Hozier’s Powerful New Music Video Pays Tribute To Some Incredible Irish Activists

We were getting a bit impatient for new music from Hozier, so it was quite the relief when the Wicklow native dropped a new EP, Nina Cried Power, last week.

The lead single features soul legend Mavis Staples and is a celebration of singers who were also political activists, from the titular Nina Simone to Joni Mitchell, Billie Holiday, Patti Smith and Bob Dylan.

It’s fitting then that the music video – directed by the singer’s brother, filmmaker Jon Hozier-Byrne – would pay tribute to 20 Irish activists, including:

• Anna Cosgrave of the Repeal Project;
• Theatre maker Grace Dyas;
• Disability advocate Sinéad Burke;
• Colm O’Gorman, director of Amnesty International Ireland;
• Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, who was a leading figure in the fight for civil rights in Northern Ireland;
• Former Rose of Tralee Maria Walsh;
• Children’s rights campaigner Christina Noble;
• Actor Stephen Rea;
• Radio presenter Saoirse Long, who powerfully spoke out about her decision to have an abortion before the referendum on the Eighth Amendment in May;
• The iconic Panti Bliss;
• And Ellie Kisyombe, a campaigner against Direct Provision in Ireland and founder of the OurTable project.

Explaining the inspiration behind the video, Hozier wrote:

Ireland has undergone a socio-cultural sea change, the results of which will benefit generations to come. We are witness to a new Ireland waking to the consciousness of itself; a kinder, more inclusive nation. This video is an attempt to acknowledge just a handful of those who have fought for this new Ireland, and whose work continues to inspire me.

To find out more about all the incredible people involved, click here.

• hozier