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Ireland, with a combined population – North and South – of only seven million, has punched way above its weight when it comes to delivering bona fide guitar heroes, whether they be from the blues, rock or alt fields.
Thankfully, Ireland’s troubled history and sectarian divide has never crossed over into music; bands from the North and South have always enjoyed equal success and respect on their respective opposite sides of the border, and religious differences have rarely played any part in the makeup of the most successful bands from the Emerald Isle.
The guitarists on this list hail from all corners of the musical spectrum, but, inevitably perhaps, there is one towering name that crops up, time and time again – Rory Gallagher.
Although he seems somewhat overlooked these days, his influence is everywhere; the caliber of guests at the annual Rory Gallagher festival, in his hometown of Cork, is testament to the enduring respect his name commands. Fittingly, he opens up our celebration of Irish greats, past and present.
1. Rory Gallagher
Without doubt the single most influential Irish guitarist or in fact musician, period, must be Rory Gallagher. In a long career, from his first, self-titled, album as a member of Taste in 1969, through to his final album, Fresh Evidence (1990), Gallagher maintained a level of quality control that meant every album was a treasure trove of inventive and uniquely expressive playing.
Whilst Gallagher was a superb acoustic stylist, often reintroducing lost Delta blues classics to a new audience – the electric guitar was what he used to build his unrivaled reputation.
Brandishing the most battered Strat in rock, Gallagher was a true master of everything the instrument had to offer, utilizing every option at his disposal to create the broadest of tonal palettes with which to convey his unique vision.
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A typical Gallagher solo could include wah-simulating tone knob swells, violin-like volume swells, pinched harmonics, simulated whammy bar dive bombs, bent harmonics and even occasional bouts of right-hand tapping – long before Eddie unleashed the technique on the world.
Gallagher’s influence was immense – from Slash to Johnny Marr, to Alex Lifeson to Brian May and all points in between.
Gallagher started out playing at nine, and quickly improved to the point where he was winning local talent shows by the age of twelve. When he was 15, he’d managed to save enough money to buy the Strat which he used for the rest of his career, a 1961 sunburst model, which he bought for £100 ($125) in 1963.
That was the year he joined the Fontana Showband, playing hits of the era. Gallagher was a huge blues and rock ’n’ roll fan – his biggest inspirations being Muddy Waters, Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran. Knowing there was no future for him playing the music he loved, he left the Showband to front a number of beat and R’n’B combos before forming Taste in 1966.
Finally able to realize his dream to play the music that he lived and breathed, without compromise, Gallagher’s ambitions rapidly outgrew the limitations of the Irish music scene.
He moved to London in 1968, where his skills finally found the audience they deserved. Gallagher’s rapid ascent through the ranks of London clubland bands saw him score a record deal with Polydor, release three albums and appear at the Isle Of Wight Festival within the space of two years.
Taste reached the end of their life in 1970, and Gallagher embarked on his solo career, releasing fourteen albums before his untimely death in 1995 at only 47, due to complications associated with liver failure.
Amongst one of the richest of back catalogs, one album crops up constantly whenever artists discuss Gallagher – Irish Tour ’74, which serves as the perfect introduction for anyone looking for a point of entry into the Irish wizard’s work.
2. Gary Moore
The other Irish colossus of blues guitar. Gary Moore started out as a left-hander who taught himself to play right-handed and served a short apprenticeship in a number of bands on the burgeoning beat scene in Belfast in the mid ‘60s. Moore actually knew Rory Gallagher, striking up a friendship before Gallagher moved to London in 1968.
That same year, Moore moved to Dublin to join Skid Row, a blues/rock band fronted by Phil Lynott, who left soon after Moore joined. Moore made two albums with Skid Row, Skid (1970) and 34 Hours (1971), before he left, frustrated with their musical direction. Moore made his first solo album, Grinding Stone, in 1973.
Lynott had formed Thin Lizzy in 1969 after his departure from Skid Row, scoring a run of hit singles and albums, until guitarist Eric Bell departed in 1974. Casting around for someone to fill the gap, Moore was the obvious choice, though he only stayed with Lizzy for a few months.
Moore’s next step was to join jazz-rock band, Colosseum II, putting in a spell of three years. Again, dissatisfied with where his career was going – a common theme through Moore’s life – he returned to Thin Lizzy in 1978 for another couple of years, before finally deciding to commit to a solo career.
Moore’s metal-oriented albums, kicking off with Back On The Streets (1978), through to After The War, (1989), saw him achieve notable successes both in Europe and America. His incendiary, balls-to-the-wall technique, was a perfect match for the bombastic rock he was playing; every song was awash with jaw dropping, explosive soloing.
Moore was apparently feeling disillusioned with his career, and had frequently expressed a yearning to get back to the blues that had inspired him when he first started to play. Having voiced this dissatisfaction to bandmates, it was suggested to him that he should just go ahead and make a blues album. Still Got The Blues (1990) saw Moore fully embrace his first love.
Moore took Clapton’s blueprint of Les Paul and Marshall fueled blues grit and ramped it up to a whole new level of intensity
He had long cited the legendary Bluesbreakers album, featuring Eric Clapton, as one of his major influences. Moore took Clapton’s blueprint of Les Paul and Marshall fueled blues grit and ramped it up to a whole new level of intensity. The fire and venom in Moore’s soloing was the perfect way to pull rock fans into the world of blues, with Moore channeling both sides of the line.
Later Moore albums saw him tone down the rampant, blazing solos, for a more traditional blues approved tone, but with no less ferocity in the playing.
Moore was often seen to be wielding Greeny, the famed Les Paul that he bought off one of his other heroes – Peter Green from Fleetwood Mac. Moore was still recording and touring, and enjoying great success when he died suddenly of a heart attack at only 58 years old in 2011.
3. The Edge
Born David Evans in England, in 1961, The Edge moved to Dublin one year later and is included in this overview as an honorary Irishman, given his contribution to Irish music alongside his bandmates in U2, all of whom he met at school in 1976.
Stylistically, The Edge is poles apart from the raw, bare-knuckled blues approach of Gallagher and Moore, instead opting to explore and exploit the world of signal processing to the max. His ingeniously creative use of delay pedals in particular, marked him out as a unique sonic stylist, all the more unusual given that U2 were coming from much the same creative hotbed as the Irish punk movement.
Near contemporaries of The Undertones, Stiff Little Fingers and The Boomtown Rats, U2 eschewed their ragged, aggressive vibe for a more mainstream approach that rapidly saw them blast through the restraints and limitations of the new wave audience to become global, stadium-filling superstars, and the biggest Irish band of all time.
Stylistically, the Edge utilizes a technically simple and direct approach, using minimal voicings, harmonics and droning open strings to leave room in the aural spectrum for his chained signal processors to work their magic.
One of those guitarists whose entire modus operandum is to serve the song, The Edge never wastes a note – everything he plays is delivered with precision and deft economy. The influence of those who inspired him, guitarists on the artier side of the new wave movement such as Tom Verlaine and John McGeogh is apparent – less so that of fellow countryman Rory Gallagher, for whom the Edge has often stated his admiration.
4. Vivian Campbell
Vivian Campbell has been a member of Def Leppard for over 30 years now, but prior to that he built a name as a guitarist to watch out for in his band Sweet Savage from 1979 to 1983, parlaying that rising profile into the opportunity to carve out a stellar rep as the new shredder on the block, thanks to his work in Dio.
Citing the twin giants of Rory Gallagher and Gary Moore as primary influences, alongside the likes of Marc Bolan and Mick Ronson, Campbell’s work with Dio seemed to be informed more by the era of excess and virtuosity that was the signature of the ‘80s hair metal age.
Joining Dio in 1983, Campbell recorded three albums before jumping ship under an acrimonious cloud. Campbell has often aired his dissatisfaction with his time in Dio, though according to Campbell, that was more about business decisions than musical differences.
“I was forced into signing over publishing rights when I first joined, so I never saw any of that money. I did get my dues for Last In Line (1984) though, as I had signed a separate publishing deal by then. I enjoyed the musical side of things, though at times I’d be a little jealous of the likes of Van Halen and Ratt, who always looked like they were having fun – everything in Dio was just way too serious.”
After Dio, Campbell spent a year with Whitesnake before parting due to the time honored ‘musical differences.’ Campbell spent a few years working with other artists and had started to enjoy some success with his band, Riverdogs, when the opportunity to join Leppard arose in 1992, due to the untimely death of Steve Clark the year before.
For Campbell, this was everything he was looking for in a band. “It was amazing to be in a band with a bunch of guys I really liked, playing these fantastic, anthemic rockers and actually getting paid properly.”
5. Bernie Tormé
Inspired by Rory Gallagher and Gary Moore (sound familiar?) plus the classic rock stylings of Hendrix and Beck, Bernie Tormé spent his early years gaining valuable experience in a number of minor bands in Ireland before following the well-trodden path across the Irish sea, as had his heroes before him, to London.
Arriving in England in 1974, it took a couple of years for Tormé to find his feet before forming The Bernie Tormé Band. With the punk explosion in full flight, Tormé adapted to the prevailing trend, aligning his band with the new wave acts of the era.
In truth, they always seemed an unlikely fit for the scene, and Tormé’s next move, joining former Deep Purple frontman Ian Gillan’s band, Gillan, in 1979, seemed like a far happier alliance. Gillan was riding high at that time, enjoying a string of hit singles and albums.
Tormé’s playing was strongly to the fore, demonstrating killer chops, matched to a flamboyant visual style which saw him become a key figure on the UK rock scene in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. If proof were needed of Tormé’s rising stock, shortly after departing Gillan (citing frustration with financial arrangements), he spent a short period of time as Randy Rhoads’ replacement with Ozzy, completing a run of tour dates.
After a few months with Osbourne, Tormé went on to form various solo bands, most notably, Tormé, featuring L.A. Guns’ singer, Phil Lewis, on vocals. Sadly, his career seemed to be on a downward trajectory for the latter period of his life, for reasons that seem hard to fathom, as he clearly had the chops to fill the guitar seat in any band of the day.
Like so many of the entrants on this list, he passed away before his time in 2019, at 66, after a bout of illness.
6. Eric Bell
Eric Bell grew up in the same scene as Rory Gallagher and Gary Moore – no surprise there – and was actually a member of Van Morrison’s band, Them, for a short period in 1966. Bell formed Thin Lizzy with Phil Lynott in 1969 – though the band had to move to London to get a deal with Decca Records at the start of the ’70s.
They became a huge live draw, released three albums and a string of Lizzy classic singles, including The Rocker which was co-written by Bell, and, of course, their take on the traditional Irish song, Whisky In The Jar, of which they took ownership, due to Bell’s work on the intro and the solos.
According to Bell, it took countless hours and approaches before he finally settled on what to play for the distinctive introduction. Bell was forced to leave Lizzy in 1973, due to frustrations with his reliability. According to Bell, the pressure of the workload the band was enduring, and the variety of temptations that life in a successful rock band offered, were too much to cope with.
He maintained a low profile for many decades but did release The Acoustic Sessions, an acoustic reworking of early Thin Lizzy music, retaining Phil Lynott’s vocals, in 2024.
7. Kevin Shields
Kevin Shields’ work with My Bloody Valentine, who formed in 1983, releasing their first EP, Geek!, in 1985, saw him explore a strongly avant-garde, explorative approach to the guitar. His use of radically altered tunings and extreme sonic processing, torturing his Jazzmaster through endless chains of stompboxes, saw him carve out his own niche in the world of alt-guitar heroes.
His unique right hand technique, using the long whammy bar on the Jazzmaster to subtly manipulate his strumming, causing the pitch of his chords to constantly shift, only added to the disorienting wall of sound that he created.
In contrast, the vocal melodies that rode above Shield’s massed banks of delay and distortion were conventionally melodic enough to score the band prolonged success.
8/9. Carlos O’Connell & Conor Curley
The forerunners of the current crop of Irish bands, Fontaines D.C., features the twin guitar tag team of Carlos O’Connell and Conor Curley. Ironically, vocalist Grian Chatten is also a skilled guitarist.
Though Chatten doesn’t play much guitar live, he actually contributed the best solo on the band’s last album, Romance, (2024) as O’Connell recalls, “Conor and I were wondering what to do for Death Kink when Grian said he had an idea, and he fucking nailed it in one take.”
O’Connell and Curley favor textured, layered interweaving guitar lines in place of obvious guitar heroics, but their love of the traditional tools of the trade is obvious from the breadth of warm tones they deliver. Amongst O’Connell’s go-to guitars is a signature Rory Gallagher Strat.
“I wasn’t a fan of Rory when I bought the guitar – I didn’t really listen to much blues – I just thought it looked cool. Since then I checked him out and I can see he was a genius.”
10. Josh Jenkinson
Inhaler, like Fontaines D.C., are forerunners of the new generation of Irish rock bands, enjoying huge commercial success with their indie/pop flavored rock with a hint of classic U2, perhaps unsurprisingly, as vocalist Eli Hewson is Bono’s son.
Josh Jenkinson favors a textured, arpeggio-driven approach to his guitar lines, prioritizing taut, economical hooks over showboating. Jenkinson took inspiration from one of Irish rock’s immortal figures, Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott.
“Just to see someone there who was mixed race, like me, was inspirational in itself. It helped give me the belief that I could achieve something in music.”
11. Dom Martin
Amongst the new era of Irish blues guitarists, Dom Martin has marked himself out as the one most likely to assume the mantle of Rory Gallagher. A fantastically adept acoustic and electric stylist, Martin is quick to acknowledge the giant footsteps he’s following in.
“My main influence would be Rory Gallagher. Unfortunately, I was only 4 years old when he passed but his music and the way in which he played left a lifelong impression on me. I spent all my young years in my bedroom listening and playing along to his records.
“He definitely played from the heart and soul and that’s all that really matters when it comes to self-expression. I have been decorating my silence with Rory for as long as I can remember, and I owe him a lot.”
12. Simon McBride
Simon McBride took on the unenviable task of following the legacies of Ritchie Blackmore and Steve Morse as the latest guitarist in all-time rock legends, Deep Purple, becoming a full-time member in 2022. He has a connection with fellow Irishman, Viv Campbell, as he was a member of the reformed line-up of Sweet Savage, Campbell’s first band of note.
McBride caused heads to turn when he won Guitarist magazine’s Young Guitarist of The Year competition in 1993 at the age of 15.
As you would expect, given his achievements at such a young age, McBride has chops to spare, not only can he replicate the classic solos of the band’s history, but he also carves out his own unique signature statements on the band’s newer material. He also continues to front his own band between Purple commitments.
13. Muireann Bradley
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Muireann Bradley came to prominence in the UK in 2021, at 15 years old, having posted videos on YouTube, showcasing her ability to recreate, to the finest detail, the work of the great American acoustic blues stylists of the early 20th century.
On top of her fantastic technical ability, she possesses a convincing, warm vocal tone that saw her achieve exposure on UK TV and become a surprise entrant on the British album charts with I Kept These Old Blues in 2023 – achieving an unlikely success in the era of homogenized, digitized and processed artificial pseudo music.
She is planning to play shows in America later this year, hoping to build on her European success.
14. Jake Burns
Jake Burns continues to front Stiff Little Fingers, who emerged from the hotbed of dynamism that was the Irish punk scene in 1977/78. Unafraid to touch on raw subject matter at a time when there was tremendous religious conflict in Northern Ireland, their song titles spoke volumes – Wasted Life, Suspect Device and Alternative Ulster, which featured one of the most iconic guitar intros in punk history.
Burns brought as much fire to his playing as to his excoriating vocals. His primary influence is a familiar name on this list. “I saw Taste on TV when I was 11 – this noise just transfixed me. I decided there and then that I wanted to be Rory Gallagher.”
15. Damian O’Neill
The Undertones emerged from the same scene in Northern Ireland as Stiff Little Fingers, bringing a keen pop sensibility to their take on the prevailing punk winds. Damian O’Neill’s simple, effective guitar breaks are an integral part of the band’s songs, never more than on their seminal hit of 1978, Teenage Kicks.
One of O’Neill’s primary influences is the work of Billy Harrison, the lead guitarist in Them.
“Just listen to his slick, choppy and jagged blues licks on Baby Please Don’t Go, his strange and unnerving slide guitar playing on One, Two, Brown Eyes and his simple, but oh so effective solo on the anthemic Gloria, and you can see why his playing made such an impression on a 15-year-old novice guitarist such as myself. It sounds like Billy was improvising as the tape was rolling and the feel and attitude in his playing is so exciting.”
16. Billy Harrison
Billy Harrison was a member of Them – Ireland’s answer to the Rolling Stones in the mid-’60’s UK R’n’B explosion, which saw the Chess songbook liberally raided by beat combos across the UK.
Fronted by Van Morrison, besides the usual covers, Them had a couple of aces up their sleeves in Here Comes The Night and Gloria – two proto-punk/garage classics.
Harrison is often overlooked in the annals of Irish music, but he contributed some of the most interesting guitar work at a time when many of his contemporaries were happy to endlessly recycle Chuck Berry licks.
17. Andy Cairns
Andy Cairns is the singer and guitarist in Therapy?, who combine classic rock sensibilities with an ear for a commercial tune mixed with a dash of post-punk urgency to create a unique sound, described by Andy Cairns as ‘The Undertones meets Metallica.’
Troublegum (1994), and Infernal Love (1995), saw the band score big around the world, although America remained resistant to their charms.
Influenced by the bands of the punk explosion, particularly The Clash and the Buzzcocks, as well as Irish punk legends Stiff Little Fingers and The Undertones, Cairns’ playing remains laser-focused on taking the band’s anthemic rockers to another level – rarely indulging in the standard pyrotechnics of the rock arena.
18. Henry McCullough
Henry McCullough cut his teeth in Eire Apparent, moving to London in 1967 and sharing a manager with a certain Jimi Hendrix, namely Chas Chandler. By 1970, he’d become a member of Joe Cocker’s Grease Band, played on a Spooky Tooth album, The Last Puff, and had appeared at Woodstock with Cocker.
Moving onwards and upwards, he spent eighteen months in Wings, hooking up with them in 1972. Although he played on Red Rose Speedway and a bunch of singles, differences with Paul McCartney saw him leave in 1973, just before they recorded Band On The Run. McCullough’s career seemed to go into freefall after that, with only intermittent session work keeping things going up to the end of the ‘70s.
Perhaps the most surprising move in his career was when he substituted for the recently departed Wilko Johnson at a handful of Dr Feelgood shows in 1977 – a highly unlikely combination. McCullough died in 2016 after a period of illness.
