25 Best Irish Songs 2021

The biggest hit from the biggest band to ever come out of Ireland, this moody tune from 1987’s The Joshua Tree is an evocative ode to a “can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em” love.

Loud, fast, and seriously fun, this Celtic punk masterpiece was made famous by its inclusion in Martin Scorsese’s heralded crime flick, The Departed.

More than a century old, this melancholy ballad, which is traditionally played at funerals, got an update in 2005 by the Irish a capella ensemble Celtic Woman.

Thanks to an appearance from Celtic folk band Beoga, this 2017 chart-topper from Sheeran is as Irish as pint of Guinness—and just as tasty.

Legend has it that Cash wrote this song while in an airplane, flying over the verdant landscape of the Emerald Island.

Sure, Flogging Molly may be L.A.-based, but it gets Irish cred from its lead singer, Dave King, who came of age in Dublin. Performed at breakneck speed, this hard-charging anthem was the title cut off the band’s 2002 album.

With a history dating back to the 1800s, this classic song about a Dublin lass who sells “cockles and mussels” has become the city’s unofficial anthem.

The world lost Dolores O’Riordan, leader of the Irish alternative rock band The Cranberries, in 2018. But she lives on in the stirring vocals for “Zombie,” written in remembrance of the two young victims of the 1993 IRA bombing in Warrington, England.

Eat your heart out, Metallica. The definitive version of this Irish song belongs to the hard rock band Thin Lizzy, who formed in Dublin in 1969.

Believe it or not, the beloved “Irish” tune that’s been covered by everyone from The Dubliners to U2 to the Pogues was actually penned by a Brit, who wrote it about his hometown, Salford, England.

Music icon Prince may have written “Nothing Compares 2U,” but the song belongs heart and soul to dulcet-voiced Irish songstress Sinéad O’Connor.

Written and recorded in honor of legendary Irish singer Ronnie Drew of The Dubliners, this rousing charity fundraiser features a veritable supergroup of musicians hailing from Ireland, including members of U2, Sinéad O’Connor, and Shane MacGowan.

This sunny, pop-inflected tune remains one of Northern Irish troubadour Van Morrison’s seminal hits. Released in 1967, it rose to No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, spending four months on the chart.

Ireland’s longtime trad music favorites teamed up with the new kids on the block for this spirited 1987 version of the classic tale of a far-fetched ship that meets a sad end.

Now nearly four decades old, this iconic track from U2 details Northern Ireland’s “Troubles,” including the 1972 mass killing of unarmed civil rights protesters by British troops in Derry.

In 1995, Sinéad O’Connor joined Irish instrumentalists The Chieftains for this poignant cover of “The Foggy Dew,” which tells the tale of Ireland’s 1916 Easter Uprising.

Irish band The Corrs hit the big time in the U.S. with this sugary pop confection, which spent five months on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and scored the trio a 2001 Grammy nomination for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.

Northern Ireland’s Snow Patrol snared their biggest hit to date with this alternative rock love song, instantly recognizable to Grey’s Anatomy fans from its appearance in the show’s second season finale.

The Commitments were formed specifically to make the 1991 movie of the same name, about a ragtag group of Dublin musicians that yearns to perform American soul. The film’s soundtrack is filled with winners, like this white hot cover of the standard made famous by Otis Redding.

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WIth only three albums to his name, Damien Rice nonetheless remains one of Ireland’s most lauded indie musicians. “The Blower’s Daughter,” a quiet mediation on the perils of love, was his first single.