With Saint Patrick’s Day fast approaching

...the Emerald Isle looms large. While the luck of the Irish may be misunderstood, certainly the muse has blessed that small country with an abundance of poets, playwrights and musicians. If you had to pick, we would start with these:

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U2

U2 is an Irish rock band which formed in 1976 in Dublin, Ireland. Since the band’s formation, they have consisted of Bono (real name Paul Hewson) (vocals, guitar, harmonica), The Edge (real name David Evans) (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), Adam Clayton (bass) and Larry Mullen, Jr. (drums, percussion). The band is the biggest selling alternative rock act of all time, having sold 140 million albums worldwide as of 2008. They have won 22 Grammys and were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2005. As of 2009, they have released 12 albums and 58 singles.


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Van Morrison

George Ivan Morrison (generally known as Van Morrison) (b. 1945) is a Grammy Award-winning from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He’s a singer, songwriter, author, poet, and multi-instrumentalist, who has been a professional musician since the late 1950s. He plays a variety of instruments, including the guitar, harmonica, keyboards, drums, and saxophone. Featuring his characteristic growl - a unique mix of folk, blues, Irish, scat, and Celtic influences - Morrison is widely considered one of the most unusual and influential vocalists in the history of rock and roll.


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The Cranberries

An alternative rock band from Limerick, Ireland that formed in 1989 and rose to mainstream popularity in the early 1990’s. The band consists of Dolores O’Riordan (vocals, keyboards, guitars), Noel Hogan (guitars, vocals, also a member of mono band), Mike Hogan (bass, vocals), and Fergal Lawler (drums, percussion, also a member of The Low Network). The band went on hiatus in 2003 and reunited in the summer of 2009.


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Thin Lizzy

An Irish hard rock band who formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1969. The band were led throughout their recording career by bassist, songwriter and singer Phil Lynott, and are best known for their songs Whiskey In The Jar, Jailbreak and The Boys Are Back In Town, all major international hits still played regularly on hard rock and classic rock radio stations. After Lynott died, various incarnations of the band have emerged over the years culminating in a more stable line-up based around guitarists Scott Gorham and John Sykes. Sykes left the band in June 2009.


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The Pogues

The Pogues are a popular Irish folk rock band of the 1980s and 90s. They have a strong following, essentially invented celtic punk and had a large influence on the larger celtic fusion scene as well. The Pogues were founded in King’s Cross, a district in north London, in 1982 as Pogue Mahone — “pogue mahone” being the Anglicisation of the Irish póg mo thóin, meaning “kiss my arse”. The band specialised in Irish folk music, often playing with the energy of the punk rock scene from which several of the members had their roots.


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Flogging Molly

Flogging Molly is a seven-piece Irish American celtic punk band that formed in Los Angeles, in 1997 and is currently signed to SideOneDummy Records. The band consists of Dave King (vocals, guitar, banjo, bodhrán), Bridget Regan-King (fiddle, uillean pipes, vocals), Dennis Casey (guitar, vocals), Matt Hensley (accordion, concertina), Nathen Maxwell (bass, vocals), Bob Schmidt (mandolin, banjo) and George Schwindt (drums, percussion).


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The Corrs

The Corrs are a folk pop band from Dundalk, Ireland, consisting of three sisters and one brother from the Corr family, who rose to prominence in the late 1990s and have since sold more than 55 million albums worldwide. The band consists of siblings Jim Corr (keyboard, guitar, backing vocals, born July 31, 1964), Sharon Corr (violin, backing vocals, born March 24, 1970), Caroline Corr (drums, bodhran, piano, backing vocals, born March 17, 1973) and Andrea Corr (lead vocals, tin whistle, born May 17, 1974).


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The Boomtown Rats

The Boomtown Rats (1976-1986) were a punk rock / new wave group led by Bob Geldof (Full name: Robert Fredrick Zenon Geldof, born October 5th 1951). All six members (Gary Roberts, Pete Briquette, Gerry Cott, Simon Crowe, Bob Geldof and Johnny “Fingers” Moylett) were originally from Dun Laoghaire, Dublin, Ireland. Originally called ‘The Nightlife Thugs’. The name The Boomtown Rats comes from a gang of down-and-outs from Woody Guthrie’s autobiography, Bound for Glory.


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The Script

The Script is a pop rock band which formed in 2001 in Dublin, Ireland. The band consists of Danny O’Donoghue (vocals), Mark Sheehan (guitar) and Glen Power (drums). After reaching number fifteen in the charts with their 2008 debut single “We Cry,” their second single “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved” peaked at number two. Their debut album The Script was released on the 11th August 2008, and went straight to number one on iTunes both in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Their third single, “Breakeven,” was released on the 10th of November 2008, peaking at number 21 in the UK singles charts.


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Clannad

Clannad is an Irish musical group from Gweedore, County Donegal, Ireland. Their music has been variously described as being folk music, new age, and celtic. Clannad are Máire Ní Bhraonáin (Moya Brennan), Ciarán Brennan, Pól Brennan, Noel Duggan and Pádraig Duggan. Eithne Ní Bhraonáin (Enya Brennan), Máire’s sister, used to be a member of the group in the early Eighties. The band won a Grammy Award in 1999 for Best New Age Album.


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Sinéad O'Connor

Sinéad Marie Bernadette O’Connor (born December 8, 1966) is a Grammy Award-winning singer/ songwriter from Dublin, Ireland. Brash and outspoken — her shaven head, angry visage, and shapeless wardrobe a direct challenge to the popular culture’s long-prevailing notions of femininity and sexuality — O’Connor irrevocably altered the image of women in rock; railing against long-standing stereotypes simply by asserting herself not as a sex object but as a serious artist, she kick-started a revolt which led the way for many female performers.

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House of Pain

House of Pain was an Irish-styled American hip-hop group who released three albums in the early to mid 90’s before lead rapper Everlast decided to pursue his solo career again. The group is best known for its 1992 hit single Jump Around. The band’s history starts with a failed short solo career, Everlast teamed up with DJ Lethal and high school friend Danny Boy to form House of Pain. The group was signed to Tommy Boy Records, and their self-titled debut album (1992) went multi-platinum, spawning the successful DJ Muggs produced single Jump Around.


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Everlast

Erik Schrody (born August 18, 1969 in Valley Stream, New York), better known by his stage name Everlast, is a Grammy-Award winning Irish-American rapper and singer-songwriter, known for his solo hit What It’s Like and as the front-man for rap group House of Pain. He is also part of the hip-hop supergroup La Coka Nostra, which consists of his former House of Pain mates, Danny Boy and DJ Lethal, along with Underground rap veteran Ill Bill and Irish-American rapper Slaine. On July 14 of 2009 they released their debut album A Brand You Can Trust on Uncle Howie Records and Suburban Noize Records.


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The Chieftains

The Chieftains are a Grammy winning Irish musical group founded in 1962, known for performing and popularizing Irish traditional music. The band has recorded many albums of instrumental Irish folk music, as well as multiple collaborations with popular musicians of many genres, including Country music, Galician traditional music, Cape Breton and Newfoundland music, and rock and roll.


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Damien Rice

Damien Rice (born December 7, 1973) is an Irish singer-songwriter. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, to George and Maureen Rice and was raised in Celbridge, County Kildare, Ireland. In March 1999 Damien moved to Tuscany, then travelled around Europe, busking the streets. He arrived back in Dublin a year later, with a clear head and full of ideas. Damien started playing and recording music with his first band, Juniper. After a few years he decided creatively it was not for him so he left the band (Newly named Bell X1) to start a solo career.


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The Frames

The Frames (formed 1990) is a band based primarily in Dublin, Ireland. As of late 2004, the band consists of Glen Hansard (vocals, guitar), Joe Doyle (bass guitar, vocals), Colm Mac Con Iomaire (violin, keyboard and vocals), Rob Bochnik (lead guitar), and Johnny Boyle (drums). On both versions of the album “Fitzcarraldo” the band went by the moniker “The Frames DC”, to avoid being mistaken with a United States band of the same name.


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Enya

Eithne Patricia Ní Bhraonáin (born May 17, 1961 in Gweedore, County Donegal, Ireland), known simply as Enya, is a Grammy award winning and Academy award nominated Irish singer, instrumentalist and composer. She began her musical career in 1980, when she briefly joined her family band Clannad, before leaving to pursue her solo career. Her album Watermark, which was released in 1988, propelled her to international recognition and she became known for her unique sound, which is characterized by voice-layering, folk melodies, synthesized backdrops and ethereal reverberations.


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Hothouse Flowers

The group first formed in 1985 when Liam Ó Maonlaí and Fiachna ó Braonáin (who had known each other as children in a Gaelic-speaking school) began performing as street musicians, or buskers, on the streets of Dublin, Ireland as “The Incomparable Benzini Brothers.” They were soon joined by Peter O’Toole, and had won a street-entertainer award within a year. They renamed the group “Hothouse Flowers” and began writing songs and performing throughout Ireland.


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The Clancy Brothers

The Clancy Brothers were an Irish folk music singing group, most popular in the 1960s, who are often credited with popularizing Irish traditional music in the United States. The brothers were Patrick Clancy, Tom Clancy, Bobby Clancy and Liam Clancy. They are most well-known for their work with Tommy Makem, recording dozens of albums together as The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. Tommy Makem passed away on August 1st, 2007 after a lengthy fight with lung cancer.


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Fiddler's Green

Fiddler’s Green is a german ‘Irish Independent Speedfolk’ band. Mixing traditional irish/scottish tunes with punk, rock, reggae and ska elements they earned an excellent reputation as a live act.


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Horslips

Horslips were a 1970s Irish rock band that composed, arranged and performed their own Celtic rock songs and music based on traditional Irish jigs and reels. They were one of the first, if not the first, of the Celtic rock bands of that era. Formed in 1970, they disbanded in 1980, but recently (in 2005) the original line-up has regrouped and performed a small number of gigs.


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B*Witched

B*Witched were a late 1990s girl group from Dublin, Ireland who were wildly popular in Europe and enjoyed mild success in the United States. They were unique for their ability to mix Irish folk music with mainstream pop. Their members were twin sisters Edele and Keavy Lynch (younger sisters of Boyzone’s Shane Lynch), Sinéad O’Carroll, and Lindsay Armaou.


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Ronan Keating

Ronan Patrick John Keating (born 3 March 1977 in Swords, Dublin, Republic of Ireland) is an Irish recording artist, singer-songwriter, musician, and philanthropist. Keating debuted on the professional music scene alongside Keith Duffy, Mikey Graham, Shane Lynch and Stephen Gately, in 1994 as the lead singer of Boyzone. His solo career started in 1999, and resulted in 9 studio albums.


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The Waterboys

The Waterboys are a band formed in 1983 by Mike Scott. The band’s membership, past and present, has been composed mainly of musicians from the British Isles. London, Dublin, Spiddal, and Findhorn have all served as a home for the group. The band has played in a number of different styles, but most often their music can be described as a mix of Celtic folk music with rock and roll, or folk rock. After ten years of recording and touring, the band dissolved in 1993 and Scott pursued a solo career. The band reformed in 2000, and continues to release albums and tour worldwide.


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Westlife

Westlife is an Irish pop group formed on 3 July 1998. The group’s original lineup comprised Nicky Byrne, Kian Egan, Mark Feehily, Shane Filan and Brian McFadden (who left in 2004). The group is the only act in UK history to have their first seven singles go straight to Number 1, and they have gone on to sell over 45 million records worldwide. They were signed by Simon Cowell and are managed by Louis Walsh.


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