55 Irish songwriters

Colm de Bhailís was an Irish poet, songwriter, stonemason and centenarian who lived to be 109 years of age.

Luka Bloom is an Irish folk singer-songwriter. He is the younger brother of folk singer Christy Moore.

Pól Brennan is an Irish singer, songwriter and producer. He is the brother of Enya, Moya Brennan, Brídín Brennan and Ciarán Brennan. He is a member of the family band Clannad, and co-wrote the hit song "Theme from Harry's Game". He left the group in 1990, but rejoined in 2011. Since the early 1990s, Pól has gained critical acclaim as a solo artist when he joined Japanese musician Joji Hirota and Chinese musician Guo Yue, and released an album, Trísan.

Niall Breslin, known as Bressie, is an Irish musician, former Westmeath Gaelic footballer and Leinster Rugby player. Breslin found success as the lead singer, guitarist, songwriter with pop band The Blizzards, as a co-writer and producer with XIX Entertainment and as a solo artist. He was the winning coach on the first and third seasons of The Voice of Ireland.

Patrick Martin Cusack, known by the stage name Pete Briquette, is an Irish bassist, record producer and composer. He is a member of the Boomtown Rats and has also played in Bob Geldof's band.

Michael Brunnock is an Irish singer-songwriter, and musician. He is known as having been a member of the Irish bands Little Palace and The Van Winkles, and performed with Dead Can Dance's Brendan Perry. After moving to New York, Brunnock gained critical acclaim as a solo artist when he worked with Record producer, Pat Dillett and also The Ceasars.

Bry O'Reilly, known professionally as Bry, is an Irish singer/songwriter from Dublin.

Nicholas Bernard James Adam Byrne, Jr. is an Irish singer, songwriter, radio presenter, dancer, television presenter and former professional footballer, best known for being a member of Irish music band Westlife; he is the band's oldest member. Westlife has since released twelve albums, embarked on thirteen world tours, and won several awards, becoming one of the most successful musical groups of all time.

Marc Carroll is an Irish musician, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He has released 7 albums and 23 singles. He is currently signed to One Little Indian Records, who released his most recent studio album, Love Is All Or Love Is Not At All on 6 November 2015. The label also released remastered and expanded editions of his first 4 albums in February 2014. He has received considerable critical acclaim for his recorded output but has never reached any significant level of mainstream success. The Irish Times newspaper have called him "One of Ireland's great lost songwriters, touched by genius and whose dealings with the music industry have become the stuff of legend", and British rock critic Fred Deller wrote in Mojo Magazine that his work was "deserving of a far wider audience."

Sonny Condell is an Irish singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and graphic artist. He is mainly known as a member of the Irish bands Tír na nÓg and Scullion. He released some hits in Ireland as a solo artist like "Down in the City" in 1977 that he covered later with the Belgian singer Micha Marah on her album Voyage in 1998. For some years, Condell had his own solo band called Radar, although he still plays with Tír na nÓg and Scullion.

Cathal Coughlan is an Irish singer songwriter, formerly of Microdisney and The Fatima Mansions. His work with both bands has received much critical acclaim, so has his solo material.

Catherine "Cathy" Davey is an Irish singer-songwriter. She has released one extended play, "Come Over" (2004), and four albums, Something Ilk (2004), Tales of Silversleeve (2007), The Nameless (2010) and New Forest (2016). Her second album garnered her a 2007 Choice Music Prize nomination and the 2008 Meteor Award for Best Irish Female and spawned a number of successful singles, including "Reuben", "Moving", and "Sing for Your Supper". The Nameless was the top selling album in Ireland upon the week of its release. It was also nominated for the Choice Music Prize.

Christopher John Davison, known professionally as Chris de Burgh, is a British-Irish singer-songwriter and instrumentalist. He started out as an art rock performer but subsequently started writing more pop-oriented material. He has had several top 40 hits in the UK and two in the US, but he is more popular in other countries, particularly Norway and Brazil. His 1986 love song "The Lady in Red" reached number one in several countries. De Burgh has sold over 45 million albums worldwide.

Edmund John 'Ed' Deane is an Irish guitarist with a career spanning six decades, from the late 1960s to the present day. He is a blues musician, playing the electric and acoustic guitar, and specialising in Slide guitar and the Lap steel guitar.

Kian John Francis Egan is an Irish singer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter, best known as a member of International vocal group Westlife. Westlife has since released twelve albums, embarked on thirteen world tours, and won several awards, becoming one of the most successful musical groups of all time. He was a coach on The Voice of Ireland and won the thirteenth series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! in 2013.

Siobhan Máire Deirdre Fahey is an Irish singer and musician, whose vocal range is a light contralto. She was a founding member of the 1980s British girl group Bananarama, who had several top 10 hits including the US number one hit single "Venus". She later formed the Brit Award and Ivor Novello Award-winning musical act Shakespears Sister, who had a UK number one hit with the 1992 single "Stay". Fahey joined the other original members of Bananarama for a 2017 UK Tour, and later in 2018, a North America and European Tour.

Dick Farrelly born Richard Farrelly was an Irish songwriter, policeman and poet, composer of "The Isle of Innisfree", the song for which he is best remembered. His parents were publicans and when Farrelly was twenty-three he left Kells, County Meath for Dublin to join the Irish Police Force. He served in various Garda stations throughout his thirty-eight-year career, ending up in the Carriage Office in Dublin Castle. At heart Farrelly was very much a songwriter and poet. He was a private, modest and shy man who wrote over two hundred songs and poems during his lifetime. He married Anne Lowry from Headford, Co.Galway in 1955 and the couple had five children. His two sons Dick and Gerard are professional musicians.

Shane Steven Filan is an Irish singer and songwriter. He is the lead singer of boy band Westlife, which was formed in 1998, disbanded in 2012, and regrouped in 2018. Westlife have released thirteen albums, embarked on twelve world tours, and won several awards, becoming one of the most successful musical groups of all time.

David Flynn is an Irish composer and musician with a number of major awards and commissions to his name. He is the founder and artistic director of the Irish Memory Orchestra. His recent music is noteworthy for merging the influence of traditional Irish music with contemporary classical music and jazz. He is also an accomplished multi-instrumentalist who works across many genres including classical, jazz, rock and traditional Irish music. He performs regularly on guitar, mandolin, banjo, bouzouki and vocals.

William Percy French became known as one of Ireland's foremost songwriters and entertainers. Thanks to the late Oliver Nulty, French has become recognised for his watercolour paintings as well. William Percy French was a gifted polymath who had a number of artistic talents at his command. He could work very quickly, and his output is prodigious across many genres.

Gavin Friday is an Irish singer and songwriter, composer, actor and painter, best known as a founding member of the post-punk group The Virgin Prunes.

Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof, is an Irish singer-songwriter, author, political activist, and occasional actor. He rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats in the late 1970s, who achieved popularity at the time of the punk rock movement. The band had UK number one hits with his compositions "Rat Trap" and "I Don't Like Mondays". Geldof co-wrote "Do They Know It's Christmas?", one of the best-selling singles of all time, and starred in Pink Floyd's 1982 film Pink Floyd – The Wall as "Pink".

Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore was an Irish-born American composer and bandmaster who lived and worked in the United States after 1848. While serving in the Union Army during the U.S. Civil War, Gilmore wrote the lyrics to the song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home". This was published under the pseudonym Louis Lambert in September 1863.

Shaun Glenville was an Irish actor who specialised in pantomime performances - he would play the dame while his wife Dorothy Ward would play the principal boy. The music hall historian Christopher Pulling called him one of the 'grand comedians of the music-halls'. He had a successful 62 year career and played in over 40 pantomimes.

Noel Anthony Hogan is an Irish musician and record producer best known as the lead guitarist and co-songwriter of the Irish alt-rock band the Cranberries.

Darren Holden is an Irish singer-songwriter who has performed on Broadway as part of Riverdance and Movin' Out and in the national tours for both shows. His debut album, Suddenly, released in Ireland and Europe in 1998, contained three Top 30 hit singles. He currently sings as part of the Irish folk group, The High Kings, along with Finbarr Clancy and Brian Dunphy.

Johnny Jewell is an Irish singer & lead guitarist of Irish rock band Aslan. His career of over twenty-five years has been characterized by numerous successes on the Irish charts. He co-wrote many of the band's finest songs including "Crazy World", "This Is", "Where's The Sun?", "Hurt Sometimes" to name but a few. He also wrote the memorable riffs behind the songs and is the falsetto backing vocalist behind Christy Dignam in the band. He was also in The Precious Stones during the band's split and sang vocals most notably on "Jesus Says He Loves Me" which was originally intended to be on Aslan's original second album.

Peadar Kearney was an Irish republican and composer of numerous rebel songs. In 1907 he wrote the lyrics to A Soldier's Song, now the Irish national anthem. He was the uncle of Irish writers Brendan Behan, Brian Behan, and Dominic Behan.

Michael Kelly was an Irish singer (tenor), composer and theatrical manager who made an international career of importance in musical history. One of the leading figures in British musical theatre around the turn of the nineteenth century, and a close associate of Richard Sheridan's, he had been a friend of Mozart and Paisiello, and created roles in operas of both. With his friend Nancy Storace, he was one of the first singers in that age from Britain and Ireland to make a front-rank reputation in Italy and Austria. In Italy he was also known as O'Kelly or even Signor Ochelli. Although the primary source for his life is his Reminiscences, it has been said 'Any statement of Kelly's is immediately suspect.'

Paul Kelly is an Irish multi-instrumentalist musician from Tallaght in Dublin, Ireland. He has played Irish traditional music, bluegrass and country, and is equally at home in a variety of different styles of music.

Nuala Kennedy is an Irish composer, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist.

Samuel Lover, also known as "Ben Trovato", was an Irish songwriter, composer, novelist, and a painter of portraits, chiefly miniatures. He was the grandfather of Victor Herbert.

Sean McCarthy (1923–1990), a native of Finuge, County Kerry, Ireland, was an Irish songwriter. He was born one of 10 children, on 5 July 1923. He penned some of Ireland's favourite ballads including "Step It Out Mary", "Shanagolden", "Red Haired Mary" "In Shame Love, In Shame" and "Highland Paddy". In 1973 a collection of his songs was published in Listowel, Co. Kerry.

Richey McCourt is a Dublin-based songwriter, who is signed to Stockholm-based publishing company, DH MGMT. McCourt has worked with artists and producers including Will Young, Pixie Lott, Matt Cardle, Rebecca Ferguson and Isaac Waddington. He writes predominantly with Swedish-based writer and producer Nick Jarl. McCourt and Jarl's song "Losing the Love" is featured in the Disney movie Tini: El gran cambio de Violetta starring Martina Stoessel and on her debut album.

James Lynam Molloy was an Irish composer, poet, and author.

Christopher 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.

Fiach Moriarty is an Irish singer-songwriter and television presenter from Dublin, Ireland. His debut album So I came out in 2010 which appeared in the Irish top 100 album chart and peaked at 62. His second record was released in April 2015 and debuted at number 29 in the Irish chart.

Edmond Enright, known professionally as Mundy, is an Irish singer-songwriter and founder of the independent record label Camcor Records.

Bellefire were an Irish girl group, best known for their 2002 cover of the U2 song "All I Want Is You". The original line-up consisted of Kelly Kilfeather, Tara Lee, Cathy Newell and Ciara Newell. Tara Lee left the group in 2002. They mostly performed pop and adult contemporary music. Outside Southeast Asia and their native Ireland, they have received minimal recognition, although they did experience minor success in the United Kingdom with their singles.

Robert Byrne, better known by his stage name Nucentz, also known as Nu-Centz or Nuie, is an Irish rapper. In May 2011, Nucentz won Ireland's First Rap Superstar Competition to collaborate with world-wide hip-hop star Lupe Fiasco.

Mícheál Ó Domhnaill was an Irish singer, guitarist, composer, and producer who was a major influence on Irish traditional music in the second half of the twentieth century. He is remembered for his innovative work with Skara Brae, the first group to record vocal harmonization in Irish language songs, and The Bothy Band, one of the most influential groups in Irish traditional music. His reputation was enhanced by a successful collaboration with master fiddler Kevin Burke, and his work with the Celtic groups Relativity and Nightnoise, which achieved significant commercial and critical acclaim.

The Coronas are the Irish rock band that originated in and at Dublin. They release their music by their own independent record label, 3ú Records, and are based between Dublin and London. They have released five studio albums, Heroes or Ghosts (2007), Tony Was an Ex-Con (2009), Closer to You (2011) The Long Way (2014), Trust The Wire (2017) & True Love Waits (2020).

Kieran O'Reilly is an actor, musician and producer. He is also the songwriter and lead vocalist with the Irish alternative rock band, Hail The Ghost. He is best known for his controversial role as Detective Garda Ciarán Madden in RTÉ's hit crime drama, Love/Hate, and his role as 'White Hair' in the Emmy Award-winning television show, Vikings.

Raymond Edward "Gilbert" O'Sullivan is an Irish singer-songwriter who achieved his most significant success during the early 1970s with hits including "Alone Again (Naturally)", "Clair", and "Get Down". O'Sullivan's songs are often marked by his distinctive, percussive piano playing style and observational lyrics utilising word play.

Geoffrey Molyneux Palmer was an Irish composer, mainly of operas and vocal music, among them the first musical settings of poems by James Joyce.

Brendan Phelan is an Irish songwriter from Dublin. His best-known song is probably "Dublin in My Tears", recorded by the Barleycorn, The Fureys, Patsy Watchorn, the Dublin City Ramblers, Mick Galvin, the Jolly Beggarmen and others.

Roesy, from Birr, County Offaly, is an Irish singer-songwriter. His debut album "Sketch the Day, Paint the Night" (2001) was followed by "The Spirit Store" in 2003 and "Only Love is Real" in 2004. These albums were released on his Birr-based label Blue Cloak Records.

Robert Gerard Sands was a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who died on hunger strike while imprisoned at HM Prison Maze in Northern Ireland. Sands helped to plan the 1976 bombing of the Balmoral Furniture Company in Dunmurry, which was followed by a gun battle with the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Sands was arrested while trying to escape and he was sentenced to 14 years for firearms possession.

Ryan Sheridan is an Irish singer, songwriter and guitarist from County Monaghan.

Allie Sherlock is an Irish singer, songwriter, guitarist and busker. A video of her performing a cover of Ed Sheeran's Supermarket Flowers went viral on YouTube in June 2017. She appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2018. She has performed frequently on Grafton Street, Dublin.

Rob Smith is an Irish singer-songwriter, DJ and writer from Terenure, Dublin.

Hope Temple, born as Alice Maude Davis was an Irish songwriter and composer. She was also known as Mrs André Messager.

Ryan Tubridy, nicknamed Tubs, is an Irish broadcaster, a presenter of live shows on radio and television in Ireland. Tubridy is the highest earning presenter on RTÉ. He is the current host of long-running TV chat programme The Late Late Show and a weekday morning radio show called The Ryan Tubridy Show.

David Anthony Healy, who performs as David Virgin, is an Irish-born Australian musician, songwriter, author and record producer. In the 1980s he was a member of punk, industrial noise group SPK, and later formed a post-punk band, Sekret Sekret. He was active in the 1990s and 2000s touring Australia and Europe. He performed and recorded both as a solo artist and as a member of numerous bands.

(William) Vincent Wallace was an Irish composer and musician. In his day, he was famous on three continents as a double virtuoso on violin and piano. Nowadays, he is mainly remembered as an opera composer of note, with key works such as Maritana (1845) and Lurline (1847/60), but he also wrote a large amount of piano music that was much in vogue in the 19th century. His more modest output of songs and ballads, equally wide-ranging in style and difficulty, was also popular in his day, some numbers being associated with famous singers of the time.