‘Liberty Belle’: Fontaines DC’s portrait of working-class life in Dublin
Fontaines D.C’s excellent debut, Dogrel, saw the Irish quintet reinventing post-punk for a new generation. It was raw and exciting, as frontman Grian Chatten painted pictures of everyday life and character studies in Dublin in his native accent, over crunching guitars and relentless drumming. The album was released mere months before the Covid-19 pandemic plunged the UK and Ireland into what felt like eternal lockdown, and the band’s limited live shows in support of the record had left listeners desperate for more.
Fast forward to 2024, and a further three albums into their career, Fontaines DC are selling out arenas across the UK and Ireland and have quickly seen themselves dubbed someday Glastonbury headliners. The band has continued to push the boundaries, releasing their most experimental record yet, Romance, this summer. But it was their abrasive 2019 debut Dogrel, and its lead single ‘Liberty Belle’, released two years prior, that laid the groundwork for Fontaines DC’s success.
The punchy two-and-a-half-minute party starter acts as the band’s love letter to The Liberties, an area of central Dublin with a strong working-class history. The area has become something of a tourist hotspot due to the location of the Guinness Storehouse within its parameters, which attracts over a million visits per annum. Meanwhile, The Liberty Belle is indeed the name of a real pub on Francis Street in the area.
The post-punk outfit’s origins are firmly rooted in The Liberties; it was the birthplace of the band itself, as core members Grian Chatten, Conor Curley, Tom Coll, Conor Deegan, and Carlos O’Connell all met at BIMM college there, and thus Fontaines DC was formed. The band’s name also pays homage to their city, with DC being an abbreviation of Dublin City.
Frontman and lyricist Chatten has described ‘Liberty Belle’ as “a lament to the death of old Dublin, written by people who couldn’t afford the new one”. The main hook of the track was inspired by Chatten’s walks to work, where he would witness the cold hard reality of the city, the disparities in wealth and how many of its inhabitants had been let down by the government and wider society. Speaking to Uncut, Chatten explained how the frequently mentioned violence in ‘Liberty Belle’ is as much physical as it is psychological: “I’d be confronted by domestic violence, bloody noses, heroin addicts curled up in phone boxes, racism and I’d cope by listening to my iPod,” he said. Being exposed to this from a young age has helped to shape Chatten’s worldview.
Chatten recalls an inquisitive child, asking their father why there’s a man asleep in a phone booth, and the father telling a lie to shield their child, as navigating the truth is too difficult, and ultimately upsetting: “He’s just very very tired of having / That same old boring conversation.” It’s become boring, bleak even, because it’s such a regular occurrence.
“You know I love that violence / That you get around here / That kind of ready-steady violence.” There’s something quite surreal about it that mimics the desensitisation to such suffering as you grow older and experience life. Even the tone of the song is colloquial, as Chatten explains his affinity for the area and his early life, calling on the listener to try and see things from his perspective.
“Well, is it liberating / Just to be so fine?” Chatten contemplates if his general outlook would differ had he been coddled or brought up in a middle-class area. ‘Liberty Belle’ remains a staple of any Fontaines DC setlist and serves as a reminder of the band’s roots.
