Some singers tell stories; Mary Coughlan lives them. For more than forty years she’s taken the messier parts of life, heartbreak, desire, survival, the bits most people shy away from, and turned them into songs that feel less like performances and more like late‑night confessions. This autumn, she returns to the UK for a run of intimate shows that promise all the emotional force she’s known for.

Coughlan has long held a rare place in Irish music. MOJO once called her a “honey‑voiced Irish National Treasure,” while Uncut described her as a living thread between Billie Holiday and Amy Winehouse. Not because she sounds like either, but because she shares their instinct for honesty, that refusal to smooth out the rough edges or pretend life is anything other than complicated.

Her voice is still unmistakable: smoky, husky, a little bruised around the edges, capable of flipping from sly humour to raw vulnerability in a heartbeat. You can hear echoes of Bessie Smith, Peggy Lee, Edith Piaf, but it’s always delivered with that unmistakable Irish drawl, equal parts sceptical and tender. It’s the sound of someone who has lived every line she sings.

The 2026/2027 UK tour kicks off on 23 September at Leeds’ Old Woollen and winds through thirteen dates across England, Scotland, and Wales. These aren’t cavernous arenas; they’re rooms chosen for atmosphere, closeness, and the kind of emotional connection Coughlan thrives on.

The tour stretches into March 2027 with a rescheduled date at Exeter Phoenix. For long‑time followers, or anyone who wants to see one of the most emotionally fearless performers of her generation, these shows are a rare chance to experience Coughlan up close, in rooms where every breath can be seen.

Across four decades, Coughlan has made music that doesn’t look away from the messy parts of human relationships. Her songs are grown‑up, uncompromising, painfully honest and quietly universal. She sings about what goes on between men and women with a clarity that can be cathartic, uncomfortable, or both.

In a time when “authenticity” is often just another marketing angle, Coughlan remains the real thing — a storyteller who never softens her edges to fit the moment. Her shows feel communal: built on humour, pain, connection, resilience.

This tour is proof that she’s still evolving, still pushing, still capable of stopping a room cold with a single line.

September 2026

23 Sept — Old Woollen, Leeds 24 Sept — Brewery Arts, Kendal

25 Sept — St Luke’s, Glasgow

October 2026

2 Oct — Union Chapel, London

3 Oct — Mid Sussex Music Hall, Hassocks

4 Oct — Town Hall, Kidderminster

7 Oct — Acapela Studio, Cardiff

8 Oct — The Sub Rooms, Stroud

9 Oct — Gulbenkian, Canterbury

10 Oct — Hub, Hampton

13 Oct — Aberystwyth Arts Centre

14 Oct — Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool

15 Oct — Hallé St Peter’s, Manchester

March 2027

18 Mar — Exeter Phoenix (rescheduled)

Tickets available via AGMP Concerts and venue box offices.

This tour is a chance to see one of Ireland’s most distinctive voices doing what she does best: telling stories that feel like they belong to all of us.