I'm afraid if I start ranting on this one I might not stop! Where do I start? Damien Rice in 3rd place? Ah well people voted for him so fair enough. I would also question Astral Weeks being in first place and Joshua Tree over Achtung baby etc. but anyway its a reflection of current tastes which is completely subjective. I was disappointed, though not at all suprised by absence of "Feedback" by the Dirty Beatniks. It probably didn't get in because besides being a bit obscure most people probably don't realise that its an Irish Band, well at least half Irish, but hey, that didn't stop the Irish/British/Canadian hybrid that is MBV from getting in. Its possibly the only credible Big Beat record to come out of this country, ok not quite Chemical Brothers league, but pretty good all the same. It would have been nice to see at least one straightforward dance record in there. Also suprising is for all the knob twiddling electronica acts in this country, none made it in. Perhaps thats because (whisper it) very few of them are any good. Decal and Ambulance are OK, but I haven't been particularly impressed by the rest. Now I'd be delighted to be proved wrong but it seems that Irelands electronica scene is far behind the rest of the world. Electronic acts outside Ireland have progressed beyond just messing with loops on their laptops and discovered a sense of humour, daring and melody. I don't think I could name one Irish electronic act that is as interesting as their current international counterparts such as Ratatat, Lali Puna, SchneiderTM, Adult. etc.

Overall I think this is a representative overview of current Irish tastes in popular music and is indicative that Cluas is in touch with its readership and their preferences. It also matches up quite neatly with the recent IRMA lists for recorded music sold by Irish acts. I think that, if this poll is taken two years from now, the list will be quite different vis a vis the artists who have released recordings in the period 2000-2004 and it will be interesting to see if acts like Rice, Kitt, Casey etc will hold their places. Popular music is, at the end of the day, music for the public. And popular tastes do change. I am struck by the evergreens here. Gallagher, Lizzy, U2, Christy, Waterboys (aren't they Scottish/English ?), Van The Man, Therapy?, Pogues, MBV. These are acts whose music has survived. It is also interesting the popular or acclaimed (big difference) acts who didn't make the cut at all...Don Baker, Stars of Heaven, Aslan, Boyzone, Westlife, Dr. Millar, Mary Black, Eleanor McEvoy, Sinead Lohan, The Blades, The Radiators, Blue in Heaven, In Tua Nua, Bagatelle, Cactus World News, The Four of Us, Kieran Goss, Anuna, Dubliners, Horslips, Enya, Pierce Turner, Juliet Turner, Altan, The Corrs, The Cranberries, Shaun Davey, De Dannan, Louis Stewart, Paul Brady, Derek Bell, Boomtown Rats, The Devlins, Divine Comedy, Martin Hayes + Denis Cahill, Mark Geary... I could go on. In addition to electronica, there is an almost total absence of traditional Irish music in the list (with the exception of one album by Planxty) and that I think is problematic in regarding this list as an authoritive overview of the best of Irish music. It also makes me question the point made concerning the fact that Irish electronica is not supposed to be any good. Certainly, it looks like a great many of the readers who took part in this poll were present at last year's Lisdoonvarna a.k.a Ballsbridge and/or have 'Other Voices 1+2' in their CD collections.

Well any poll is going to end up with the albums that the most people agree on. I don't know that it indicates a lack of diverse musical tastes. Can we see a list of albums that only got one vote? Or less than 5, or something? That'd be interesting. :) And if I'd known I could vote for the Waterboys, my votes would've been different!

nice to see the chieftans in there, and therapy? too, wouldnt have bet on those two getting votes. judging from the posts so far, next years poll should be strected to the 100 irish albums of all time!

Next years poll? Was that thump I just heard the sound of Eoghan collapsing at the thought of repeating such a herculean task in less than 365 days time? 100 albums too! thats quite a task, what say ye noble webmaster?

can i just say that damien rice being positioned over the waterboys,u2,the frames,whipping boy and about oh i dunno..EVERYONE..is just pure f**king gas...they should ban 14 yr old girls who started to realise there was other homegrown music aside from westlife last christmas..its just unreal... anyway i just needed to get that off my chest... xx

I'm disappointed that none of the Divine Comedy's records made the cut...

On the subject of Damien Rice, it should be noted that the fact that he only has one album probably pushed him higher up the chart than others. For instance, the likes of The Frames, U2, Van Morrison etc had their vote fragmented by the number of albums. C'est la vie, I suppose...

At least the Saw Doctors got on there :) I was glad to see 'The Joshua Tree' all the way up near the top as well, because I really love that album!

I am left wondering...who the hell voted in this poll? I mean no Cranberries, Wilt or Horslips in the list yet Snow Patrol*??? I didn't even know they were Irish and regardless of that, how is their album in the top 50?!! I am left totally bewildered almost angered... *Snow Patrol are just an example I took; there are many more choices in the list I am baffled by

Brian of G, Democracy is obviously a concept that is lost on you. People are allowed like s**t music. Kudos to you on your example though, snow patrol are pretty gick, but in my opinion the cranberries are even worse. Horses for courses and all that...

Snow Patrol are based out of Glasgow (I think) and were originally labelmates on Jeepster to the likes of Belle and Sebastian, Salako, etc. so most people would see them as a Scottish band, however I believe they are all originally from Belfast. "Starfighter pilot" was brill, kinda slowly lost interest after that. Their place in the Poll is most likely down to their current popularity. The Cranberries are percieved as being terminally un-hip at the moment, I'm not saying the Cranberries are good or bad though I personally am not a fan, just trying to reflect the fickle nature of popular musical tastes. Wilt/Kerbdog had a cult following but are possibly a bit too obscure to make an impact? The fact that Horslips didn't make the top 50 albums (they are in the top 50 artists) may reflect the average age of the Cluas reader, or perhaps it may be that a lot of people like the band but can't connect with the whole mythology concept of albums like "The Tain" which almost borders on prog-rock/Led Zeppelin territory?

El Duderino It is true I'm not a big fan of democracy but I don't think what I said above is undemocratic. It's just my opinion on the poll, that's all... Binokular Thanks for clearing up about Snow Patrol and I suppose your point about the Cranberries does make sense but I don't think Wilt are as obscure as you say. They did have a top 10 most requested video on MTV2/Kerrang. Maybe Kerbdog before them were a tad unrecognised alright