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The Tannahill Weavers are a band which performs traditional Scottish music. Releasing their first album in 1976, they became notable for being one of the first popular bands to incorporate the sound of the Great Highland Bagpipe in an ensemble setting, and in doing so helped to change the sound of Scottish traditional music. In 2011 the band were inducted into the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame.

Kris Drever is a Scottish contemporary folk musician and songwriter who came to prominence in 2006 with the release of his debut solo album, Black Water. Drever is the vocalist and guitarist of the folk trio Lau with Martin Green and Aidan O'Rourke. He has worked with other British folk contemporaries, including Kate Rusby, John McCusker, Ian Carr, Eddi Reader and Julie Fowlis.

Danú is an Irish traditional music band.

The founding members of Danú (Donnchadh Gough, Dónal Clancy, Daire Bracken, and Benny McCarthy) met in Waterford in Ireland in 1994, and consolidated as a band after performing in the Festival Interceltique de Lorient in 1995.

Their second album, Think Before You Think (2000) was voted Best Overall Traditional Act by Dublin's magazine Irish Music. They are the only band to have been voted Best Traditional Group twice in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, in 2001 and again in 2004 when their version of Tommy Sands's "County Down" also won Best Original Song.

Benny McCarthy is a founding member of Danú; he manages and performs with the band and plays button accordion and melodeon. Benny won the All Ireland Oireachtas in 1994 on both button accordion and melodeon. He is the driving force of Danú and is a key member of several other bands including Raw Bar Collective and Cordeen.

Eileen Ivers (born July 13, 1965) is an American fiddler.

Ivers was born in New York City of Irish-born parents, grew up in the Bronx and attended St. Barnabas High School. She spent summers in Ireland and took up the fiddle at the age of nine. Her teacher was the Irish fiddler Martin Mulvihill. She toured with Mick Moloney's band The Green Fields of America, founded in 1977. She graduated magna cum laude from Iona College in New York and has done post-graduate work in mathematics.

Ivers was a founding member of Cherish the Ladies. She recorded and toured with them for several years.

In 1995, she replaced the original fiddler in the Riverdance Irish dance troupe and toured with them.

Michael McGoldrick (born 26 November 1971, Manchester, England) is a folk musician who plays Irish flute, uilleann pipes, low whistle and bodhran. He also plays other instruments such as acoustic guitar cittern and mandolin on some of his tracks.

McGoldrick has been a member of several influential bands. In 1994 he was awarded the BBC Young Tradition Award, and in 2001 he was given the Instrumentalist of the Year award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.

McGoldrick was a founder-member of the Celtic rock band Toss the Feathers while still at school. He also competed at that time in the Fleadhanna with Dezi Donnelly (fiddle) and John Joe Kelly (bodhrán), whom he had met at local Comhaltas meetings. He made appearances at various local and national festivals and ran whistle/flute workshops at the Cambridge Folk Festival and for Folkworks on their "Flutopia" concert tour.

Dervish is an Irish traditional music group from County Sligo, Ireland which has been described by BBC Radio 3 as "an icon of Irish music". They were formed in 1989 by Liam Kelly, Shane Mitchell, Martin McGinley, Brian McDonagh, and Michael Holmes and have been fronted by singer Cathy Jordan since 1991. They represented Ireland in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, singing a song written by John Waters and Tommy Moran. In 2019 they released an album on the US Rounder Records label called The Great Irish Song Book featuring a selection of classic Irish songs sung by a number of well known singers including Steve Earle, Andrea Corr, Vince Gill, Kate Rusby, Imelda May, Rhiannon Giddens, The Steel Drivers, Brendan Gleeson, Abigail Washburn, and Jamey Johnson. In 2019 they received a lifetime achievement award from the BBC.

De Dannan is an Irish folk music group. It was formed 1975 by Frankie Gavin (fiddle), Alec Finn, Johnny "Ringo" McDonagh (bodhrán) and Charlie Piggott (banjo) as a result of sessions in Hughes's Pub in Spiddal, County Galway, Ireland, with Dolores Keane (vocals) subsequently being invited to join the band. The fiddler Mickey Finn (1951–1987) is also acknowledged to have been a founder member.

Karan Casey (born 1969) is an Irish folk singer, and a former member of the Irish band Solas. She resides in Cork, Ireland.

Casey was born in Ballyduff Lower, Kilmeaden, County Waterford, Ireland. Her family encouraged her to sing in the house, in a church choir and at school. At Waterford Regional Technical College she studied piano then took music at University College Dublin in 1987. Having learned to copy Ella Fitzgerald's scat singing, she performed in a Dublin bistro several nights per week while still a student. At the Royal Irish Academy of Music she studied classical music and sang in a jazz band, then a folk-ballad band, then another jazz band. She also fell under the influence of Dublin folk singer Frank Harte. During this time she also formed her own band, called "Dorothy".

The Bothy Band was an Irish traditional band active during the mid 1970s. It quickly gained a reputation as one of the most influential bands playing Irish traditional music. Their enthusiasm and musical virtuosity had a significant influence on the Irish traditional music movement that continued well after they disbanded in 1979.

The Bothy Band was formed in 1975 by bouzouki player Dónal Lunny, after he left the group Planxty to form his own record company, Mulligan. Lunny invited uilleann piper Paddy Keenan, flute and whistle player Matt Molloy, fiddler Paddy Glackin, and accordion player Tony MacMahon to get involved in an early project for the new label. This group of players was soon joined by a brother and sister who played in the Irish traditional group Skara Brae: Mícheál Ó Domhnaill on acoustic guitar and Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill on clavinet and vocals. Originally called Seachtar (Gaeilge for seven), the group was renamed by Mícheál Ó Domhnaill after Tony MacMahon left the group to work as a producer for BBC. The Bothy Band made its debut on 2 February 1975 at Trinity College, Dublin.

Silly Wizard was a Scottish folk band that began forming in Edinburgh in 1970. The founder members were two like-minded university students—Gordon Jones (guitar, bodhran, vocals, bouzouki, mandola), and Bob Thomas (guitar, mandolin, mandola, banjo, concertina). In January 1972, Jones and Thomas formed a trio with their flatmate Bill Watkins (guitar, vocals, fiddle) and performed occasionally (unpaid) under various band names in Edinburgh folk clubs. In the spring of 1972, Watkins returned to Birmingham and, in June 1972, Chris Pritchard (vocals) came in as his replacement. In July 1972, this newly formed trio were offered their first paid booking at the Burns Monument Hotel, Brig O' Doune, Scotland, and needed a band name in a hurry. The name "Silly Wizard" was chosen and the continuing stream of bookings ensured that the name became permanent. In September 1972, the trio recruited Johnny Cunningham (1957–2003) (fiddle, viola, mandola, vocals) and Silly Wizard started to take off.

Altan are an Irish folk music band formed in County Donegal in 1987 by lead vocalist Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh and her husband Frankie Kennedy. The group were primarily influenced by traditional Irish language songs from Donegal and have sold over a million records.

Gráda is a traditional Irish music band, founded in 2001, whose members are a mix of Irish and New Zealand musicians. Gráda is based in Dublin and Galway, Ireland, but spend much of their time touring internationally. In 2006, Gráda played in 16 different countries. In 2011, Gráda disbanded to work on individual projects.

The group draws from a wide range of influences, which has seen them working with Dave Hingerty (The Frames, The Swell Season); Vyviene Long (cellist with Damien Rice); and, as a producer, Trevor Hutchinson (Lúnasa, Sharon Shannon, The Waterboys). Further additions have included Dublin based trumpeter Bill Blackmore and percussionist Rasmus Skovmand.

In 2008, it was announced Colin Farrell had decided to leave the band. Multi-instrumentalist David Doocey is currently touring with the band. In April 2009, Alan Doherty left the band and was replaced by Stephen Doherty (no relation). Alan returned to the group in 2011.

Kíla are an Irish folk music/world music group, originally formed in 1987 in the Irish language secondary school Coláiste Eóin in County Dublin.

The band's first performance was upstairs in the Baggott Inn, Dublin, and was attended by three people. The original lineup for the band was Eoin Dillon (uilleann pipes), Colm Mac Con Iomaire (fiddle), Rossa Ó Snodaigh (whistle, bones), Rónán Ó Snodaigh (bodhrán), Karl Odlum (bass), and David Odlum (guitar). Colm Ó Snodaigh, the brother of Rónán and Rossa, joined the band before the first recordings were made. Rónán, Rossa, and Colm Ó Snodaigh are sons of publisher Pádraig Ó Snodaigh and artist Clíodna Cussen and are brothers of Irish TD, Aengus Ó Snodaigh.

Lúnasa is a traditional Irish music group, named after Lughnasadh, an ancient harvest festival. They tour and perform internationally, and have recorded a number of albums of both traditional and contemporary Irish instrumental music.

Lúnasa was founded in 1997 when Sean Smyth, John McSherry and Steve Cooney teamed up to tour Smyth's solo album, The Blue Fiddle. They called in Mike McGoldrick, a friend of McSherry's, and toured as a four-piece. As the band was taking off, Cooney bowed out.

In the meantime, Smyth was touring in Scandinavia with the rhythmical duo Donogh Hennessy and Trevor Hutchinson, and recruited them to join the band. Calling themselves Lúnasa, they began performing and touring; the first album, Lúnasa, was recorded while the group was on tour in 1998 and released to critical acclaim.

Cherish the Ladies is an American female super group that plays Celtic music. The band began as a concert series in New York in January 1985. It was the brainchild of Mick Moloney who wanted to showcase the brightest female musicians in America in what had been a male-dominated scene. The group took its name from a traditional Irish jig called "Cherish the Ladies", and the series opened to sold-out concerts. Their leader Joanie Madden plays flute and tin whistle. The other members of the group play a wide variety of instruments. Their albums contain both tunes and songs.

Old Blind Dogs is a Scottish musical group which plays traditional Scottish folk music and Celtic music, with influences from rock, reggae, jazz, blues, and Middle Eastern music rhythms.

The three founding members of the band (Ian F. Benzie, Buzzby McMillan and Jonny Hardie) first met during a so-called "buskers' holiday" in the Scottish Highlands in 1990, and after playing together for the summer decided to call themselves "Old Blind Dogs". Dave Francis and Carmen Higgins joined the band soon afterwards, but left in 1992 before the recording of the first album, New Tricks. Since that time, the line-up of the band has changed frequently, with only Jonny Hardie remaining from the original group.

Alasdair Fraser (born 14 May 1955, Clackmannan, Scotland) is a Scottish fiddler.

Fraser operates Culburnie Records, and is a leading artist on the label. He has founded three summer fiddling programs: the Valley of the Moon fiddle camp in California (begun in 1984), a week-long course on the Isle of Skye (begun in 1987) and the more recent Sierra Fiddle Camp in California (begun in 2006). Adept in various Scottish idioms, in recent years, with cellist Natalie Haas, he has helped reconstruct and revive the Scottish tradition of playing dance music on violin and cello ("wee fiddle" and "big fiddle"). Fraser lives in northern California with his wife and two sons.