Richard BodinSeán Feeny doesn’t have the typical musical journey. While he spent his younger years spread across Germany, Northern Ireland and Ireland, he grew up with a rich musical background, surrounded by instruments of all kind. Even though music was his main passion, he never fully pursued a lifelong desire to record an album of original music. Not until later.
The Long Way Around
He chose a career in journalism where he got to cover many subjects, from court cases, to boxing. However, he never lost track of his main passion in life: music. Whenever he could he would support local artists in his local paper, attend concerts, and report about them. This would in time wake up an urge to finally make the leap into his own creative world and start playing his own music.
His debut single “1969” was released on August 11th 2025 to celebrate his parents wedding anniversary in 1969 in Belfast. The song is a tribute of times filled with love and uncertainty as Northern Ireland was on the brink of “The Troubles”. Feeny’s music blends Irish traditional and folk inspiration with more dream-pop textures.
After a couple other singles, he released his debut album Galactic Tides on February 6th 2026. In it, Seán Feeny explores love, grief, ancestry, and Ireland’s memory with all the hurdles it went through often leading people to move away from home in hope of better tomorrows.
The Call of “Tír Mór”
His new single, “Tír Mór” —meaning The Main Land— was inspired by words Sean Feeny overheard on Árainn Mhór, as someone was getting ready to set sail to the main land for work. The daily use of phrase, in irish, struck a chord with the artist. Tír Mór meant necessities and opportunities, and somehow hope as people were feeling pulled toward the main land for work. But it also meant separation as people are moving away from their heritage and tradition.
“I remember hearing someone say they were heading to the Tír Mór for work, and it stopped me. It wasn’t just a place, it felt like a force. For so many people, especially on islands, the mainland becomes something bigger than geography. It represents opportunity, but also absence. This song is about that pull, the way history repeats itself, the way sons and daughters follow the same tides as their fathers before them.”
Seán Feeny
Capturing the Tide
The imagery of the song is intense and strong, as reflected in the chorus: “I hear you calling me, Tír Mór, I hear you haunting me, Tír Mór.” It was only natural that the music video would mirror that same strength, that same pull between opportunity and separation. To do so, Seán Feeny entrusted his longtime collaborator Donegal filmmaker Charlie Joe Doherty.
The pair set sail to Toraigh (Tory Island) where they shot the video in black and white, highlighting the contrasts set by the song’s dichotomy. The rugged and sharp details of the island shores, or the inland still shots, anchor the song on firm land full of history, while the open and moving sea calls for adventures and opportunities. The singer clearly pulled in the middle, sometimes looking back to the island or forward toward the invisible Tír Mór.
Beyond “Tír Mór”
In “Tír Mór”, Seán Feeny captures something deeply rooted in Irish life: the quiet, constant pull between staying and leaving. It is not just a story of one island or one generation, but of a cycle that continues to shape identities and destinies. In giving that tension a voice, he lets the song drift between past and present, much like the tides it evokes — a thread that runs throughout his debut album Galactic Tides.
