tent at 2022 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival weekend 1 - day 2 on April 16, 2022 in Indio, California. (Photo byfor Coachella) Post Malone has several singles and albums on the Billboard charts this week, – which isn't unusual for him – and his presence across various rankings demonstrates his multi-genre appeal. While he recently (and quite successfully) ventured into country, the singer-songwriter originally got his start in hip-hop, later expanding into a mix of pop and rock music. A collection of his earliest smashes, ones which have been certified diamond for moving 10 million units (or more) in the United States alone, is both rebounding and surging in popularity, as Americans continue to stream everything Malone has ever released, regardless of genre. The Diamond Collection Soars Malone's The Diamond Collection, a greatest hits compilation, is experiencing a major resurgence on the Billboard charts. This frame, the title leaps up three rankings and returns to the Top Streaming Albums list. It reappears as one of the most-streamed full-lengths and EPs in the U.S., reentering that tally at No. 18. The Diamond Collection has now spent 68 weeks on the streaming tally and previously peaked at No. 11, so its return inside the top 20 on a 50-spot roster is especially notable. The Diamond Collection's Consumption Nearly Doubles Luminate reports that in the past tracking period, the compilation moved 21,600 equivalent units, which marks an increase of just under 90% from the week prior. That type of gain helps the hits-packed project rocket from No. 116 to No. 26 on the Billboard 200. Post Malone's Fastest-Rising Album This Week Notably, The Diamond Collection stands as Malone's highest-rising title on the Billboard 200 this frame, jumping almost 100 spots in one enormous gain. It lands a single rung ahead of F-1 Trillion, his first country effort, which dips from No. 25 to No. 27. Meanwhile, Beerbongs & Bentleys falls to No. 192, sliding nearly 20 spaces. Post Malone Returns to the Top 10 The Diamond Collection also returns to the top 10 on two other Billboard rankings. The set leaps to No. 5 on the Top Rap Albums list and No. 7 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.