Iona Lynch of Cliffords: Egotistical men seem threatened by a girl with confidence
It has been a whirlwind few years for Cork indie-rock band Cliffords. After winning a University College Cork (UCC) battle of the bands competition in 2022, they released several EPs — most recently 2025’s — and have spent the last few years on the touring merry-go-round. When I catch up with the members ahead of their Heineken Greenlight gig at the Savoy on Saturday, they’re taking a breath after an intense first half of 2026 — if writing their debut album qualifies as ‘taking a breath’.
In a dark rehearsal space in Cork, the band’s frontwoman, lyricist, and guitarist Iona Lynch is seated on the ground, next to trumpet player and bassist Gavin Dawkins, lead guitarist Harry Menton, and keyboard player Locon O’Toole. Together they’re enthusiastic, informed, and passionate. Whether the topic is Cork’s music scene or sexism in the music industry, they come with opinions based on real-life experiences.
Just a few years ago, Cliffords were a band finding their feet. Now, they’re signed to the record label Soil to the Sun (part of Sony Music), and are being praised across the global music press. But they haven’t forgotten that they were once young musicians playing Fred Zeppelins on Parliament St and looking up to local acts like The Love Buzz, Pretty Happy, Elaine Malone, and pôt-pot.
Back then, the notion of getting signed to a record label didn’t cross their minds, says Lynch: “Our plan was, we’ll keep playing gigs, and then we’ll play Dublin, and then maybe one day we’ll move to London, and we’ll find the Fred Zeppelins of London, and we’ll just keep playing gigs there.”
Now, younger bands see getting signed as a possibility, she says: “I think the industry is noticing Cork as an option. When I’ve talked to younger bands about it, I’m like, ‘it’s all there for you, you just need to work hard and trust each other and do something that you believe in’.”
But as much as things change, some things remain the same in the music industry. One of those things is sexism. Cork is a very supportive music scene, Lynch says, but she has spoken with other women and non-binary people in Irish bands about a music culture where there is a sense they don’t belong at the table. Where they are “always having to go above and beyond to feel like you’re meant to be there”.
“Which I think is changing a lot more with the younger scene,” she says, [Cliffords are still in their 20s]. “I think there’s a lot less tolerance for that.”
Female artists can face scrutiny that their male peers don’t.
“I’m very lucky that I’m very confident and sure of myself, and that the lads [in Cliffords] are very nice people and not assholes,” says Lynch.
“But if you weren’t confident and sure of yourself and driven, but equally as talented, I think it’s very easy for you to fall through the cracks. Because you’re not seeing yourself; the door is not open for you when it’s open for so many lads who can just waltz in and think they’re class.”
She’s been told about a ‘narrative’ around her among some men in the wider music scene.
“A lot of the narrative is ‘oh God, she loves herself… she wants all the attention away from the lads,’” she says. “It’s this whole narrative built up... which I just think is crazy. They don’t know me — they don’t know the lads. The lads don’t want to talk most of the time.”
She and the rest of the band laugh as she says this — particularly as band member Harry Menton has stayed mostly quiet during the interview.
Lynch knows that as the person fronting Cliffords, she’ll get the most attention.
“Because I’m a woman, and because I’m an outspoken woman about these issues, what I get the most is ‘will she just shut up and get over it’, and ‘it’s not an issue’,” she says. “I don’t mind people saying stuff, because I don’t believe them, and I know that the good people in the music scene and the music industry don’t believe that.
“What I’ve seen is the difference in how some people will talk to the lads and be like ‘you are an artist, the way that you play guitar is this and this and this’. And then when they talk to me, it’s often ‘you’re so lucky and gifted’. As if it’s this thing you were born with and you didn’t work for.
“Male musicians always seem to have this journey of hard work that they’ve put into it for years, and that’s much more respected. When you write music for women or tell a female experience, it’s often seen as more emotional, less serious, less artistic.”
The band members witness how differently Lynch can be treated.
“We three lads see it at the merch desk” says O’Toole. “We can see the way that [some people] will talk to Iona, compared to the way that they talk to us.”
“Or touch,” says Lynch. “There’s a big thing with hugging and being incredibly touchy in a way that is not technically assault. Which they do to me and not the lads.”
Her band members nod.
“No, they wouldn’t do it,” says O’Toole.
When Lynch studied politics at UCC, she did her dissertation on how Irish female and non-binary acts are treated in the music scene. While researching, she found that many male respondents would say of sexist behaviour in the scene: “I don’t think this is a problem. I’ve never noticed.”
“I think a lot of the issue is a defensiveness of ‘because I don’t understand that, that scares me, and I don’t want to talk about it’,” she says. “I think what anyone wants when they bring up these issues is the person going ‘oh, I didn’t think about that before, I’m really sorry, and now I can hear you’.
“It’s also only men who say that stuff,” O’Toole adds. “No woman would be like, ‘I’ve never seen that, so it’s not true’.”
Lynch raises these issues with men in other bands frequently. Not all of them understand the impact of sexism.
“I think that most girls in bands want to be listened to and heard, booked for festivals and played on the radio.”
It’s a difficult topic, which is why she and the rest of Cliffords want to keep talking about it.
“It’s so much better now than what it was years ago, and the attitudes are getting better and better, but I think that’s because people are continuously talking about it, and because we’re seeing more representation at festivals and gigs,” says Lynch.
Tonight, the band plays the Savoy on a bill with the female-fronted Men I Trust as part of the Heineken Greenlight series. They’re gearing up for a busy few months of touring, supporting bands like Wolf Alice and Florence and the Machine, and bringing their debut album to fruition. If that wasn’t enough, the band are also making the move to London.
“I think we’re both really, really, really excited, and very terrified. It is a new chapter for us,” says Lynch. “It’s going to be exciting, but devastating to leave Cork. But we’ll be back all the time.”
The new record will certainly keep them focused. They say there are lots of different sonic influences being explored, and namecheck acts like Sufjan Stevens, Phoebe Bridgers, and Big Thief as touchstones. O’Toole says they’ve been using the writing time to figure out what they want as musicians, which reflects the journey Cliffords have been on.
“After many, many days spent in this room something’s clicked, and it really feels like we’re able to — all four of us individually and as a band — express ourselves in a much more concise way,” elaborates O’Toole, with Lynch adding: “It still sounds like Cliffords, but it’s what we want Cliffords to sound like.”
It bodes well for what to expect when that debut album does arrive. Let’s hope we get to hear the exciting results soon.
- Cliffords support Men I Trust in a sold-out gig in The Savoy this Saturday as part of the Heineken Greenlight June bank holiday weekend takeover. More than 20 acts will play nine small venues in Cork City across the weekend, see uncapped.heineken.ie/greenlight
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