IWD Take Five: Áine Tyrrell’s Top Five Gratitude’s That Shaped Her Voice!
As we continue our celebration of incredible female artists this International Women's Day, we're excited to sit down with fearless Irish artist and multi instrumentalist Áine Tyrrell! Her solid stage presence blends spoken word, hip hop, acoustic guitar, and ancient melody with an unmistakable voice and energy that is both electric and intimate. Her music fuses traditional Irish roots into a fierce and wild sonic, leaving you charged in potent fragile humanity. Áine is taking us through her top five gratitudes for what has shaped her voice. Check out her picks below!
Catch Áine Tyrrell live at Byron Bay Bluesfest (Thu 2 Apr - Sun 5 Apr 2026), playing on both Thursday and Friday! Grab your tickets below.
Words by Áine Tyrrell:
ÁINE is the Irish goddess of summer and queen of the fairies, a legacy of light, radiance, goodhearted-ness, and splendour, as well as sovereignty, joy, and song. I was named after my Nana Anne born in 1916, the year of our rising in Ireland. I am honoured to carry her revolutionary spirit as ine, meaning Anne. Both my Nana and my ancestors have held me on my own revolutionary journey from the Burren + Galway to Bundjalung Country to rise into the my own splendour.
When I first arrived on Bundjalung land, I was not fully in my empowered self. I am deeply grateful to the land, the people, the ancestors, and the community who helped me grow back into my voice while having space to connect into honour my own lands, ancestors, and the path that shaped me.
There is something unique learned by never truly being settled, being somewhat on the edge, yearning for belonging, that strengthens your ability to stand in yourself, and grow space and connection to love and be loved in two homelands. A lifetime now defined by always being fite fuaite (interwoven), walking gently enough to see where I fit, finding the majestic in moments, and listening to the lands, a gift to pay forward in full knowing that by being able to connect community in land based resistance and rising through music, we can heal.
As I return to Bundjalung Country, I want to honour how those lands helped me truly grow into my name, my music, my Art, my womanhood, and strengthened me enough to guide me back home after more than a decade to fulfill my role in music on these lands.
Like Burren Wildflowers that grow in between rocks and crevices, I learned a sense of growing roots on borrowed soil very young
Growing up in the Burren in County Clare to a very beloved Galway father with an Irish American mother meant my sense of roots were very light. I spent some of my youth in the Burren, some in America, then onto Dublin and eventually Bundjalung.My deepest connection to a sense of home has always been the Burren for me. A walk amongst those moon rocks with the Atlantic sea slapping your face is home for me , but like the wildflowers from all over the world that grow in that harsh landscape, I can find a place to grow anywhere. After touring AU for a few years on my beloved Bedford Bus, Bundjalung had a sense of home I had not felt yet. The Brunswick River is medicine water, the stunning rainforests sweeping into the sea full of bushtucker, the visit of the whales and dolphins was endless filling of the well.
Finding a way to grow community, roots, and purpose on homelands that aren't your own is not an easy path, but Bundjalung made it flow. Even though the landscape and place is so very opposite to the Burren landscape, it truly made me know how much more alike we all are, than we are different. If your land or people's hurt, so do mine. We are all connected. Learning to love such harsh lands at times with heat, floods and bushfires helped me grow into my name because it reminded me to walk with a sense of awe and unknown. Knowing Mother Nature wins. It reminded to be in awe of her every day even in the decay of winter in the greyness of the Irish landscape. The flowers in the Burren will bloom again in the spring.
Listening and learning from elders on Bundjalung and beyond always felt like being around the table having tea with elders in the Burren or Galway
Arriving on Bundjalung first to sing at Mullum Fest and then Bluesfest with YIRRMAL was a stunning introduction to both Bluesfest and Bundjalung. It quickly brought me to learn and listen to the Traditional owners, Arawkwal mob and very quickly into sisterhood with Delta Kay, her family and so many more beautiful mob who call Bundjalung home. This strong sense of culture on those lands, brought me and my family closer to our own culture. The ability to listen deeply to their yarns on connection was like a hug from the Burren. When I learned how to protect their lands or weaving a new weave or learning about new Bushtucker, it made me so proud to also share my own stories of protecting land, of passing on stories and song, of teaching our weaves.
There is something powerful about connecting cultures in these ways. Our collective joy and connection in our cultural practices continue to be like little seeds growing on many lands.
Growing up with a father as a musician and human rights activist, I first heard the power of music, cultural connection and storytelling through him. I felt the love of land, our language and culture in every breathe of his and learned how to walk in gentle, listening and rebellious ways. The Burren and Bunjalung equally planted the seeds of who I am, connecting me to a lineage of song, language, songlines, and light. To have been able to shared our stories, teanga, and wisdoms on Bundjalung for nearly a decade was an honour and I look forward to many more decades of fite fuaite in my second home.
Listening to the land and diverse community on Bundjlaung helped me find an identify in between the cracks like how the Burren flowers grow
I first arrived on Bundjalung land, not fully in my empowered self as an artist or a woman. I was a single mother of three children, healing my way through music and looking for some roots after much turmoil. As a family of 4, we had taken to the roads, chosen travel as a way of rewriting our trauma into adventure. We were learning to be a unit together, to immerse ourselves in learning by visiting as many corners of this new country as we could to know the pulse of the stolen lands we were walking on, we were building community on the road, and an identity as a touring music family.
But we needed some roots. I learned at this stage to trust my gut instinct and Bundjalung kept calling us back. Setting down roots also felt hard on stolen lands, but I learned to listen deeply to the land, the ancestors, and the community understanding how to step into the responsibility of being a guest on stolen land.
Being a single touring mother also felt hard. But through the guidance of other Artist mamas like Mandy Nolan and the beautiful music community across Bundjalung from the Hussy Hicks to Luka Lesson, I found a path of my own through music. It didn't look like anyone else's, but I found my voice in my road.
Being proud of my Irish culture on lands where many don't know the words or stories I am singing about also felt against the stream, but I learned that wherever I am in the world I have to honour my ancestors for my own sense of being. In doing that on lands so deeply rich in culture, I learned to honour both my Irish roots and the lands I called home, weaving song, story, and ancestry together into music that carries both identities. I found my voice again.
Growing Into my Voice on stages in Bundjalung community + witnessing so many worldclass acts in their power on Bluesfest Stages
A beautiful woman who became a dear friend on Bundjalung, Donna, had told meat my very first show at the Mulum RSL, just how sure she was that the local community would grow in around my music. There were times where I wasn't sure if they would or any community would, or should I even keep going. Something every artist goes through. I am fairly certain that on other lands, I probably would have believed it was too hard, but my sheer stubbornness wrapped in the arms of the Community on Bundjalung would not let me give up. I will always credit this Community for keeping this single mama playing music. Whether it was a small hall, or standing up and being counted at a benefit for something we believe in, the cackle of the Country Witches Association, or local support for crowdfunds, the community mirrored back to me my own emotional journey through music and kept me in the arena.
The most memorable moment that is etched in my heart was the post-flood gig the Hussy Hicks and I did at the Brunswick Picture House, where we all literally still covered in mud and drowning in the smell of mould and vinegar. Julz, Leesa and I weren't even sure how we would get on stage, but we all did as we knew Music was the medicine. When we sang Sunnyside of Life, the room felt the closest to some sort of collective religious experience I will ever come to. We truly were one voice, le cheile. After, as a collective we danced off the intense weeks to the Hussy's tackle box and felt cleaned from the mud we had waded through as a community only a week earlier. We, as the performers, needed to dust off ourselves just as much and wash off the mud and get back to our real work, our purpose, in our d n (calling in life). We were all born to do this in that moment - the space between audience and performer dissolved. And we all found our voices and felt renewed after.
The absolute luck I had to attend Bluesfest for so many of these years (yes a few times on borrowed wristbands (sorry Bluesfest)) is something I will always credit as the best music University course as well as yearly shot of belief to keep staying in the Arena. To see women in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s rocking those stages defied the youth driven industry talk. Patti Smith made me shake, moved cells in my body that continue to move on my path through music in full knowing that the People Have The Power. Allison Russell taught me that vulnerability on stage is a power. Mavis Staples taught me it was cool to drink tea on stage, and to share my stories of fighting for my space. Rhiannon Giddens taught me that knowing and honouring my cultural heritage in music is powerful and joyous to bring through. Lukas Nelson taught me the power of giving everything you have to give in performance. LP taught me how to own a stage. Bonnie Rait taught me how to weave a lyric and rock a guitar as a front woman. My friends the Hussy Hicks taught me to keep putting on great shows, and turning up to the Art and the next gig. Singing with my sister Emily Wurramara + Yirrmal taught me the power of Collaboration across Cultures and lifting each other up.
Loving Two Lands. Polylanderous. Always Fite Fuaite
The Burren to Bundjalung has strengthened my sense of home on so many levels. As I was born with roots light on the soil, I keep walking that way in life. This sense of being between the cracks of space, place has kept me from falling into the heaviness of what could have been my life and instead yearning for the beauty you find in the cracks. It has also kept my music yearning, into a place the defies genres, it fluidly allows the story to come through whatever sound is inviting it in. This has led led to the diversity of singles from my album SINGING OUR WAY HOME and BITSEACH. To love all sides of my expression, to love all my homes, and to show up authentically as me between the cracks is such an honour.
So many never get to feel a sense of home for one place let alone the privilege of intimately knowing two lands, many communities, an endless way of growing in different soil. Our worldwide community are so disconnected from land and culture, with my Art I try to be a medicine for that grief as someone who has learned to navigate on the edge of space. I try walk in the honour of having such abundance in my life and bring this into every part of my voice, activism and Art.
Bundjalung is as much part of my upcoming album MISE IRE (I am Ireland) eventhough the title may not suggest, but the connection of these two lands is the story of Ireland. It is a story of loss, grief, culture, language, home, generational healing, ancestral wisdoms, decolonising, reclaiming, collaborating and connecting.
Returning to Bundjalung after over a decade is a homecoming, a moment to honour and thank how these lands helped me truly grow into my name, ÁINE queen of the fairies. Always was always will be fite fuaite (interwoven).
