Irish Songs to Love

Greetings, music lovers! In this blog, authored by Collie and Niamh, we are going to chat about Irish songs and artists – not the ones that enjoy global fame, but those with which you may be less familiar. We want to take you down a musical road less traveled, but a very rewarding road nonetheless. Now- your faithful bloggers here, Collie and Niamh, do not necessarily share the same taste in music – although we do agree on a lot of must-listen-to stuff, but we are going to try and make this selection eclectic and fun for you. We will shortly be recording an ISAI podcast, and you’ll get a chance to pop into our regular conversation about what we love in Irish culture. You can also read Collie’s Movie blog here, and Niamh’s poetry blog here. This blog will be updated as inspiration strikes us, and will have input from all the team here at the ISAI. This means the quality of writing and taste in music may fluctuate wildly. But the enthusiasm and a wish to spread the word about Irish music, whether new or just new to you, will remain a constant.

Collie here. It has always surprised me that The Cranberries became huge stars globally in the mid-nineties but that Irish bands Something Happens or The Frames, to name two, did not.

This is not to say The Cranberries didn’t deserve their success, but strangely, they did not initially have the same fame in Ireland as they did abroad- and bands, like those mentioned above, were incredibly popular in Ireland, but never made the breakthrough elsewhere.There are hundreds of bands and thousands of songs that have lain under the radar, that we want to introduce to you. We have also included a spotify playlist with these songs and a few others- but we would say if you fall in love with some of these artists like we did, maybe go see them live, buy some merch or invest in some vinyl.   As is shown later, streaming don’t play the bills.