I feel a major history lesson coming on this Dad Rock Tuesday. This week, I’ve been given a record by Stiff Little Fingers, some Irish punk pioneers, who were making music at the peak of The Troubles (according to my bff Wikipedia). So while I can’t really tell where this band stood on all that Ireland vs. Northern Ireland stuff, I feel a few encyclopedias’ worth of info coming up in the comment section.
While I can’t speak much for the politics of this record, I can discuss the music for once. For a guy who sometimes gives me crap about all of the standard indie rock that I listen to, my dad sure recommends a ton of standard punk music.
Before I began with this record, I did a little research on last.fm. One user asks if Stiff Little Fingers is a Green Day cover band. For his sake, I really hope he’s joking. The only similarities that I hear between these guys and the Day, (even their older stuff), is some simple chord progression and whatnot—and let’s face it, that’s because the two bands kind of make music in the same genre. But on the reals, I feel like I’ve already heard this record on a bunch of other Tuesdays…everything is starting to blend together. However, I’m sure that there isn’t much else that I’ve listened to with a level of commentary quite this high. So now, I’m going to turn things over to the old people. Enlighten me.
Swole Ear 
I haven’t got much to add. SLF were pretty straight ahead and not all that distinguished. I liked their cover of the Bob Marley tune “Johnny Was” which I thought was an appropriate cover for a band in the middle of The Troubles. “Alternative Ulster” was catchy.
In terms of Irish punk, I leaned more to The Irish Ramones (not to be confused with Shonen Knife, the Osaka Ramones). Apparently your bud, Mr. White liked at least one of their tunes (good cover):
BTW, if you want to seem some real standard (but pretty good) early English punk, check out this one and note the hilarious attempt at outrageousness.