Poor Creature is a modern folk band from Ireland, comprised of Ruth Clinton, Cormac MacDiarmada and John Dermody, who are all members of other bands as well: Landless and Lankum, bands that have built a large following on re-interpreting songs from the past, songs that have existed for centuries. A new generation of Irish musicians are keen to acknowledge that musical legacy, while reimagining the songs within a contemporary context.

Poor Creature is a child of Covid-19 lockdown. MacDiarmada and Clinton found themselves isolated and with a lot of time on their hands. They played a handful of online gigs as a duo, as was the necessity back then before Dermody joined eighteen months later. They played their first gig as a trio (a benefit gig for a friend’s greyhound’s hip operation) without having practiced together, and they credit the unrehearsed improvisation methods for the sound of their first album, All Smiles Tonight (2025).

"Poor Creature are masters at harnessing that tension and creating soundworlds that are utterly compelling from start to finish. This is music that straddles darkness and light, and traverses the blasted terrain of loss in wholly unexpected ways, picking apart and reassembling the whole idea of folk music as it goes" (KLOF Mag)
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