If you've had a chance to listen to Ed Sheeran's new album 'Divide' yet, you'll be aware that there's a song called 'Galway Girl' on the tracklisting.
Sure enough, when the tracklisting was first revealed it led to a lot of confusion over whether it was a cover of the Steve Earle song, more recently covered by Mundy and Sharon Shannon.
However, it was soon revealed that it was an original track of Sheeran's and it opens with the line 'She played the fiddle in an Irish band, but she fell in love with an English man'.
Many have been wondering who the 'Galway Girl' is, however, and Sheeran has now revealed the source of his inspiration for the song - Niamh Dunne, the fiddler from Northern Irish trad band Beoga, who feature on 'Divide'.
In an interview in today's Irish Times, he spoke of his love of Irish folk and trad music, saying: "It was based on the fiddle player in Beoga, Niamh. She’s married to an Irishman, a friend of mine. I had the band in my house for an extra day so I was like, ‘what can I write about? She plays the fiddle in an Irish band . . . right, cool, let’s write a song about that.’ She inspired the first line but the rest of the song isn’t about anyone, I just made up a story."
He added: “I was looking for a line that wasn’t Galway Girl because of the Steve Earle song, but the more and more I sung it, the more I thought, f**k it, there’s just going to be a new Galway Girl. And it means I can sing both live."
Hear the song below:
