So many great Irish Rock and Pop stars – but so many more who didn’t get that lucky break…

We celebrate* our successful stars. And rightly so.

We’re proud of Saoirse Ronan and Fiona Shaw and Cillian Murphy and Colin Farrell. There’s a long list of successful Irish actors.

And writers – from Joyce and Beckett and Yeats through to Seamus Heaney and today’s high achievers like John Boyne and John Banville and others.

We also have a proud list of rock and pop stars about whom we boast.

U2, The Script, Van Morrison, Thin Lizzy, Rory Gallagher, Sinead O’Connor, The Cranberries and so on.

*(There will always be those who think it’s trendy to knock what’s popular. They’re best ignored.)

But what about our brilliant singers and musicians who are far, far better than many who have achieved success but who never made that breakthrough in Britain or the US.

They could do with more airplay here. Yes, Ronan Collins and John Creedon and, generally, the RTE crew play quite a lot of Irish. Commercial stations don’t seem to be quite so good. 

Right now, all broadcasters need to look after our own. At the end of the day, they as good if not better than their non-Irish counterparts.

So. This list is off the top of my head. I have seen many of them live and bought the music of most over the years.

They’re in no particular order.

1. Bagatelle
2. Bees Make Honey
3. The Blades
4. Cactus World News
5. Cry Before Dawn
6. Granny’s Intentions
7. Ghost of an American Airman
8. Horslips
9. Light a Big Fire
10. The Lookalikes
11. Moving Hearts
12. Hothouse Flowers
13. Fountainhead
14. The Saw Doctors
15. Skid Row
16. Stagalee
17. Stepaside
18. The Atrix
19. Stiff Little Fingers
20. Virgin Prunes
21. Big Self
22. Rhythm Kings
23. A House
24. Picturehouse
25. Mick Flannery
26. An Emotional Fish
27. Aslan
28. Black 47
29. Christy Hennessy
30. The Revenents
31. Dr Strangely Strange
32. Eire Apparent
33. Fat Lady Sings
34. Fatima Mansions
35. Hot House Flowers
36. In Tua Nua
37. JJ72
38. Le Galaxie
39. Mamas Boys
40. Luka Bloom
41. Jack L
42. Mellow Candle
43. Paddy Casey
44. Power of Dreams
45. Republic of Loose
46. Rocky deValera and the Gravediggers
47. Something Happens
48. Stars of Heaven
49. Sultans of Ping FC
50. That Petrol Emotion
51. The Four of Us
52. The Blizzards
53. The Coronas
54. Niall Connolly
55. Liam Geddes
56. David Keenan
57. The Frank and Walters
58. The Radiators from Space
59. Lir
60. The Stunning
61. The Thrills
62. Tir na nOg
63. Toasted Heretic
64. Zen Alligators
65. Gavin Friday
66. Bell XI
67. Eleanor McEvoy
68. Lisa Hannigan
69. Julie Feeney
70. Microdisney
71. Ash
72. Golden Horde
73. Elmer Fudd
74. The Greenbeats
75. Loudest Whisper
76. Jerry Fish and the Mudbug Club
77. Stars of Heaven
78. Some Kind of Wonderful
79. Junkster
80. The Forget Me Nots
81. Energy Orchard
82. The Pale
83. Swim
84. Declan O’Rourke
85. Jape
86. Therapy?
87. The Frames
88. The Strypes
89. James Vincent McMorrow
90. Damien Rice
91. My Bloody Valentine
92. Fionn Regan
93. DC Nien
94. Mundy
95. Jimmy MvCarthy
96. John Spillane
97. Pugwash
98. The Blizzards
99. Wallis Bird 
100. Auto da Fe

I’m fed up counting.

So you can just add in Nine Lies, The Coronas, The Blizzards, Royseven, Two Door Cinema Club, Hamsandwich, The Answer, Codes, The Chakras, Fred, Hybrasil, Heathers and Adebisi Shank, Aoife Nessa Frances, Hudson Taylor, the Script, Iarla O Lionárd, Damien Rice, Damien Dempsey, Delorentos, Jinx Lennon, Fionn Regan, Dermot Kennedy, Villagers and all the other ones I’ve forgotten.

Music. We’re pretty good at it.

Now we just need to make sure our musicians can survive.

And don’t forget the small venues either – the likes of Whelans, the Academy, Grand Social, Workmans’ Club and other vital small venues making no money at all right now,