Selecting Ireland’s 50 best songs was no easy task, but this list chosen by the country’s top music experts showcases our songcraft at its finest
The feature generated a huge response, partly because the resulting list wasn’t just one person’s opinion. It was a top 50 that took a lot of time to compile, but the results, we think, were worth it.
Many readers had the same response: do the same for Irish songs.
We listened, and here it is.
As with the albums, we have asked 50 people who really know their stuff — musicians, gig promoters, critics, broadcasters, DJs, music PRs, arts podcasters — to come up with their top Irish songs ever in order of preference. A score was then applied — 10 points to the song at number one, down to one point for the song in 10th place — and the results totted up for the final rundown.
There were ground rules, of course. No songs from overseas artists of Irish extraction. Sorry Morrissey, Paul McCartney, Kate Bush… Songs from international bands featuring an Irish musician were permitted. Cover versions were also allowed and the song did not have to have been released as a single.
The top 50 is being published in instalments on Independent.ie this week, starting today. The full rundown will feature in next Saturday’s special souvenir edition of the Irish Independent Review — alongside an interview with the writer of the number one song, as well as an alternative top 50, in chronological order, culled from the songs that didn’t quite make the original half-century.
Happy reading — and listening.
50 The Fat Lady Sings, Arclight (1991)
With bands such as the Blue Nile and Prefab Sprout doing a fine line in sophisti-pop — as the genre is often risibly known — it was inevitable that some Irish contemporaries would get in on the act.
For a few years in the early 1990s, the Dubliners, led by Nick Kelly, were our finest exponents of the genre and this polished, upbeat highlight from their debut album, Twist, is their crowning achievement. — JM
49 The Pogues, Fairytale of New York (1987)
Penned by Jem Finer and Shane MacGowan, this beloved seasonal ballad is frequently cited as the best Christmas song of all time — and with good reason.
The plaintive piano intro, jaunty tin whistle, playful accordion, shimmering strings and lyrics that capture the frailty and wonder of romantic love prove a transcendent combination. But it is the enchanting chemistry and buoyant back-and-forth between MacGowan and Kirsty MacColl that provide the magic.— RD
48 Richard Harris, MacArthur Park (1968)
Best known for a stellar acting career that peaked in 1991 with an Oscar for his towering performance in The Field, the Limerick native also released several albums.
He collaborated with the great American tunesmith Jimmy Webb on a number of songs, most notably on this extraordinary seven-minute epic. Harris’ vocal performance is remarkable: passionate, but not histrionic. The song, inspired by a break-up suffered by Webb, remains magical and mysterious. — JM
47 Stiff Little Fingers, Alternative Ulster (1978)
The Clash took a day trip to the Falls Road and posed in front of RUC vans; for Stiff Little Fingers, war-torn Belfast was a daily reality. Alternative Ulster is a blistering agitpop attack that engages head-on as the authorities worked on their clampdown. It fired up acts like U2, Green Day and Rage Against The Machine. As fellow Northern Irish band That Petrol Emotion might say, this one will detonate your dreams. — AC
46 CMAT, I Wanna Be A Cowboy, Baby! (2022)
Young gun goes for it. The second most recent song on this list comes from Ireland’s most talked about and gawped at new pop icon, bold and brassy Dubliner Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson.
Call it kitschy and western, but this tale of suburban longing about what should have been captures her artfully oblique take on bayou blues and big city badness. I Wanna Be A Cowboy, Baby! may be new, but it already sounds like a classic. — AC
45 Gemma Dunleavy, Up De Flats (2020)
A contemporary Irish pop song filtered through an artist’s distinct lens, Gemma Dunleavy’s debut single is a breath of fresh air.
Drawing from 2-step, ambient pop and dreamy electronica — all wrapped around a glimmering harp sample — Up De Flats is an evocative, nostalgic song rooted in her Dublin city background. “I engraved me name on the pillars of the arch,” she sings, “so that when I left I’d always leave me mark”. — LM
44 Ash, Girl From Mars (1996)
Penned by the youngest artist in this Top 50, Tim Wheeler wrote this firecracker at the tender age of 16 and the band famously performed it on Top of the Pops two weeks after their A-Levels.
Taken from their explosive debut album, 1977, the track oozes adolescent excitement, youthful naivety and teenage thrills. Walls of crashing guitars and blissful melodies collide to create this perfect pop-rock earworm. — RD
Bob Geldof, Johnnie Fingers and Simon Crowe of the Boomtown Rats in 1979.
43 Boomtown Rats, I Don’t Like Mondays (1979)
A 1979 US high school massacre provided the inspiration for the Dubliners’ second UK number one single. Sixteen-year-old shooter Brenda Ann Spencer did it, she said, because “I don’t like Mondays — this livens up the day.”
Bob Geldof seized on the line, and with his pop sensibilities finely tuned, turned a horrible subject into a New Wave classic. Despite its huge success here and Britain, it barely dented the US charts. — JM
42 Mic Christopher, Heyday (2000)
Try listening to this and not breaking into a dopey grin. A troubadour with a real bohemian soul, the late Mic Christopher was a member of the Grafton Street busking brigade before he formed the Mary Janes and then stuck out on his own.
Released in late 2000, Heyday was very much his calling card and it’s a song so simple and so uplifting that it sounds like it’s been around forever. — AC
41 Van Morrison, Madame George (1968)
One of the most highly regarded tracks on meisterwerk Astral Weeks, Madame George remains an unadulterated classic — swooning strings, playful flute, melancholy arrangements and the Belfast Cowboy name-checking local landmarks. Despite rampant speculation, the identity of Ms George has never been unearthed, with Van asserting it is the amalgam of six or seven people. — RD