RTÉ Choice Music Prize Announcement – Classic Irish Album
Celebrating 21 Years of the RTÉ Choice Music Prize
RTÉ Choice Music Prize
In association with IMRO and IRMA
Classic Irish Album
And the winning album is…
The Táin by Horslips
The RTÉ Choice Music Prize Classic Irish Album, in association with IMRO & IRMA, has just been announced on RTÉ Gold by Will Leahy. The winning album is: The Táin by Horslips. A concept album centred on Irish mythology, The Táin was the band’s second full-length offering and was released on their own label in Ireland in 1973 as well as RCA in the UK and Atco in the US.
“We can’t believe it, really. We knew at the time that The Táin was a different kind of album. And we could see that Dearg Doom had a great riff going on. We just didn’t think that it would sustain in the way it has. Both Italia 90 and ‘Saipan’ have served to keep the album and the single surfacing but even without that, there seems to be an inbuilt determination to survive in both. 50 years is a good innings!” – Horslips, 2026
The panel chose The Táin by Horslips as their Classic Irish Album for the RTÉ Choice Music Prize and explain further – “Horslips lasted 10 years – 1970 to 1980. Their impact was immense. They literally changed the course of music in Ireland in the seventies, not just because they fused traditional Irish music with rock and in so doing inspired many local and international acts or that they released 10 albums in that 10-year period leaving a legacy much bigger than that of the defining band of the so-called Celtic Rock genre.
No…maybe the main reason is that they brought their unique brand of music to every barn, every dancehall, every hotel, every disco, every church-hall again and again and again.
They made an instant impact with their debut release but the record that stands out is the follow-up, an ambitious concept album telling the story of the Táin Bó Cúailnge (the cattle raid of Cooley), the legend of early Irish literature dealing with the war between Connacht and Ulster over a prize bull. Fusing traditional music as an influence to develop a new idiom of rock’n’roll that had real relevance to the band’s own experience, one result was that by paying respectful homage to the music of our past and rocking it up to a new, younger, audience, a whole new world of music was opened up.
And, of course, 20 years later the riff from the album’s most famous track brought a whole new audience on board, the soundtrack to Ireland’s first ever world cup finals campaign”.
The judges for this year’s prize are Dave Fanning (Radio and TV Broadcaster), Caroline Henry (Artist Management), Stevo Berube (Artist Management & Music Publicist), with Paul Russell (Radio producer, formerly RTÉ 2FM) as the chairperson.
The album will be played in full tonight on RTÉ Gold after 6pm.
“Dearg Doom” was arguably the most popular track on the album and was included in Tom Dunne’s 30 Best Irish Hits compilation, released in 2003. Along with “Faster Than The Hound”, it was also performed by the band on the BBC’s The Old Grey Whistle Test. The track’s main guitar riff was incorporated into “Put ‘Em Under Pressure”, the anthem of Ireland’s Italia ‘90 campaign, reintroducing the song to a younger audience.
Horslips: Jim Lockhart, Eamon Carr, Barry Devlin, Charles O’ Connor, Johnny Fean
A few of the band members will attend on the 5th to collect their award.
“The influence of The Táin is massive, and the pleasure it gives is endless. Where would we be without Dearg Doom? We’d be in 1932.” – John Kelly
Music profile – https://open.spotify.com/artist/2mcMCQLrNDEW6O1pAEK3dr?si=6SiO5ulmT9irDYmCgYRRtw
Previous winning Classic Irish Albums –
2023 – I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got – Sinéad O’ Connor (1990)
2024 – Achtung Baby – U2 (1991)
2025 – Watermark – Enya (1988)
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Live Event, Vicar St Thursday 5th March (Sold-Out)
The winning Irish Album of the Year 2025 will be announced at the RTÉ Choice Music Prize live event in Vicar St Thursday 5th March, and, will be broadcast on RTÉ 2FM in a special four-hour extended show with Beta Da Silva from 7-11pm.
The Classic Irish Album prize will be presented along with Irish Artist of the Year and Irish Breakthrough Artist that night.
The Irish Song of the Year 2025 will be announced by Tracy Clifford on her 2FM show on the day of the live event and presented to the winner in Vicar St that night. Tracy will also host the live event.
RTÉ Choice Music Prize Conversations will take place on the day, Thursday 5th March, with four music industry panels running from 12.00-16.30 at BIMM, Francis St. Details to follow later this week.
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The 21st annual RTÉ Choice Music Prize will once again celebrate the best in Irish recorded music. The Prize has become one of the music-industry highlights of the year since its inception in 2005. The Irish Album of the Year award is chosen from a shortlist of ten albums by a panel of eleven Irish music media professionals and industry experts.
The list of judges is available via http://www.choicemusicprize.ie
The winning Album of the Year act will receive €10,000, a prize fund which has been provided by The Irish Music Rights Organization (IMRO) and The Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA). All shortlisted acts will receive a specially commissioned award.
RAAP, Culture Ireland, FMC, Minding Creative Minds, Cultural & Creative Industries Skillnet and Coimisiún na Meán are also official project partners of the RTÉ Choice Music Prize.
ENDS
For further information please contact:
Choice Music Prize: Liza Geddes, Recode Publicity I lizageddes@gmail.com
RTÉ: Neil O’Gorman | neil.ogorman@rte.ie
Notes to Editor:
The RTÉ Choice Music Prize is organised by co-founder David Reid. Editor of RTÉ Brainstorm & co-founder of the prize, Jim Carroll, is the chairman of the judging panel for Irish Album of the Year. It is unique in that the judging of the Irish Album of the Year focuses simply and solely on the music (as opposed to sales or airplay). A new panel of judges has been put in place for each of the three categories. The full list of all the judges will be on the RTÉ Choice Music Prize website. This is the twenty-first year of the prize.
Past winners can be found via http://www.choicemusicprize.ie/
Stay up-to-date with the latest RTÉ Choice Music Prize news by following @choiceprize, @rte2fm, @rte and @rteplayer on Twitter and Facebook and @explorerte and @rte2fm on Instagram using #rtechoiceprize.
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- YouTube: @horslipsofficial
- http://www.choicemusicprize.ie
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