Passion, humour and fun with unique Jinx Lennon

Jinx Lennon brings his unique show to the Róisín Dubh on Friday next,November 15. Part blues, part folk, part punk, it’s the kind of show that makes it difficult to box in the Dundalk songwriter. 

“Testifying, that’s what it is,” Jinx says. “It’s like I don’t want people out there expecting blah blah, verse/chorus, love, hate, the usual sort of soppy stories.”
What you can expect instead is an unflinching eye cast over his own life, but also over modern Ireland as Jinx sees it. He wrote about shifty developers with ‘County Louth shaped moustaches’ in the song Houses, penned at the height of the boom. On Respect Yourself This Year Jinx kicked against the menace of self-hatred.
His new song Shop the Neighbour will be released soon and he explains the inspiration behind the track.
“I’m sort of picturing a scenario of someone; maybe they got in trouble with the dole, and maybe were given an option to assist them with their enquiries,” he says. “The black economy is thriving in this country, and people have to do that because they need to try and make sort of a living without totally living on scraps.”

The day of this interview, a large group of old age pensioners marched in Dublin against the budget cuts. Not shy in voicing his opinions in his songs, Jinx had this to say about the protest.
“The OAPs are the most volatile, incendiary protesters there is in this country,” he says. “They’re like the French lorry drivers! They’re part of a group that the Government are really afraid of, because they’re the ones that are used to standing up for themselves, there’s bit of self-respect there. Which is maybe not in people anymore.”