Punk and Post-Punk in the Republic of Ireland: Networks, migration and the social history of the Irish music industry

Was the early punk movement a more geographically and ethnically diverse milieu that some accounts indicate? A number of key figures in the early punk movement were originally from Ireland including the founders of both Chiswick and Stiff Records. This invites the question: how did the Republic of Ireland’s music scene, which included ‘non-punk’ acts like Thin Lizzy, Horslips and Chris de Burgh interface with the punk and post-punk movement? This article aims to identify the under-acknowledged contributions of people working behind the scenes in the industry. Specifically it examines the links between individuals, bands and cities. How did these links help artists? I particularly wish to identify how some of the early bands of the punk and post-punk movement received assistance from established acts. The early business of punk indicates a two-way cultural process: Irish entrepreneurs in London helped to advance the punk movement, while Irish acts, including the Radiators from Space and the Boomtown Rats, benefitted from that punk movement.