The Irish songs that fill a wedding dance floor are the big singalongs with choruses everyone knows, such as The Irish Rover, Whiskey In The Jar, The Wild Rover and Galway Girl, broken up with fast sets of reels. Timing matters as much as the song choice: ballads over dinner, familiar hits to open the floor, and the loudest choruses saved for the peak of the night.
Most good Irish wedding bands will shape the evening for you, but it helps to know what each song does to a room. Here is how the night usually builds, and which songs belong where.
Set A Warm Mood With Ballads Over Dinner
While guests arrive, find their seats and eat, you want music that sounds lovely and asks nothing of anyone. Irish ballads and slow airs are perfect for this.
- Raglan Road. Patrick Kavanagh's poem, sung to the old air The Dawning Of The Day. Luke Kelly's recording with The Dubliners is the one many Irish guests will know.
- The Star Of The County Down. A cheerful song about a man smitten at first sight, with a melody that sits beautifully on fiddle or whistle.
- Slow airs and gentle tunes. A fiddle or flute playing an air over dinner gives the room a calm, distinctly Irish feel without competing with speeches or conversation.
Keep the volume low and the tempo easy. The aim is atmosphere, not attention.
Choose A First Dance With Irish Roots
Plenty of couples want a nod to Irish family in the first dance without choosing anything too obscure. A few that work:
- Crazy Love by Van Morrison, the Belfast singer, a short and tender song that suits a slow dance.
- Raglan Road, if you prefer something traditional and want an older relative to recognise it from the first line.
- Nancy Mulligan by Ed Sheeran, written about his grandparents' marriage. It is fast and fun, so it works best as the song that brings everyone else onto the floor straight after a slower first dance.
If the first dance itself is one of several Irish touches in your day, our guide to Irish wedding traditions has more ideas.
Open The Floor With Songs Everyone Knows
The first half hour of dancing sets the tone for the rest of the night. This is not the moment for anything only the Irish side of the family will recognise. Start with songs both families can sing.
- Galway Girl. There are two well known songs with this title. Steve Earle wrote and recorded one, later a hit in Ireland for Mundy and Sharon Shannon; Ed Sheeran released a different song of the same name. Bands play both, so say which you mean.
- Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison. A wedding floor filler in any form, and his Belfast roots make it fair game on an Irish night.
- Dancing In The Moonlight by Thin Lizzy, written by Phil Lynott. Laid back, easy to move to, and a reminder that Irish music includes Dublin rock as well as fiddles.
Your band will usually mix in pop and rock favourites here too, often with a fiddle or banjo line that gives them an Irish edge.
Build To A Roaring Singalong At Peak Time
Somewhere around the middle of the evening, once everyone has had a drink and a dance, the room is ready for the songs people shout rather than sing. These are traditional songs, so nobody owns them, but certain recordings made them famous.
- The Irish Rover. The version by The Dubliners and The Pogues is the one most people know. Fast, funny and almost impossible to stand still to.
- Whiskey In The Jar. Recorded by The Dubliners and turned into a rock song by Thin Lizzy. A good band can play it either way depending on the crowd.
- The Wild Rover. The chorus comes with its own claps, and guests who have never heard it will have the claps right by the second chorus.
- Dirty Old Town. Written by Ewan MacColl about Salford, and made a staple of Irish nights by The Pogues and The Dubliners. A useful bridge for an English and Irish wedding.
- The Fields Of Athenry. Written by Pete St John in the 1970s. A slower song, but sung by a full room it is one of the great moments of any Irish night. It works best late, when people are ready to put their arms round each other.
Let The Reels Show Off The Band
Between the singalongs, a set of fast reels or jigs gives the floor a different kind of energy. Tunes such as The Silver Spear, Drowsy Maggie and the jig The Kesh are session favourites. Played back to back and getting faster, a set like this turns a dance floor into a scramble of spinning couples, and it gives your singer a breather. If you have had a céilí earlier, guests will happily try out their new steps here.
Close The Night On The Right Song
The last song should send people home happy. Many Irish bands finish with a big chorus such as The Irish Rover or The Wild Rover, played one last time with the whole room singing. Others choose The Parting Glass, a traditional farewell song sung in both Ireland and Scotland, which suits a quieter, emotional finish when the couple are leaving.
Two things worth saying to your band before the day. First, a lot of Irish songs are about emigration, loss or death, and some sound jolly while telling a sad story. A good band knows which ones suit a wedding. Second, some songs carry strong associations for some families. If your guests come from different backgrounds, ask the band to keep the set to songs that will bring the whole room together.
Send your band a short list of must play songs, a few you would rather not hear, and any song that means something to your family. That is plenty for them to work with.
Find A Band That Knows These Songs
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