10 Best Rock Bands From Ireland

It’s cheating a little to call The Pogues an Irish band, with much of their ranks hailing from England (including Shane MacGowan, born in Kent though of Irish ancestry), hence their relatively low spot on this list. But with so much of their music taking inspiration and instrumentation from Irish roots music, and folk traditions the cornerstone of their lyrics, wewould be remiss not to include them.

Their debut, Red Roses For Me, is perhaps the most indebted to Irish music, with the oblique traditional “Waxie’s Dargle” nestling alongside frantic original “Streams Of Whiskey”. Their next two records catapulted them to the big time. Rum Sodomy & the Lash combines punk-leaning numbers like "The Sick Bed of Cúchulainn" with the amazingly beautiful “A Pair Of Brown Eyes” as MacGowan came into his own as a songwriter.

Then there was If I Should Fall From Grace With God. Their Christmas tune is hotly debated but an all time classic; more interesting are the raucous title track and “Lullaby Of London”, another of their finest ballads.

The later albums have great stuff, too - “Rain Street”, “Summer In Siam” - but those two records are simply flawless.