Top St. Patrick's Day Songs

Top Acoustic Guitar Songs for St Patrick's Day

Call it the Luck of the Irish - Celtic music, particularly Irish music, has some of the best songs for acoustic guitar available, something to keep in mind as you begin planning for your St Patrick's Day activities and parties. Here is a selection of our top acoustic guitar songs with Irish or St. Patrick's Day themes so that you can start warming up your fingers.

Eric Clapton; Danny Boy

This poignant and melancholy traditional Irish tune of love and longing has, over the years, touched the hearts of millions. It has been presented by countless performers in a wide variety of styles, but perhaps the simplest and purest rendition of the song can be seen in Eric Clapton's acoustic performance of this much-loved piece.

Clapton, an English vocalist and songwriter, has a particular attachment to this piece given the traditional hatred between the Irish and the English over the violence in Northern Ireland and his respect for life and desire for peace comes through in every phrase of this performance.

Flogging Molly; Drunken Lullabies

If there is anything that the Irish are known for, it is their ability to drink nearly anyone under the table. To this end many of the more upbeat Irish songs have to do with drinking and enjoying life instead of wallowing in self-loathing.

Flogging Molly takes this concept one step further with "Drunken Lullabies," which speaks to the cycle of hatred and the drowning of one's hatred and sorrows in drink."Must it take a life for hateful eyes to glisten once again, because we find ourselves in the same old mess, singin' drunken lullabies."

Ziggy Marley & The Chieftains; Redemption Song

In an unusual combination, the popular Irish Music group The Chieftains banded together with Ziggy Marley to perform Redemption Song giving a new twist to the already poignant Reggae piece by spinning it from an Irish perspective for the desire to live in peace and harmony with all mankind.

While Ziggy Marley is the son of the famous Jamaican Reggae musician Bob Marley, he is also a musician in his own right and leader of the band Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers. The Chieftains are a Grammy winning Irish musical group who has played a major part in making traditional Irish music popular around the globe. The combination of these two groups' styles is thought-provoking to say the least.

U2 - Sunday Bloody Sunday

A discussion of Irish music and Irish musicians would not be complete without mentioning the Irish rock band U2. Formed in Dublin in 1976 at Mount Dublin Comprehensive School, U2 has become one of the best known and well-loved Irish groups of modern times and are committed to bringing peace to violence-ravaged Northern Ireland.

In an extremely rare performance on acoustic guitar, U2 performs their tragically haunting piece Sunday bloody Sunday, a song which describes an observer's horror at witnessing the violence in Northern Ireland, particularly the incident in Derry when civil rights marchers were shot and killed by British troops.