I discovered Jinx Lennon when I was in rehearsal one day. The actor/director Mikel Murfi arrived in one day and put on Forgive the Cnts. It has that killer chorus – both hilarious and, weirdly, incredibly touching too. But I became hooked on Jinx’s voice first.

I didn’t know Dundalk before the record, but Jinx has documented it in such a powerful, personal way. It feels like opening someone’s diary, or having that diary explode in your head. He takes you around the town, and by the end of the album you’ve been in and out of the houses and been introduced to a tonne of characters, but mostly introduced to Jinx himself, venting all his frustrations.

There’s an incredible amount of anger on the record: songs about vicious little shits, nasty porn and a stonking ode to Jinx’s guitar. The lyrics on City of Styrofoam Cups are sublime: the images come fast; no film could better it. And the musical build in the last minute is my favourite moment on the record. It’s pretty heartbreaking stuff.

It’s an inspiring album in that it’s completely its own thing: there’s nothing like it. It’s like all great art: it’s singular, and it drives you on to try and make work that is similarly of itself. People call him an urban punk poet, but I guess you could say that he has a rap vocal style. Things swing around musically, and I love that. The Batchelors of Pearse Park is wildly different from Bruised Banana.

I’ve seen him play only a couple of times, and he’s unforgettable. The atmosphere can feel dangerous and unhinged, in the best possible way. He’s f**king raw. I think he’s Ireland’s Dylan Thomas – he’s captured Dundalk, its people, himself, right in the moment – and that stuff is epic. It’s important. The tunes are killer, but the ambition is what makes this record brilliant.

It definitely translates internationally: no question. He places you in that town: you feel like you’ve been dropped right into it. That’s tremendously exciting. It’s excellent to introduce it to Americans who are into rap. It blows their minds.

Enda Walsh ,playwright Disco Pigs,Lazarus(written with David Bowie)