About The Shan Vans
The Shan Vans are a newly formed Indigenous Indie-Punk band. The five-piece came together in April 2023 and is made up of Irish speakers from West Belfast, whose bilingual decolonising rock music shines a light on the Irish language and on decolonisation in Ireland and around the world. The band is channelling the hopes and frustrations of working-class Belfast youth, confronting the intergenerational trauma they've experienced growing up in a post-conflict society, and using it as a catalyst for their work.
They released their debut track ’Inside’ in April 2023, an anti imperial rock anthem with lyrics inspired by Patti Smith and the Irish language poetry of Pádraig Pearse. In early August the band released their second single, ‘This is Our Religion’, a celebration of Éire’s landscapes and the interconnectedness of the land with the wisdom contained in the Irish language and in Irish mythology.
Emerging in 2023 with their epic debut single, The Shan Vans have since appeared on local and national TV multiple times, recording shows with UTV, BBC, RTÉ, TG4, and NVTV, alongside multiple newspaper, radio, and podcast appearances. In early August the band headlined at their first live gig as part of Féile an Phobail in Raidió Fáilte, Belfast. A week later they played the Main Stage Falls Park at Féile an Phobail, supporting headliners Kneecap alongside The Whistlin' Donkeys & Gemma Dunleavey. In late august, The Shan Vans co-headlined at Irish language festival Liú Lúnasa, and that same week, they made their debut at Electric Picnic. In December 2023, The Shan Vans participated in a collaboration with John Spillane, Barry Kerr, Beoga, Clare Sands & more, performing at an Irish Artists for Palestine event in Belfast.
In January 2024, The Shan Vans showcased a number of unreleased tracks at Maddens Bar in Belfast city centre as part of their solidarity work on behalf of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.
In February 2025 The Shan Vans release a Palestine solidarity song 'The Shan Van' and an accompanying music video waeving together over 100 contributions from global creators, including multiple animated shorts, illustrations, vivid paintings, handcrafted sculptures, and creative mixed-media pieces, channeling the diverse and rebellious artistic spirit of the project.
Video
The Shan Vans - The Shan Van
The Shan Vans - Inside
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