Cathal Fitz, born Cathal Fitzpatrick and raised in Togher on the south side of Cork, has covered a lot of ground in a short window. He surfaced in 2025 with “Firing Squad” and has kept a steady pace since, releasing “A Promise,” “The Enemy of Love,” “Pushing Thirty,” “Walk of Shame,” and most recently “Paper Planes,” clearing 100,000 Spotify streams along the way and picking up airplay from BBC Introducing, RTÉ 2FM, Today FM, Red FM, SPIN 103.8, and others.
His influences make sense the second you hear him. Damien Rice and Tom Waits sit closest to the surface, with Christy Moore, Bob Dylan, David Gray, and Hozier further back in the mix. What comes out is Irish storytelling in a fairly traditional sense, run through production that’s decidedly modern and atmospheric, and he’s been open about writing from things he’s actually lived rather than from a comfortable distance. His catalog has taken on the cycle of addiction, the strange milestone of turning thirty, and the usual complications of love, with enough humour threaded through the heavier material to keep it from becoming a slog.
He’s already shared stages with Darren Kiely, Jack L, Skinny Living, Séamus Harty, and Jerry Fish, and supported Ryan Sheridan over in Germany.
A Rock and a Hard Place
The song lands on “Concise Waffle,” his five-track debut EP arriving September 4th. “Paper Planes” opened the campaign as the lead single, and “A Rock and a Hard Place” follows as the second, due out August 21st. Where “Paper Planes” took on political division and social fatigue, this one turns inward, and it’s the softer, more openly tender side of the two.
It’s a fitting introduction to what Fitz does well. His performances have built a reputation on sincerity rather than spectacle, the kind of thing that quiets a room rather than working it, and that instinct carries into how these songs are written and recorded. There’s a cinematic quality to the production without it ever swamping the actual song underneath.
The timing is deliberate. Fitz heads out on his debut UK and Ireland tour in September, hitting Manchester, Sheffield, London, and Glasgow before Dublin’s Cat & Cage Folk Club and the Source Grassroots Festival, then closing with a hometown headline at Coughlan’s in Cork on October 11 that sold out in a matter of hours.
Final Thoughts
“A Rock and a Hard Place” is a strong signal of what “Concise Waffle” has in store, and on this evidence Fitz’s momentum looks well earned.
You can find Cathal Fitz on Instagram, on Spotify, and via his Linktree. Stay tuned to MusicOnTheRox.com for all your music news and reviews.
