Murphy & Rogers/Sounds Irish, Acts Global, 1. The Irish Arrive: Early Stages in the Music Industry

Individuals from Ireland and its diaspora played key roles in how the popular music industry developed. In the early 1900s, on both sides of the Atlantic, the Irish championed the legislation that enabled songwriters and composers to profit from their work. During that era, one of the most important people in Ireland’s recorded music industry was a female entrepreneur, Ellen O’Byrne. Although she is largely absent from music industry history, she was, arguably, ‘the founding mother of the Irish record industry’. At that time, the Shanley family, emigrants from county Leitrim, helped to shape the presentation of live music in the US.