Irish musical artists

U2 has been perhaps the biggest music act in the world since the late 1980s to the current day. They take prominent stands on human rights issues, expressed through their lyrics and other public statements and actions. The band's lead singer, Bono, has become quite prominent in charity movements and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. The band consists of Bono, lead singer and songwriter; The Edge, lead guitar, keyboards, vocals; Adam Clayton, bass guitar; Larry Mullen Jr., drums. Their manager is Paul McGuinness (1978-2013).

The band formed in Dublin, Ireland, in 1976. The three members who strongly identified themselves as Christians (all except Clayton) decided to pursue and promote the band's career in a manner that would be consistent with their religious beliefs, which are heavy on social action. Theology professor Eugene Peterson says the band has "little patience with media-driven aspects of the Christian religion and a church and culture that shows little concern for justice and poverty and sickness".

The band's popular 1983 song "Sunday Bloody Sunday" commemorated the slaughter of innocent civilians during the Irish troubles. It called for a renunciation of violence, a sentiment that resonated greatly with the people of Ireland. Throughout the 1980s, the band used this song to campaign against the Irish Republican Army's (IRA) efforts to raise money to fuel continued armed conflict. The IRA sent a threat to U2 that if they continued their campaign, they would be kidnapped. The band continued anyway. The band's 1984 album "Unforgettable Fire" was named after paintings made by the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs. The album's songs "Pride" and "MLK" were both tributes to the modern-day leader they most admire, Martin Luther King. Another song, "Bad", was about heroin addiction, which was a serious problem in their hometown of Dublin at that time.

U2 were major participants in the historic and seminal "Live Aid" concert of 1985, which raised funds for relief from a severe drought in Ethiopia. The band was seen by many of the 1.5 billion people who viewed the concert on live television, and Bono's unscripted leap into the crowd captured the imagination of all. The more than 75 performing groups raised some $250 million for the charity. In the months following the concert, U2's record sales skyrocketed and have never come back down. In 1986, the band headlined a promotional tour to support Amnesty International, and the effort reportedly tripled the organization's membership.

In the 1990s, the band's music and concerts mocked the excesses of commercialism. Some critics failed to understand that Bono's exaggerated on-stage personas during the "Zoo TV" tour were parodies, and thus concluded that the band had given in to what they in fact were criticizing. In the early 2000s, U2 shifted from stadium extravaganzas to performing in smaller arenas where they were closer to their audiences. In 2004, the band teamed up with iPod for an innovative promotional campaign.

U2 continues their work for charity and social action. They promoted the Northern Ireland Peace Accords, raised money for the survivors of the Omagh bombing, played in devastated Sarajevo following the war there, helped bolster the shaky economy of New York City by playing there following the September 11 terrorist attacks, participated in the Live 8 series of concerts to relieve Third World debt, and continue to promote the Make Poverty History campaign. Bono has become prominent in efforts to end poverty and seek relief from AIDS and promote trade for Africa. He has become quite celebrated for these efforts apart from his music and he often finds himself publicly hobnobbing with presidents and finance ministers to promote these charitable ends.

U2 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005. By that year, they had won 22 Grammy awards, a historic record surpassed only by Stevie Wonder.

Sir George Ivan Morrison OBE known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans six decades. He has won two Grammy Awards.

As a teenager in the late 1950s, he played a variety of instruments such as guitar, harmonica, keyboards and saxophone for several Irish show-bands, covering the popular hits of that time. Known as "Van the Man" to his fans, Morrison rose to prominence in the mid 1960s as the lead singer of the Northern Irish R&B and rock band Them. With Them, he recorded the garage band classic "Gloria".

Under the pop-oriented guidance of Bert Berns, Morrison's solo career began in 1967 with the release of the hit single "Brown Eyed Girl". After Berns's death, Warner Bros. Records bought out Morrison's contract and allowed him three sessions to record Astral Weeks (1968). While initially a poor seller, the album has become regarded as a classic. Moondance (1970) established Morrison as a major artist, and he built on his reputation throughout the 1970s with a series of acclaimed albums and live performances.

Much of Morrison's music is structured around the conventions of soul music and R&B. An equal part of his catalogers consists of lengthy, spiritually inspired musical journeys that show the influence of Celtic tradition, jazz and stream-of-consciousness narrative, such as the album Astral Weeks. The two strains together are sometimes referred to as "Celtic soul". His live performances have been described as "transcendental" and "inspired", and his music as attaining "a kind of violent transcendence".

Morrison's albums have performed well in Ireland and the UK, with more than 40 reaching the UK top 40. With the release of Latest Record Project, Volume 1 he scored top ten albums in the UK in four consecutive decades. Eighteen of his albums have reached the top 40 in the United States, twelve of them between 1997 and 2017. He has received two Grammy Awards, the 1994 Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, the 2017 Americana Music Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting and has been inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2016, he was knighted for services to the music industry and to tourism in Northern Ireland.

Blues guitarist Rory Gallagher was born in Ballyshannon, Ireland, in 1959 (his brother Donal Gallagher is also a blues musician). He began his career in the 1960s in Ireland, playing in a variety of show bands. In 1965 he formed his own band, Taste, a blues-based rock trio. They had some success and released a few albums, but broke up in 1971. Gallagher then went solo, releasing a self-titled album that same year. The album was a critical and financial success, and led to Gallagher's being asked to contribute to blues legend Muddy Waters' album "The London Muddy Waters Sessions" in 1972, which won him more fans both in the UK and the US. Although he continued to appear and record throughout the 1970s, by the 1980s his popularity in the US had waned. He made a strong comeback in 1990 with the album "Fresh Evidence". He developed liver problems and in 1995 entered a hospital in London, England, for a liver transplant. Complications developed, and he died in London on June 14 of that year.

The Cranberries is known for Army of the Dead (2021), Mission: Impossible (1996) and Thunder Force (2021).

Thin Lizzy is known for A Knight's Tale (2001), The Expendables (2010) and Rush (2013).

A brilliant blues and rock guitarist and successful singer-songwriter, Gary Moore has nevertheless always been rather underrated, especially in the United States, where he was never a major artist and rarely gets ranked highly in the usual "best guitarist" lists. He was born and raised in Belfast and played in the line-ups of several local bands during his teenage years, before moving to Dublin, Ireland, after being asked to join Skid Row. Moore later played with Phil Lynott in Thin Lizzy and joined the British jazz-rock band Colosseum II. He also had a successful solo career with eleven UK Top 40 single releases, which included the top ten songs "Parisienne Walkways" and "Out in the Fields" (a collaboration with Lynott), and he peaked in popularity with his best-selling album "Still Got the Blues" in 1990, which was on the UK album chart for 26 weeks.

Moore tragically died aged just 58 in 2011. He was never one of the biggest rock stars in the world but he was revered by many British and Irish guitarists and guitar fans, frequently written about in the British guitar press and magazines such as Classic Rock, and left a tremendous legacy of music ranging from blues to hard rock to ballads.

"The Corrs" is a prominent pop/rock musical group from Ireland. They have sold over 30 million albums and are popular throughout most of the world. The band is basically comprised of three sisters and their brother. The Corrs music often shows strong influences from traditional Celtic music but also from modern pop such as Eagles and The Carpenters.

In their early years The Corrs had performed on tour with musical acts U2, Celine Dion, and the Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger has commented "They blew us, the Stones, off our own stage". The band has given command performances before the Queen of England, the Pope and the Nobel Committee, and they were chosen to play at the Live 8 concert in July 2005. Lead singer Andrea occasionally performs duets with U2s Bono . The band's popular concert DVD _Corrs: 'Live at the Royal Albert Hall' - St. Patrick's Day March 17, 1998, The (1998) (TV)_ featured guest performer Mick Fleetwood. The Corrs' songs have contributed to several movie soundtracks.

The group's basic lineup is:

Andrea Corr -- lead vocals, tin whistle, main lyricist

Caroline Corr -- drums, bodhrán, piano, vocals

Sharon Corr -- violin, vocals

Jim Corr -- guitars, keyboards, vocals

When performing, the siblings are assisted by: Anthony Drennan, lead guitar, and Keith Duffy, bass guitar.

Their music manager is John Hughes, a musician in his own right who is sometimes referred to as the "fifth Corr".

Hailing from Dundalk, Ireland, the Corrs' parents were musicians who strongly encouraged each of their children to pursue music. The group first performed as a band when they auditioned to play in the musical film 'Commitments, The (1991)'. That movie's musical director, John Hughes, saw potential in the group and became their manager. The Corrs' debut album was "Forgiven, Not Forgotten" (1995), followed by "Talk on Corners" (1997), "In Blue" (2000), "Borrowed Heaven" (2004) and "Home" (2005). Their 1998 cover of Fleetwood Mac's song 'Dreams' was a big hit, and their single 'Breathless' was very popular in 2000.

The Chieftains is known for The Nightingale (2018), Rob Roy (1995) and Far and Away (1992).

Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin, the fourth youngest of nine children, comes from the small village of Dore (Dobhar in Irish) in the Gweedore (Gaoth Dobhair) region of County Donegal in northwestern Ireland. She now lives in Killiney, a coastal district on the southern outskirts of Dublin The family is very musical and her parents played in a family dance band before settling down. Her father owns a local pub - Leo's Tavern in Meenaleck - and her mother Baba taught music in the local school. In 1968, elder brothers Ciarán & Pol, and uncles Pádraig & Noel Ó Dúgáin, formed the band "An Clan As Dobhar" to perform traditional Irish music at festivals etc. Changing their name to Clannad, and recruiting sister Maire Brennan in 1973, the band have gone on to international success performing both their own and traditional material. They have recorded a number of albums. Enya joined Clannad in 1980 and, credited under her real name, provided keyboards and (mostly) backing vocals. She appears on their 1982 album "Fuaim".

In 1982, Clannad split with their long-time manager and producer Nicky Ryan. Eithne, apparently frustrated with being left in the background, left at the same time and, in Ryan's belief that she had talent in her own right, moved to live with him and his wife Roma Ryan and develop her own musical career. In 1985, film producer David Puttnam commissioned her to write music for his film The Frog Prince (1985) which was released in 1985. The titles on The Frog Prince (1985) credit music to Enya Ní Bhraonáin and the transition of Eithne to Enya (the phonetic pronunciation of Eithne) had begun.

In 1986, BBC-TV began work on a six part documentary series charting the history and continuing cultural influence of the Celts. Enya was signed to write and perform music for the series. The Celts (1987) was first shown in 1987 and a selection of its music released under the title "Enya", giving the artist her first album, largely unnoticed at the time. Her 'big break' began in 1987 when she was signed by Rob Dickins, head of WEA Music UK, after he had heard and been entranced by the "Enya" album. WEA's backing made the recording of "Watermark" possible and the album was released in 1988. Although no singles were originally planned, it was the release "Orinoco Flow" ("Sail Away") that brought Enya to public attention and resulted in an unexpected chart #1 in several countries. She continued the success with her next albums, "Shepherd Moons" and "The Celts".

Clannad (short for Clann As Dobhar, "the family from Dore") is a traditional Irish music group dating back over a quarter of a century with multiple hit records in Ireland, the UK, and the US. Clannad are Maire Brennan (vocals, keyboards, harp), Ciarán Brennan (vocals, bass, keyboards, guitar), Noel Duggan (Acoustic guitar) and Padraig Duggan (Acoustic guitar).

Damien Rice was born on 7 December 1973 in Celbridge, County Kildare, Ireland. He is a composer and actor, known for Closer (2004), Stay (2005) and In Good Company (2004).

Lisa Hannigan was born on 12 February 1981 in County Meath, Ireland. She is an actress and composer, known for Song of the Sea (2014), Gravity (2013) and Closer (2004).

Deniz Altan was born on 26 September 1994 in Istanbul, Turkey. She is an actress, known for The Criminals (2020), Plaza (2020) and Kara Agaç Destani (2024).

Imelda May was born on 10 July 1974 in Dublin, Ireland. She is an actress and composer, known for Gangster Squad (2013), Wild Target (2010) and Morning Glory (2010).

Sinéad O'Connor was born on 8 December 1966 in Glenageary, Ireland. She was a music artist and actress, known for Albert Nobbs (2011), In the Name of the Father (1993) and Sinéad O'Connor: Nothing Compares 2 U (1990). She was married to Barry Herridge, Steve Cooney, Nicholas Sommerlad and John Reynolds. She died on 26 July 2023 in Herne Hill, London, England, UK.

Bob Geldof was frontman for the late '70s to mid '80s Irish punk rock band the Boomtown Rats. He also conceived and co-wrote Band Aid's tune "Do They Know It's Christmas?" with his friend, musician Midge Ure of Ultravox, which became the 1984 Christmas number one in the UK and the best-selling British pop single until that time. Band Aid later evolved into Live Aid (1985), the first international real-time concert, broadcast across the globe for two days. Band Aid and Live Aid (1985) were created to bring relief to the starving in Ethiopia. Geldof was knighted by the British Conservative government in 1986 for his achievement.

Richard St John Harris was born on October 1, 1930 in Limerick, Ireland, to a farming family, one of nine children born to Mildred (Harty) and Ivan Harris. He attended Crescent College, a Jesuit school, and was an excellent rugby player, with a strong passion for literature. Unfortunately, a bout of tuberculosis as a teenager ended his aspirations to a rugby career, but he became fascinated with the theater and skipped a local dance one night to attend a performance of "Henry IV". He was hooked and went on to learn his craft at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), then spent several years in stage productions. He debuted on screen in Shake Hands with the Devil (1959) and quickly scored regular work in films, including The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959), The Night Fighters (1960) and a good role as a frustrated Australian bomber pilot in The Guns of Navarone (1961).

However, his breakthrough performance was as the quintessential "angry young man" in the sensational drama This Sporting Life (1963), which scored him an Oscar nomination. He then appeared in the WW II commando tale The Heroes of Telemark (1965) and in the Sam Peckinpah-directed western Major Dundee (1965). He next showed up in Hawaii (1966) and played King Arthur in Camelot (1967), a lackluster adaptation of the famous Broadway play. Better performances followed, among them a role as a reluctant police informer in The Molly Maguires (1970) alongside Sir Sean Connery. Harris took the lead role in the violent western A Man Called Horse (1970), which became something of a cult film and spawned two sequels. As the 1970s progressed, Harris continued to appear regularly on screen; however, the quality of the scripts varied from above average to woeful.

His credits during this period included directing himself as an aging soccer player in The Hero (1970); the western The Deadly Trackers (1973); the big-budget "disaster" film Juggernaut (1974); the strangely-titled crime film 99 and 44/100% Dead! (1974); with Connery again in Robin and Marian (1976); Gulliver's Travels (1977); a part in the Jaws (1975); Orca (1977) and a nice turn as an ill-fated mercenary with Richard Burton and Roger Moore in the popular action film The Wild Geese (1978).

The 1980s kicked off with Harris appearing in the silly Bo Derek vanity production Tarzan the Ape Man (1981) and the remainder of the decade had him appearing in some very forgettable productions. However, the luck of the Irish was once again to shine on Harris's career and he scored rave reviews (and another Oscar nomination) for The Field (1990). He then locked horns with Harrison Ford as an IRA sympathizer in Patriot Games (1992) and got one of his best roles as gunfighter English Bob in the Clint Eastwood western Unforgiven (1992). Harris was firmly back in vogue and rewarded his fans with more wonderful performances in Wrestling Ernest Hemingway (1993); Cry, the Beloved Country (1995); The Great Kandinsky (1995) and This Is the Sea (1997). Further fortune came his way with a strong performance in the blockbuster Gladiator (2000) and he became known to an entirely new generation of film fans as Albus Dumbledore in the mega-successful Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002). His final screen role was as "Lucius Sulla" in Caesar (2002).

Harris died of Hodgkin's disease, also known as Hodgkin's lymphoma, in London on October 25, 2002, aged 72.

On August 7, 2016, Nesbitt announced that she was leaving Celtic Woman to focus more on her own projects.

In 2017 Nesbitt toured the United States performing in Rocktopia.

Since 2010, Nesbitt worked on a few solo projects outside of the Celtic Woman while still a member of the group.

She is featured as the soloist on Walt Disney's direct to DVD film "Tinker Bell." The music was composed by Joel McNeely to fit Nesbitt's unique, distinctive style of playing, a cross of fiddle and classical violin.

She has produced two solo albums, one in 2010 and in 2016 announced her new solo album, "Hibernian," in August of 2016.

2016 also saw the introduction of her new line of violins, "Celtic Violins by Máiréad Nesbitt Celtic Violinist." Along with her standard violin, a 17th Century Matthias violin she would also be using her new violin on stage and on other projects, such as her album, "Hibernia."

Nesbitt is married to Jim Mustapha Jr., the lighting director for Celtic Woman. They married just before Thanksgiving, 2011, in a ceremony in Maui, Hawaii.

As lead singer of Irish Celtic pioneers, Clannad, Moya has released over 20 albums and sold 10 million in her career. Clannad initiated what is now known as Celtic music, blending Irish traditional arrangements with an elemental sound, overlayered with Moya's ethereal vocal layering. Clannad have received Grammy, Ivor Novello and BAFTA awards for their music. As a solo artist Moya has released five albums: Maire (1992), Misty Eyed Adventures (1993), Perfect Time (1998), Whisper to the Wild Water (Grammy Nominated 1999) and Two Horizons (2004). In film, she was featured vocalist on King Arthur (2004), co-writing the title them "Tell Me Now (What You See)" with Hans Zimmer and wrote additional score for To End All Wars (2001). With Clannad, she wrote the love theme "I Will Find You" for The Last of the Mohicans (1992) and "Theme from Harry's Game" for Patriot Games (1992). She duetted with Paul Young on the end title "Both Sides Now" for Switch (1991) and Shane McGowan with "You're the One" for Circle of Friends (1995). Moya has collaborated with Bono, Robert Plant, Van Morrison, Michael McDonald, Bruce Hornsby, The Chieftains, Paul Brady and Michael Crawford. She lives in Dublin, Ireland and is married to photographer Tim Jarvis

The Commitments is known for Miss Congeniality (2000), The Commitments: Try a Little Tenderness (1991) and The Commitments: Mustang Sally (1992).

Ronan Tynan is known for Syria - The Impossible Revolution (2018) and Bringing Assad to Justice (2021).

Siobhan Fahey was born on 10 September 1958 in Dublin, Ireland. She is an actress and composer, known for Strange Days (1995), The Karate Kid (1984) and The Secret of My Success (1987). She was previously married to David A. Stewart.

Hothouse Flowers is known for Tag (2017), In Country (1989) and Things to Do Before You're 30 (2005).