Nick Kelly founded The Fat Lady Sings in Dublin in 1986. Operating from London, between 1986 and 1989 they released four singles: "Fear And Favour," "Be Still on Harbour Sound," "Arclight" and "Dronning Maud Land". The reaction to these four songs led to their signing a major record deal with East West/Atlantic Records in 1989, and to Kelly being signed as a songwriter by Island Music.

In 1991, TFLS released their debut album Twist on East West to widespread acclaim. Twist performed well in the British and Irish charts and also provided the band with their first American success when the single "Man Scared" entered the U.S. Alternative Charts. In 1993 their second album, Johnson, was released to further praise, and the single "Drunkard Logic" provided TFLS their highest ever U.K. Chart placing. In January 1994, following an extensive and successful U.S. tour, Nick Kelly announced that he had decided to split The Fat Lady Sings.

After the split of Microdisney, Cathal Coughlan surfaced with a new group. Fatima Mansions, named after a rundown Dublin housing estate, the band was Andrias O'Gruama (guitar), Hugh Bunker (bass), Nick AUum (drums) and Zac Woolhouse (keyboards) Fatima Mansions became a cult favorite in the 1990's.


This national festival of Irish traditional music was first held in Mullingar. Gomhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann aimed to make this a great national festival and, at its inaugural meeting in September 1951, came up with the title of Fleadh Cheoil (a Festival of Music). From its beginning, the goal of the Fleadh Cheoil was to establish standards in Irish traditional music through competition. The meadh developed as a mainly competitive event, but it also included many concerts, ceilithe, parades, pageants, and street sessions. Right through the sixties and seventies, the meadh continued to grow and the number of would-be competitors grew so large that qualifying stages had to be arranged, at county and provincial level, to produce a manageable number of participants for the All-Ireland finals at Fleadh Cheoil na H'Eireann.


The Fleadh Nua was started in Dublin in 1970. The concept of bringing together concerts, ceilithe, music, song and dancing workshops, street entertainment, pageants/parades and much more was innovative in its time. However, it is still a winning formula today as evidenced by the thousands of visitors who flock to the festival every May for five days of unsurpassed traditional entertainment.

Fleadh Nua moved to Ennis, County Clare in 1974 where it has remained to this day. It manages to cater for the tastes of the majority of the 50,000 or so patrons who attend each year.

Los Angeles-based post-grunge sixpiece Flogging Molly is a mix of traditional Irish music and spunky punk rock. Former Fastway acoustic guitarist/frontman and Dublin native Dave King formed the band with fiddle player Bridget Regan, guitarist Dennis Casey, accordian player Matt Hensley, bassist Nathen Maxwell, drummer George Schwindt, and mandolinist Bob Schmidt. Their rowdy folk-rock punk revival sound has been compared to the likes of other Irish bands such as The Pogues and Black 47.


The Irish duo Foster & Allen have been perfecting their Celtic stylings since the mid-'70s, earning top honors overseas. Tony Allen, born and raised in Mount Temple, Ireland, had been playing professional guitar since 1968, and Mick Foster, a native of County Kildare, had been playing the piano accordion since his teens. As a group, the two made their U.S. debut in 1996 with the single "After All These Years." They have released countless albums selling over 18 million copies worldwide.


The musical career of Newry-born brothers, Brendan and Dedan Murphy the songwriting nucleus of The 4 Of Us spans ten years and three critically acclaimed albums: Songs for the Tempted(1989), Man Alive (1993) and Classified Personal (1999).


Widely acclaimed for bringing freshness and vitality back to traditional Irish music, Four Men And A Dog's debut album in 1991, the aptly titled Barking Mad, was a spectacular distillation of the new and the old, earning comparisons to the Bothy Band at their peak. It became Folk Roots Magazine's Album Of The Year, despite being recorded in rushed circumstances and at minimal expense.


Fronted by singer-songwriter and guitarist Glen Hansard from Dublin, this highly acclaimed band was formed in Dublin at the end of the '80s, making their debut live appearance in September 1990. 2001 saw them release their fourth and best album to date For the Birds.


This three-piece band from Cork, Ireland was named after two tramps who inhabited a nearby village. Comprising Paul Linehan (vocals/bass), Niall Linehan (guitar) and Ashley Keating (drums), they attracted immediate press attention through a debut EP Two 'Single Of The Week' awards later, the single "Fashion Crisis Hits New York" proved another instant favorite. However, the resulting debut album failed to fulfil critical expectations for journalists primed on the band's superior early material. "This Is Not A Song' and a reissued "Fashion Crisis Hits New York" offered chart hits via bigger promotion and production, with the track 'After All" narrowly failing to reach the UKTop 10. Afterwards, the band retreated to Cork in an attempt to recover from the "too much too early' syndrome. By the time the more earnest The Grand Parade was released, however, the fickle world of pop had moved on. An extended sojourn in the US inspired the songs on 1999's Beauty Becomes More Than Life.


This musical family group from Ballyfermont, Dublin, Eire, featured George Furey (vocals, guitar, accordion, mandola, autoharp, whistles), Finbar Furey (vocals, uillean pipes, banjo, whistles, flute), Eddie Furey (guitar, mandola, mandolin, harmonica, fiddle, bodhran, vocals) and Paul Furey (accordion, melodeon, concertina, whistles, bones, spoons, vocals). During the '60s Finbar and Eddie Furey had performed as a duo, playing clubs and doing radio work. In 1972, the duo toured most of Europe, but while they were away, Paul and George had formed a group called The Buskers, with Davey Arthur. This group were involved in a road crash, bringing Finbar and Eddie back home, where they formed Tam Linn with Davey and Paul. George later joined the line-up, and they became The Fureys And Davey Arthur. The following year, 1981, the group, reached the UK Top 20 with "When You Were Sweet Sixteen. Though a follow-up single, "I Will Love You" failed to make the Top 50. The album Golden Days made the UK Top 20 in 1984, selling in excess of 250,000 copies, while At The End Of A Perfect Day made the UK Top 40 in 1985. Towards the end of 1993 Davey Arthur left the group and formed Davey Arthur and Co. Paul Furey died in Dublin after a short illness in June of this year.

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