Ed Sheeran has admitted that he had to fight his management to get Galway Girl released on his album, with the track going on to have unprecedented success as the most popular album track of ‘Divide’.
Now the inspiration behind the song has been revealed, with Ed’s Galway Girl being based on a real woman – but before you get ahead of yourself, nothing romantic happened between them and she is actually married to one of Ed’s friends.
The Galway Girl is a real woman.
In her thirties, Niamh Dunne really does play the fiddle in an Irish band, Beoga, but the man she fell in love with, husband Sean Og Graham, isn’t English, as stated in the song.
Ed explained: “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.
However, Niamh didn’t fall in love with Ed.
“She inspired the first line but the rest of the song isn’t about anyone, I just made up a story.”
Niam admitted to Limerick Leader that she’s chuffed to bits that the song she inspired is doing so well, sharing: “It’s been great craic the last week watching it all unfold.
Galway Girl has had unprecedented success.
“We’re delighted with the reaction to the songs, it’s just brilliant that they are finally out there for the world to hear.”
And as if that wasn’t enough, Niamh also plays the fiddle on Ed’s other album track, ‘Nancy Mulligan’, which is the story of how his grandparents met and fell in love.
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