This is the first book dedicated to the full-length history of the Irish record industry.

It studies key moments in that history and examines how individuals made a difference to Ireland and some of its key music artists. It aims to inspire artists by showing them how million-selling acts, who began with almost nothing, were able to find their way in the ultra-competitive global music industry.

It answers the following questions:

• Who is credited as being ‘the founder of the Irish record industry’? She made her way from being a penniless immigrant from Leitrim in post-Famine Ireland to being a celebrated national US success story in the early 1900s.
• How did the Irish transform New York’s night life before the Wall Street Crash?
• Could you be jailed in Ireland in the 1930s if you were a woman seen kissing in public?
• What Irish band challenged the power of the Church in early 1970s Ireland and became one of the country’s biggest rock successes?
• Why did so many of the key early punk bands tour in Ireland when most rock acts were scared to visit because of ‘the Troubles’?
• How did a group of teenagers in Dublin start a collective with no resources and bring bands including Green Day, Fugazi and Chumbawamba to Ireland?
• Who were the allies and champions of U2 before overseas record labels become interested in them?
• How was Enya supported and encouraged to make music before she became Ireland’s highest selling female artist?
• How did the Roddy Doyle book, The Commitments, help to open the door for The Corrs, and how did the family group build a global profile?
• How did a young mother on a career break design and launch the global phenomenon of Riverdance?
• Were Irish boy band members waiting for a Svengali to magic up success for them, or did the do a lot of hard work themselves?
• What is the role of Ireland’s local visual artists to the country’s pop and rock acts?

And finally:

• Why is Ireland music industry considered to be in crisis now?