WMary Black is an Irish folk singer. She is well known as an interpreter of both traditional folk and modern material which has made her a major recording artist in her native Ireland.
WPaul Joseph Brady is an Irish singer-songwriter and musician from Strabane, Northern Ireland. His work straddles folk and pop. He was interested in a wide variety of music from an early age.
WKevin Burke is an Irish master fiddler considered one of the finest living Irish fiddlers. For nearly five decades he has been at the forefront of Irish traditional music and Celtic music, performing and recording with the groups The Bothy Band, Patrick Street, and the Celtic Fiddle Festival. He is a 2002 recipient of a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
WJames Byrne was an Irish farmer and fiddle playing icon from Donegal. He has been called one of Ireland's leading fiddle players.
WThe Chieftains are a traditional Irish band formed in Dublin in 1962, by Paddy Moloney, Sean Potts and Michael Tubridy. Their sound, which is almost entirely instrumental and largely built around uilleann pipes, has become synonymous with traditional Irish music and they are regarded as having helped popularise Irish music across the world. They have won six Grammys during their career and they were given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the prestigious BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2002. Some music experts have credited The Chieftains with bringing traditional Irish music to a worldwide audience, so much so that the Irish government awarded them the honorary title of 'Ireland's Musical Ambassadors' in 1989.
WWillie Clancy was an Irish uilleann piper, flute player and whistle player.
WAustin Clarke, born in 83 Manor Street, Stoneybatter, Dublin, was one of the leading Irish poets of the generation after W. B. Yeats. He also wrote plays, novels and memoirs. Clarke's main contribution to Irish poetry was the rigour with which he used technical means borrowed from classical Irish language poetry when writing in English.
WKevin Conneff is an Irish singer and musician. He is best known as the lead singer and bodhrán player of Irish folk group, The Chieftains. He joined the group in 1976 after contributing to their album The Chieftains 6: Bonaparte's Retreat.
WJohn Doherty was an Irish folk fiddler.
WSéamus Ennis was an Irish musician, singer and Irish music collector. He was most noted for his uilleann pipe playing and was partly responsible for the revival of the instrument during the twentieth century, having co-founded Na Píobairí Uilleann, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion of the uilleann pipes and its music. He is recognised for having preserved almost 2,000 Irish songs and dance-tunes as part of the work he did with the Irish Folklore Commission. Ennis is widely regarded as one of the greatest uilleann pipers of all time.
WLen Graham is a Northern Irish traditional singer and song collector from County Antrim, Northern Ireland. He is a leading authority on Folk music in Ireland.
WHamish Scott Henderson was a Scottish poet, songwriter, communist, intellectual and soldier.
WNoel Hill is an Irish concertina player from County Clare who has had great influence developing the modern playing style of the Irish concertina, as a performer and educator.
WPatrick Kavanagh was an Irish poet and novelist. His best-known works include the novel Tarry Flynn, and the poems "On Raglan Road" and "The Great Hunger". He is known for his accounts of Irish life through reference to the everyday and commonplace. He also played as a goalkeeper for his local Gaelic football club.
WDolores Keane is an Irish folk singer and occasional actress. She was a founding member of the group De Dannan and has since embarked on a solo career.
WSeán Keane is an Irish fiddler, teacher and former member of The Chieftains. He was a member of Ceoltóirí Chualann in the 1960s, before joining The Chieftains in 1968. He has a unique style, especially in his use of ornamentation, perhaps influenced by the music of the uilleann pipes.
WGeorge Mackay Brown was a Scottish poet, author and dramatist with a distinctly Orcadian character. He is seen as one of the great Scottish poets of the 20th century.
WMatt Molloy is an Irish musician, from a region known for producing talented flautists. As a child, he began playing the flute and won the All-Ireland Flute Championship at nineteen. Considered one of the most brilliant Irish musicians, his style that adapts piping techniques to the flute has influenced many contemporary Irish flute players.
WPaddy Moloney is an Irish musician, composer, and producer who is the founder and leader of the Irish musical group The Chieftains and has played on every one of their albums.
WChristopher Andrew "Christy" Moore is an Irish folk singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is one of the founding members of Planxty and Moving Hearts. His first album, Paddy on the Road was recorded with Dominic Behan in 1969. In 2007, he was named as Ireland's greatest living musician in RTÉ's People of the Year Awards.
WEdwin George Morgan was a Scottish poet and translator associated with the Scottish Renaissance. He is widely recognised as one of the foremost Scottish poets of the 20th century. In 1999, Morgan was made the first Glasgow Poet Laureate. In 2004, he was named as the first Makar or National Poet for Scotland.
WMáirtín O'Connor is an Irish button accordionist from Galway, Ireland, who began playing at the age of nine, and whose career has seen him as a member of many traditional music groups that include Skylark, Midnight Well, De Dannan, and The Boys of the Lough. A traditional Irish musician, O'Connor was one of the major forces of the music in the world-renowned Riverdance.
WLiam Óg O'Flynn was an Irish uilleann piper and Irish traditional musician. In addition to a solo career and as a member of Planxty, O'Flynn recorded with: Christy Moore, Dónal Lunny, Andy Irvine, Kate Bush, Mark Knopfler, the Everly Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Mike Oldfield, Mary Black, Enya and Sinéad O'Connor.
WSeán Ó Riada, was an Irish composer and arranger of Irish traditional music. Through his incorporation of modern and traditional techniques he became the single most influential figure in the revival of Irish traditional music during the 1960s.
WTommy Potts (1912–1988) was an Irish fiddle player and composer from Dublin who gained iconic status in traditional Irish music circles for his virtuoso musicianship. Potts' given name is also frequently spelled Tommie. His music has influences from jazz and classical music, making it a highly individualistic take on the Irish music tradition.
WLeo Rowsome was the third generation of an unbroken line of uilleann pipers. He was a performer, manufacturer and teacher of the uilleann pipes throughout his life.
WRunrig was a Scottish Celtic rock band formed on the Isle of Skye in 1973. From its inception, the band's line-up included songwriters Rory Macdonald and Calum Macdonald. The line-up during most of the 1980s and 1990s also included Donnie Munro, Malcolm Jones, Iain Bayne, and Pete Wishart. Munro left the band in 1997 to pursue a career in politics and was replaced by Bruce Guthro. Wishart left in 2001 and was replaced by Brian Hurren. The band released fourteen studio albums, with a number of their songs sung in Scottish Gaelic.
WStockton's Wing is an Irish band formed in 1977 by four All-Ireland champion musicians - Paul Roche flute/whistle, Maurice Lennon fiddle, Tommy Hayes bodhran, and Kieran Hanrahan banjo/mandolin, along with Tony Callinan on guitar and vocals.
WHenry Francis Montgomery Stuart was an Irish writer. He was awarded one of the highest artistic accolades in Ireland, being elected a Saoi of Aosdána, before his death in 2000. His years in Nazi Germany led to a great deal of controversy.
WRobin Duncan Harry Williamson is a Scottish multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and storyteller who was a founding member of The Incredible String Band.