'The end of a chapter and the start of another': Emperor of Ice Cream reunites after 28 years

They reconnected after an article about their early EPs and now the Cork band will come together on stage for the first time in decades

Emperor of Ice Cream was the great Cork success story that never happened.

Twenty-eight years ago, the lights went out for Emperor of Ice Cream. At the Half-Moon Club in Cork city centre, the band played their final gig. As the applause faded, so, in a way, did the group’s future.

“The last time we played together was 1995,” recalls singer John “Haggis” Hegarty. “We had come back from London and had recorded a couple of demos with [audio-engineer] Rupert MacCarthy-Morrogh. We weren’t sure what we were going to do next. We played one gig. And that was it. I went back to college. Everyone just drifted off.”