Ultimate Irish Playlist

A Special Issue

Mar 17, 2026

Seeing as I’ve made loving Ireland and Irish culture, even going so far as to try (emphasis on try) to learn the language, it seems only right that, to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, I share with you my personal favorite Irish songs by Irish artists. Second only to my Ultimate Autumn Mix, this is the playlist I am most proud of curating, made even more precious to me as it soundtracked my solo trip to Dublin, Derry, and Belfast in January 2023. And even more so than some of my other mixes, this is a living playlist which means more to be added soon!

(*any songs that are bolded are my most favorite of the bunch)

ARTISTS

Amble

My favorites: “Lonely Island,” “Marlay Park,” “Treehouse Wings,” “Mariner Boy,” “Ode to John,” “Little White Chapel,” “Mary’s Pub,” “Of Land and Sea - Live from Dublin,” “The Commons,” “Socrates Smiled”

A relatively recent find thanks to TikTok, but they’ve opened for Hozier last year and are set to tour with Ed Sheeran and Dermot Kennedy later this year. I missed out seeing them in Pittsburgh last fall so hoping there’s still a chance to see them this year.

The Boomtown Rats

My favorites: “Lookin’ After No.1,” “(She’s Gonna) Do You In,” “Like Clockwork,” “She’s So Modern,” “Rat Trap,” “Someone’s Looking At You,” “Diamond Smiles,” “I Don’t Like Mondays”

Bob Geldof

My favorites: “This Is the World Calling,” “I Cry Too,” “A Gospel Song,” “Love Or Something,” “The Great Song Of Indifference”

Part of my Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) /Live Aid hyperfixation period was learning about Bob Geldof, who organized Live Aid, and his band The Boomtown Rats. I’d already heard their biggest hit, “I Don’t Like Mondays” on a CD compilation of hits from the ‘80s, but when I started digging into their albums, I was really interested in how they started out as a straight-out punk band in the late ‘70s before turning more towards New Wave in the early ‘80s. Then of course the band, and Geldof more specifically, got a second life in 1985 with Live Aid. Geldof himself is a very interesting, albeit prickly character, but his Wikipedia is a great read—from his activism during the Ethiopian crisis to controversies he’s found himself in to the very public collapse of his marriage to Paula Yates and the custody battle in the aftermath, he doesn’t make it easy to get a read on him, which of course makes him all the more fascinating.

The Cranberries

My favorites: “Dreams,” “Linger,” “How,” “Liar”

I can’t listen to “Dreams” without thinking about Derry Girls, a top 5 TV show for me, but my favorite song from The Cranberries is one I heard in Empire Records (1995), a movie I may have mentioned a few times before (or a lot of times). Consider this yet another friendly recommendation to watch it if you haven’t already, and Derry Girls too while you’re at it!

Fontaines D.C.

My favorites: “I Love You,” all of Romance (2024)

A band I also may have talked about before, particularly when reviewing their albums Romance or Skinty Fia. They’re one of the biggest groups to come out of Ireland in recent years and all the hype they’ve gotten is for good reason. Their mix of cultural pride and criticism is filling the punk void left by The Pogues and Shane MacGowan.

Glen Hansard/The Frames

My favorites: “Fallen From The Sky,” “Trying To Pull Myself Away,” “All The Way Down,” “Say It To Me Now,” “Wedding Ring,” “Her Mercy,” “I’ll Be You, Be Me” “Didn’t He Ramble,” “There’s No Mountain,” “Revelate,” “Seven Day Mile,” “Star Star,” “Fake,” “Rise”

The Swell Season (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova)

My favorites: “Lies,” “Leave,” “The Moon,” “Falling Slowly,” “If You Want Me,” “When Your Mind’s Made Up,” “Once”

Hansard has successfully built a long career with just his guitar, complete with visible wear from years of playing, and his songwriting. Starting out as a street busker, Hansard formed a band, The Frames, played a small part in the film The Commitments (1991), later became a frequent collaborator of John Carney’s which led to Hansard winning an Oscar for Best Song in 2008 for “Falling Slowly,” also written and performed by Marketa Irglova in the film Once (2007). Hansard and Irglova were in their own band, The Swell Season, and have recently reunited for a new album released in 2025 after a sixteen year hiatus.

Niall Horan

credit: Zackery Michael (Courtesy of Capitol Records)

My favorites: “On The Loose,” “This Town,” “Slow Hands,” “Too Much To Ask,” “Dear Patience,” “Small Talk,” “Nice To Meet Ya,” “Put A Little Love On Me,” “No Judgement,” “Heaven,” “If You Leave Me,” “Meltdown,” “Never Grow Up,” “The Show,” “You Could Start A Cult,” “Save My Life,” “On A Night Like Tonight,” “Science,” “Must Be Love”

Part of my journey accepting my inner fangirl after years of feeling like that was something shameful and that should be kept hidden has been reconnecting with my teenage interests, like One Direction and the boys’ solo careers. Obviously Harry has had the most visible success post-hiatus, but Niall has really stepped up and built a great solo career for himself. I loved watching him on The Voice and one of my all-time favorite memories is walking around Glasgow on my birthday listening to The Show in preparation to see him perform at TRNSMT in 2023. And yes I have mentioned this exact memory before and probably will again because it is a core memory that I hold very dear.

Hozier

My favorites: Every single song on every single album. Every one. How dare you ask me to choose a favorite. It’s all of them and it’s always changing, but I promise you there’s not a bad song in the bunch. But in case you’ve never heard a Hozier song aside from “Take Me to Church” and need a place to start, I’d recommend “Jackie and Wilson,” “Work Song,” “Foreigner’s God,” “NFWMB,” “Nina Cried Power,” “Would That I,” “Francesca,” “I, Carrion (Icarian),” “Unknown/Nth,” but seriously all of them.

If you know me in real life, then you know that Hozier is my number one all-time favorite artist. My curiosity and interest in Ireland does pre-date my Hozier obsession, but I have learned so much about Irish culture and music and literature from how much his Irish identity is part of his artistic identity and how much of an ambassador he is for Irish art. I can’t say enough good things about him—literally I can’t. It would actually probably be in your best interest to not bring him up around me because I cannot be held responsible for the word vomit machine I will become.

Inhaler

My favorites: “It Won’t Always Be Like This,” “My Honest Face,” “Cheer Up Baby,” “My King Will Be Kind,” “When It Breaks,” “Who’s Your Money On? (Plastic House),” “Totally,” “In My Sleep,” all of Cuts and Bruises (2023), “You Might Get What You Want,” “Your House,” “Open Wide,” “A Question of You”

I always introduce this band as Bono from U2’s son’s band, but that really does them a disservice. Yes, there are songs that do sound like rejected U2 tracks, but Inhaler have done a really good job of creating their own identity, their own fanbase, and their own success that’s not tied to Eli’s dad. A lot of their Gen Z and younger fans are actually discovering U2 through Inhaler, rather than the other way around. And their work with Kid Harpoon, particularly on this last album, while it wasn’t my favorite, shows that this is more than a nepo baby vanity project. And yes, of course I’m sure it didn’t hurt them getting started that they had access to one of the biggest bands, but it also created opportunities for the other members of the band who aren’t related to Bono.

Dermot Kennedy

My favorites: “One Life,” “Better Days,” “Blossom,” “Funeral”

This is an artist I have every intention of getting to know better, but what I’ve already heard of Dermot Kennedy, I’ve loved. Like so many other artists on this list, I love how connected to their communities and their culture they are. Like Dermot Kennedy has repeatedly shown up for the Christmas Eve busk on Grafton Street they do every year to raise money for the Simon Community, a charity that helps the unhoused population in Ireland. It seems like a small thing to just show up and play a few songs, but to do so on Christmas Eve for a good cause, it’s just a great event that they do every year and in recent years they’ve been livestreaming too.

milk.

My favorites: “Drama Queen,” “A Little More,” “Always on Time,” “Temperature,” “I Think I Lost My Number Can I Have Yours”

If you have seen Sing Street (2016), which will be making an appearance on this playlist, don’t you worry, then you are already familiar with Mark McKenna of milk., even if you don’t know it. McKenna played Eamon, Conor’s rabbit-obsessed best friend. After the movie, McKenna did take on a few other acting roles, including a small part in Small Things Like These in 2024 alongside Cillian Murphy, but he also started his own band. They have yet to put out a debut album, despite their many singles and EPs, but they have plenty of songs to hold you over until then.

Van Morrison

My favorites: “Moondance,” “Sweet Thing,” “Gloria,” “Saint Dominic’s Preview”

Just to make it perfectly clear, I do not support Van Morrison’s politics, particularly his anti-lockdown stance and antisemitism. However, he does write good songs and you can rip “Moondance” from my cold dead hands.

The Pogues

My favorites: “Streams of Whiskey,” “The Wild Rover,” “The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn,” “A Pair Of Brown Eyes,” “Sally MacLennane,” “Dirty Old Town,” “A Rainy Night in Soho,” “The Parting Glass,” “Fairytale of New York,” “The Recruiting Sergeant/ The Rocky Road to Dublin,” “The Broad Majestic Shannon,” “The Irish Rover (feat. The Dubliners),” “The Sunnyside of the Street,” “Love You ‘Till the End”

One of my favorite bands ever since I first heard “Fairytale of New York” in P.S. I Love You (2007) as a child. And ever since it’s just been years of discovering new favorite song after new favorite song. What the band and Shane MacGowan accomplished in putting Irish Trad music and punk music together makes them, in my opinion, the greatest punk band and I wrote as much in a piece commemorating one year after MacGowan’s passing.

The Script

My favorites: “We Cry,” “Before the Worst,” “Talk You Down,” “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved,” “Breakeven,” “The End Where I Begin,” “Fall for Anything,” “If You See Kay,” “I’m Yours,” “For the First Time,” “Nothing,” “Science & Faith,” “Six Degrees of Separation,” “Hall of Fame,” “If You Could See Me Now,” “Millionaires”

A band I don’t think of very often anymore, but there was a time where I was obsessed with The Script and still surprise myself by how many of these songs I can remember all the words to.

Sing Street

My favorites: “The Riddle Of The Model,” “Drive It Like You Stole It,” “Up,” “To Find You,” “A Beautiful Sea,” “Girls,” “Brown Shoes”

While not a real band, the songs for the fictional band were written by real Irish musicians and several of the young actors in the film are also real life musicians, which seems to be John Carney’s MO. The songs really have no business being as good as they are, and the movie is excellent as it is, but the songs being fantastic really adds to an already perfect movie.

Snow Patrol

My favorites: “Spitting Games,” “Chocolate,” “Run,” “You’re All I Have,” “Chasing Cars,” “Shut Your Eyes,” “You Could Be Happy,” “Set The Fire To The Third Bar,” “Open Your Eyes,” “Take Back The City,” “The Lightning Strike,” “Called Out In The Dark,” “This Isn’t Everything You Are,” “The Garden Rules,” “Berlin,” “Lifening,” “New York,” “In The End,” “Those Distant Bells,” “What If This Is All The Love You Ever Get,” “Just Say Yes,” all of The Forest Is the Path (2024)

Another band I’ve talked a lot about before, but I just really love them.

My favorites: “I Will Follow,” “Gloria,” “New Year’s Day,” “Pride (In The Name Of Love),” “Bad,” “All I Want Is You,” “Where The Streets Have No Name,” “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” “With Or Without You,” “Even Better Than The Real Thing,” “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses,” “Mysterious Ways,” “Beautiful Day,” “Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of,” “Elevation,” “Walk On,” “In A Little While,” “Vertigo,” “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own,” “City of Blinding Lights,” “All Because Of You,” “No Line On The Horizon,” “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight,” “Get On Your Boots,” “The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone),” “Every Breaking Wave,” “Sleep Like A Baby Tonight,” “You’re The Best Thing About Me,” “Get Out Of Your Own Way,” “American Soul,” “The Little Things That Give You Away,” “Ordinary Love,” “Sweetest Thing,” “Dancing Barefoot”

U2 is by far one of the internet’s favorite bands to hate. We get it, you’re still mad about that one time they gave you an album for free on your phone. It’s been twelve years, and it’s not even close to the worst thing that’s happened since 2014, so just let it go. But I grew up in a house where it was not even a question if I would be a U2 fan, but a question of when. I heard their music so much growing up that I know parts of songs that I swear I’ve never heard before, but only for hearing them in the kitchen or my Dad singing random parts usually loudly and usually incorrectly. But as I got older I started to form my own relationship with the band, I discovered my own favorite songs apart from the hits, and I truly never felt more connected to them than I did walking through Dublin and listening to their earliest songs in the very city they made them and wrote them about.

SONGS

“Grace” by Dan McCabe

“Carrickfergus” by Dermot Kennedy

While there are many versions of traditional Irish ballads across Spotify and the internet, I happen to think these are the very best versions of these songs (and of course they’re not on streaming anywhere).

“Back Home to Derry” by Christy Moore (Written by Bobby Sands)

Love this song as an example of the past speaking to us, it was written by Bobby Sands who died in 1981 while on hunger strike in Maze Prison and had only a month before his death been elected as a member of Parliament. After his death, he became a symbol of The Troubles and there is a mural of him in Belfast.

“When the Stars Go Blue” by The Corrs and Bono

Ryan Adams who? This is a Corrs song now.

“Gold” by Interference

This is the only song in the film Once to not have been written by Glen Hansard or Marketa Irglova. It was written by a friend of Hansard’s, Fergus O’Farrell and his band Interference. O’Farrell is actually briefly in the film singing the song and I first remember being blown away by this song when Hansard performed it on the Late Late Show to promote a documentary about O’Farrell following his death from muscular dystrophy in 2016.

“There’s No One As Irish As Barack Obama” by Na Fianna

Apologies in advance for this getting stuck in your head for the rest of the day. It is now also on my bucket list to visit the Obama-themed gas station in County Tipperary.

“Teenage Kicks” by The Undertones

I knew of the song long before I knew of the band. I distinctly remember standing in a cafe in Derry on a high school trip and seeing a familiar face on the wall. It was Joe Strummer of the Clash and the wall was commemorating the relationship The Undertones, who were from Derry, had with The Clash.

“The Blade” by Kingfishr

This band has been having a crazy year with the success of their song “Killeagh,” which has all but officially been made a modern classic, but recently they’ve teamed up with Irish actor Anthony Boyle to film a video for their newest song “The Blade.” Boyle is another one I highly recommend you watch out for, particularly his performance as Brendan Hughes in the television adaptation of Say Nothing, which you can watch on Hulu or Disney+ and I highly suggest you do.

“I Don’t Want To Go To You” by Gary Lightbody and Iain Archer

This song stopped me in my tracks while watching Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee’s newest show How to Get to Heaven from Belfast (Netflix), I knew I knew Gary Lightbody’s voice anywhere. The show is a mystery, so a different vibe than Derry Girls but still with the same humor and a few familiar faces. I really enjoyed it and am hoping for a second season.

VIBES

Irish Politics

One of the things I’ve loved in learning about Irish history and culture is how much music is intertwined. And it’s not just old trad songs that tell stories of events from hundreds of years ago like a lot of our folk songs are, although there’s plenty of great Irish trad songs. But writing political songs about current and ongoing issues and conflicts is very much part of the Irish musical tradition, so there’s great songs like “Zombie” and “I Love You” that speak to these modern issues through art.

Bands on my radar

Ireland and Irish artists of all kinds have been having a real cultural moment in the last few years and with that there are so many more incredible artists still for me to learn about deep dive, like:

CMAT

Loah

LYRA

Ye Vagabonds

Lisa O’Neill

Lankum

Enya

Thin Lizzy

Damien Rice

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all who celebrate, and remember this: