“Missing from the record”: Zrazy and women’s music in Ireland

For almost 30 years, the electro-pop duo Zrazy has been a public, and often solitary, lesbian voice in Irish popular music. Over the course of their career, their musical output has engaged in a range of key Irish socio-cultural debates, from the abortion referenda of 1992 and 2018 to the role of women in the 1916 Easter Rising. This duo have used their platform as performing artists for activist purposes, especially in the areas of women’s and LGBTQ+ rights. In addition to promoting lesbian visibility in Irish music, Zrazy espouses a form of lesbian feminism most typically associated in popular music with the North American “women’s music” movement. In this radical feminist movement, artists identify as both musicians and feminists; many consider themselves cultural workers, as their music and musical activities promote feminist consciousness and perform feminist work. This chapter situates Zrazy’s music within this cultural movement of women’s music and explores how their music represents a form of lesbian feminism specific to the Irish cultural context over the past 30 years.