2026 CELTIC CRUSH TOP OF THE POPS 100

 

Every couple of years listeners vote for their Top 100 favorite songs on my Celtic Crush show on SiriusXM The Loft, Ch. 710.

While everyone who participates seems to enjoy the countdown, the results can be controversial, especially to those who didn’t vote. For me, though, this simple competition often shows trends in Celtic life and culture.

One non-listener questioned the sanity of voters in not choosing Fairytale of New York by The Pogues. The song’s absence from the Top 100, 2026 was surprising, given it had been voted #2 in the previous poll.

Change, apparently, is in the air as other previous chart-toppers like Loch Lomond by Runrig, Kilkelly by Moloney, Keane & O’Connell, North-West Passage by Stan Rogers also failed to make this year’s Top 100.

However, the number of new bands and artists making this year’s cut is both heartening and surprising. It’s as if listeners are demanding that they create their own musical heroes. That doesn’t mean they don’t appreciate The Pogues or Runrig, they just want to hear new voices they’ve been introduced to by Celtic Crush, including The Mary Wallopers, Lankum, Fontaines DC, Lisa O’Neill, Bog Bodies, The Rumjacks, Jinx Lennon, The Snake Charmer, The Scratch, The 2 Johnnies and many others.

The big winners were three very new bands, Chasing Abbey, with 3 Top 100 entries, Amble with #2 song Mary’s Pub, and this year’s overall #1, Kingfishr with Shot in the Dark.

Interestingly, many new entries are from “culchie” artists, meaning that, like me, they come from beyond Dublin’s pale.

The success of Amble, Kingfishr & Chasing Abbey suggests that there’s much less difference between urban and rural nowadays. Due to Ireland’s investment in education, every year many rural teenagers leave for university, leading to successive waves of Irish economic mobility, self-confidence, and little or no crushing debt.

The country has changed. Kingfishr’s Eddie Keough, hailing from rural Co. Wexford, sees no need to ape a Dublin 4 accent, much less a New York one.

And what about the brilliant Lisa O’Neill? She’s as recognizably Cavan as Steve Duggan; in her early songs she took inspiration from Cork born, traveler-balladeer, Margaret Barry.

Look out! There’s a renaissance in Irish music, just as there was a Scottish one a generation ago with such artists as Runrig, The Peatbog Faeries, and Simple Minds; while new bands like Beluga Lagoon, Mánran & Skipinnish have picked up the Scottish musical mantle.

So, next time you want to seem cool to your kids or grandkids, ask them what they think of #5, Boygenius & Ye Vagabond’s haunting collaboration on The Parting Glass, or why does Seán Ó’Ríada’s remarkable Aisling Gheal continue to grace the Top Ten 60 years after he recorded it?

Read on for more ice-cool, cultural ammunition - courtesy of the Celtic Crushers!

 

100	Carolina Rua	The Chieftains & Imelda May
99	Íorónta	Chasing Abbey
98	This is the Life	High Stool Prophets
97	Cold Old Fire	Lankum
96	Dirty Old Town	The Pogues
95	Lonely Island	Amble
94	Ordinary Day	Great Big Sea
93	Streets of London	Ralph McTell
92	The Band Played Waltzing Matilda	Tommy Makem & Liam Clancy
91	Whiskey in the Jar	Metallica
90	An Irish Goodbye	Willie Nile
89	An Poc Ar Buile	The Rumjacks
88	Fields of Athenry	The Dropkick Murphy's
87	Shine on You Crazy Diamond	Christy Moore
86	Carrickfergus	Van Morrison & The Chieftains
85	Downpressor Man	Sinéad O'Connor
84	Oro Sé Do Beatha ‘Bhaile	Sinéad O'Connor
83	Over the Rainbow	Eva Cassidy
82	Summer in Dublin	Bagatelle
81	The Green and Red of Mayo	The Saw Doctors
80	The Homes of Donegal	Paul Brady
79	Cod Liver Oil and the Orange Juice	The Mary Wallopers
78	Madam George	Van Morrison
77	Starburster	Fontaines DC
76	The Season's Upon Us	The Dropkick Murphy's
75	Oran	Runrig
74	The Parting Glass	The High Kings
73	The Wind Doesn't Blow this Far Right	Lisa O'Neil
72	Isla	Beluga Lagoon
71	Toward the Harvest	Bog Bodies
70	Yeah, Yeah, Yeah…	The Pogues
69	Young People	Lankum
68	Jackaroo	Jerry Garcia & David Grisman
67	Carrying A Torch	Van Morrison
66	Come Down from the Mountain Katie Daly	Dessie O'Halloran
65	Goodnight World	Lisa O'Neil
64	In These Shoes	Kristy MacColl
63	Old Lady	Sinéad O'Connor
62	Proud to be a Nobody from Co. Louth	Jinx Lennon
61	The Cruel Sister	Old Blind Dogs
60	Whiskey in the Jar	Thin Lizzy
59	Wintergreen	The East Pointers
58	Waltzing Matilda	Liam Clancy
57	You and I	Skerryvore
56	Back Home in Derry	Christy Moore
55	You and I in the One Bed Lie	Cathie Ryan
54	Blue is the Eye	Ye Vagabonds
53	Red Cortina	The Saw Doctors
52	The Patriot Game	Liam Clancy
51	Funky Ceili	Black 47
50	Building Up and Tearing England Down	The Mary Wallopers
49	El Aqua de la Vida	Salsa Celtica
48	The Island	Paul Brady
47	The Storm	Moving Hearts
46	Shipping Up to Boston	The Dropkick Murphy's
45	Into the Mystic	Van Morrison
44	Uncle Jim	Black 47
43	Zombie	The Snake Charmer
42	Galway to Graceland	Richard Thompson
41	London Town	Kevin Burke and John Brennan
40	Ar Ais Arís	Seanchaí & The Unity Squad
39	Haunted	The Pogues
38	Soldier	Francis Dunnery
37	Margo & Barry	Beluga Lagoon
36	Dublin to Wicklow	Dylan Walshe
35	Life's Like That, Isn't It?	Larry Kirwan
34	Streets of Edinburgh	The Proclaimers
33	Galway Girl	Steve Earle
32	Alive	Skipinnish
31	I Useta Lover	The Saw Doctors
30	The Big Fellah	Black 47
29	Old Note	Lisa O'Neil
28	Learning to Dance (Lanigan's Ball)	Chasing Abbey
27	Neidín	Tommy O'Sullivan
26	Killeagh	Kingfishr
25	Who'll Stand with  Us	The Dropkick Murphy's
24	Open Letter to You	Tuatha Dea
23	Arís is Arís	Chasing Abbey
22	Fields of Gold	Eva Cassidy
21	Cello Song	Fontaines DC
20	When a Good Man Cries	CMAT
19	The Foggy Dew	Sinéad O'Connor and the Chieftains
18	Streets of Minneapolis	Bruce Springsteen
17	Autumn Song	The Manic Street Preachers
16	Mr. Rock & Roll	Amy McDonald
15	First Light of Day	Paddy A Go Go
14	James Connolly	Black 47
13	Caledonia	Dougie Maclean
12	Óran Na Cloiche	Mánran
11	Mayo Moon	Bible Code Sunday
10	Stardust	Shay Healy
9	Sleep Tight in NYC	The Screaming Orphans
8	A Rainy Night in Soho	The Pogues
7	Another Round	The Scratch
6	Aisling Gheal	Seán Ó'Riada
5	The Parting Glass	Boy Genius & Ye Vagabonds
4	The GAA, the Ska and the Ra	The 2 Johnnie's
3	The Whole of the Moon	The Waterboys
2	Mary's Pub	Amble
1	Shot in the Dark	Kingfishr

JAMES CONNOLLY & THE WEXFORD LOCKOUT OF 1911

 

Towns change. We leave them one way, and find them so different when we return.

 

Wexford is a case in point. So many people now live on its outskirts, you could almost call them suburban. The accent sounds closer to South Dublin than the medieval street patois of my youth.

 

Wexford itself more resembles a pleasant European town than the Breughel-like teeming burgh I emerged from.

 

But if Wexford in the 2020’s is different than its 1960’s version, what about Wexford in 1911? That was the year the owners of the three iron foundries closed their gates to  employees who wished to join a union.

 

Perched strategically on Ireland’s South-East corner, Wexford had for long been a thriving international seaport. My great-grandfather, master of a sailing vessel, regularly undertook voyages carrying goods to Odessa in the Russian Empire.

 

Sailors tended to live in the south side of town in an area called The Faythe. There too lived foundry workers employed by Pierce & Sons and The Star Iron Works. Though the town’s population was then over 11,000, close to 1000 were employed by those two firms and Selskar Ironworks on the north side.

 

There’s barely a trace of this industrial base now, though even in my time, burly muscled men still strode to and from the south side foundries.

 

There’s no sign either of ships or vessels, though some sturdy looking trawlers still moor within view of Commodore John Barry’s statue, the local lad who went on to become “Father of the American Navy.”

 

In 1911 however, Wexford was a major manufacturing and export center. It was close to the heart of political affairs too, as another local lad, John Redmond, led the Home Rule Party in the British Parliament.

 

But things were changing. Though the employers did well financially, and the clerical staff enjoyed a decent standard of living, the same could not be said for the regular foundry employees who put in 60-hour workweeks in hazardous conditions for a pittance that could barely maintain their large families.

 

In 1910 the new militant Irish Transport & General Workers Union (ITGWU) came to town. Led by Big Jim Larkin, and James Connolly who had recently returned from the US after some years of organizing for the Industrial Workers of the World (The Wobblies).

 

The dockworkers were first to join, but soon the foundry workers began signing up. This was met with some alarm by the local political, business, and church leaders, none of whom cared for this new proletarian power base barging its way into Wexford’s class-conscious stratosphere.

 

My maternal grandfather, an ardent Irish republican and small businessman, was of the opinion that James Connolly was “nothing but a little Scottish troublemaker.” He wasn’t the only one with such views for the foundry bosses let it be known in no uncertain terms that union members would not sweat on their floors.

 

By September 1911, 700 workers were locked out and soon thereafter scabs from as far away as Belfast and Britain were hired to fill the union members’ jobs. This led to great disquiet in the back lanes of Wexford.

 

Over 150 extra RIC men were drafted in to protect the scabs from the fists, pegged stones and insults of the townspeople, and in one baton charge Michael O’Leary, an innocent bystander, was clubbed to death.

 

The lockout dragged on through the bitter winter; the families of the locked out workers suffered great deprivation. In the end the scabs saw the light, or had it beaten out of them, and began to withdraw from the town.

 

With dwindling profits the employers showed signs of relenting but still refused to accept the ITGWU. Connolly, who had battled American oligarchs, proposed a compromise - Wexford workers would form their own union. The employers grasped at this semantic straw and the workers returned to their jobs in February 2012.

 

Oh, that we had more “troublemaking” compromisers, the like of James Connolly, in our contemporary world of fearless social media warriors.

 

If you ever visit Wexford, take a walk down the narrow Main Street and up to The Faythe. The natives may look blandly modern, but look behind their eyes and you’ll catch a glimpse of the men of iron and their courageous women who held firm for their right to organize during the great Lockout of 1911.