Music

Ed Sheeran’s favourite trad band release song about homelessness

Irish band Beoga will support Ed Sheeran on his Irish tour

The video for "We Don’t Have To Run" is directed by Alex Gill and produced by Michael Donnelly, and it depicts a situation that is all too familiar in modern Ireland: a mother and her daughter living in emergency accommodation due to homelessness.

Thu May 3 2018 - 09:00

Irish trad and folk band Beoga have released a new single We Don't Have To Run with singer Ryan McMullan on vocals.

The Antrim-based band will kick off Ed Sheeran's gigs around Ireland in the coming weeks.

The band co-wrote international hit Galway Girl with Sheeran in 2017and featured on another track on his album.

The group also performed with Sheeran at Glastonbury to a crowd of more than 150,000.

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Singer and songwriter McMullan, who is from Portaferry in Co Down, has also supported acts including Sheeran and Foy Vanc, and sold out his shows around the world.

The single is the first to be taken from the band’s forthcoming album.

The video of the song, which was directed by Alex Gill and produced by Michael Donnelly, shows a mother and daughter living in emergency accommodation due to homelessness.

It shows the young girl trying to escape her reality by creating a fantasy world that is a “safe place” with her friend.

Gill said the song was a chance to highlight an issue currently prevalent in Ireland.

“The song is about standing up for what you believe in,” he says.

Band member Eamon Murray agrees the song is about solidarity.

“We shouldn’t run or hide from the issues that face us all. To be able to touch on the issue of homelessness in a sensitive way and to have our song as a backdrop for Alex and Michael’s work is an honour,” he says.

Beoga will support Sheeran on stage at his Irish concerts in Páirc Uí Chaoimh in Cork on May 4th, 5th and 6th, Boucher Playing Fields in Belfast on May 9th, Pearse Stadium in Galway on May 12th and 13th, and the Phoenix Park in Dublin on May 16th, 18th and 19th.

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