Returning to Ireland, after a spell of international touring, the brothers deepened their interest in Dublin's Irish traditional music sessions which introduced them to vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Radie Peat and violinist Cormac MacDiarmada.

Leaving school at the age of 19, multi-instrumentalist Ian Lynch moved to London and spent a year street busking and living in squats.

Upon returning to Ireland, he learned that his brother Daragh Lynch had begun learning to play the guitar, and the pair soon started writing songs together: "We started writing these really puerile half-joke, anti-authoritarian punk songs, and one that was in the style of David Bowie, about destroying the government in a cosmic way.

"[3] At these sessions the pair met singer and multi-instrumentalist Radie Peat and violinist Cormac MacDiarmada.

They said about the prize: “It’s pretty crazy, considering where we started off twenty years ago as a joke band playing at parties and squats…”.

[14] Radie Peat and Lankum's producer John "Spud" Murphy are both members of the band ØXN, along with singer-songwriter and composer Katie Kim and Eleanor Myler.

[16] Ian Lynch hosts and produces a monthly podcast, Fire Draw Near, which "investigates Irish traditional music and song in all of its myriad forms".

[17] Ian released a solo album ...And Take the Black Worm With Me under the name "One Leg One Eye" in 2022 which came about during lockdown and has performed live with George Brennan.

Cormac MacDiarmada and Ruth Clinton from Landless play music and produce videos together as Poor Creature.

Cormac MacDiarmada and producer John "Spud" Murphy worked with Wild Beasts vocalist and bass guitarist Tom Fleming on his second solo album, Endless Rain, released under the name One True Pairing.

Daragh Lynch has joined forces with Iona Zajac to record the song "The Burning of Auchindoun"[21] and performed together for Tradition Now in 2022.

[23] Radie Peat and Cormac MacDiarmada play music together as Rue,[24] including a version of Katie Cruel[25] which later appeared on The Livelong Day.