CMAT – Bertie Ahern Euro-Country Single – Irish Times
CMAT’s New Single “All Of Us” Tackles 2008 Financial Crisis and it’s Devastating Impact
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Dublin,Ireland – Irish singer-songwriter CMAT has unveiled her latest single,”All Of Us,” a poignant and powerful track that delves into the profound impact of the 2008 financial crisis on her hometown.The release follows her standout performance at Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage, further cementing her reputation as a compelling voice in contemporary music.
A Raw Glimpse into Economic Hardship
In social media posts on Tuesday, CMAT shared a short clip of “All Of us,” offering a stark snippet of its lyrics that immediately resonated with listeners:
“All the big boys,
“All the Berties,
“All the envelopes, yeah they hurt me
“I was 12 when the das started killing themselves all around me…”
The song directly references the financial crisis of 2008,a period that brought important hardship to the community where CMAT grew up. She elaborated on the personal impact of this era in a recent interview, explaining, “I was about 12 and it all happened around me, it didn’t really happen to my family directly. My dad had a job in computers, we didn’t really have any money, we weren’t affluent, but we were fine.Everybody else on the estate we lived in worked in construction, or in shops, and they all lost their jobs. Everybody became unemployed. Then, in the village I grew up in, there was a year or 18 months where loads of the people I went to school with, their dads started killing themselves as they’d lost everything in the crash.”
A Critical Stance on Political Figures
The reference to “Berties” in the song is a clear nod to former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who served from 1997 to 2008. CMAT has not shied away from expressing her critical views on the former Fianna Fáil politician. In a 2023 interview with Hot Press, she stated that if Ahern were to run for the presidency, she would “make it my personal f**king mission to make sure that he doesn’t win.”
while Bertie Ahern has yet to officially confirm his candidacy for the upcoming presidential election, his name has been circulating among potential contenders. CMAT’s latest single, “All Of Us,” serves as a powerful artistic statement, connecting personal experience with broader societal and political commentary, and further highlighting her unflinching honesty and talent.