Irish Rock Music Throughout The Decades

For a small country Ireland has made and continues to make a huge impact on modern music. Homegrown rock music in Ireland really started developing in the 1960s. At that time the Irish music scene was dominated by the unique Irish phenomenon of the 'Showbands' which were groups of professional performers who played at dancehalls and clubs across the country putting on a professional 'show' and playing all the American and British hits of the era. In the 1960s this was pretty much the only way a professional musician in Ireland could make a living.
 Two famous Irish artists that started off working in showbands but went on to put Ireland on the map as far as rock music is concerned are Van Morrison and Rory Gallagher. Van Morrison achieved international success in the 1960s with the beat group Them before launching a very successfull solo career that is still going strong in it's fourth decade. Rory Gallagher fromed the blues rock trio Taste and went on to achieve critical acclaim in his solo career which lasted until his death in 1995. He is considered by many music critics to be among the greatest rock guitarists of all time.
The early 70s saw a huge growth of Irish rock music and one band that rose to international prominence was the hard rocking Thin Lizzy led by Phil Lynott Another Irish band, Horslips broke new ground by mixing hard rock with traditional Irish music to create a new genre - Celtic Rock. They also challenged the idea that for an Irish band to be successful they had to leave the country and were the first major rock band to stay based in Ireland instead moving abroad to chase success. They created very original music and were hugely successful in Ireland but never achieved the international success that they deserved but they paved the way for another band that would remain based in Ireland and go on to dominate the music world - U2.
In the mid-70s, with a roots revival of traditional music burgeoning, folk rock fusion groups such as Planxty and Moving Hearts as well as singer-songwriters like Christy Moore and Paul Brady rose to prominence.