IMRO

Board of Directors

Music Publishers

Chairman Keith Donald

Keith Donald was born in County Derry, Northern Ireland in 1945 is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin and has studied at University of Minnesota and the Royal Irish Academy of Music.

A founding member of the critically acclaimed Irish instrumental group Moving Hearts Donald has played sax with people as diverse as Van Morrison, The Dubliners, Zoot Sims, Christy Moore, Vusi Mahlahsela, Gerry Mulligan, and Máire Breatnach. He has produced and arranged songs by Bono, Shane MacGowan, Elvis Costello and Christy Moore for Ronnie Drew's first solo album, Dirty Rotten Shame for Sony Records. Over the years he has composed music for the BBC, Channel Four, BFI, RTE, Neil Jordan's Angel, plays by Brian Friel, Damian Gorman and Frank McGuinness and he wrote the music for the BBCNI drama United which won a BAFTA in 1997.

Music Education initiatives have very much been at the forefront of Donald's activities over the years. While working at the Arts Council he helped with the foundation of the Rock School in Senior College Ballyfermot in 1988 and was involved in the IRMA Trust's musical instrument scheme whereby people can provide unused instruments to be refurbished and passed on to talented young people who could not otherwise afford them. He established MusicBase, a facility that advised and assisted hundreds of people about the domestic and international music business in the 1990s.

Through previous membership of the Boards of the IRMA Trust, the Temple Bar Music Centre, the IBEC Music Group, plus having served on Forte, the advisory group set up by the first Minister for Arts and Culture he has developed a comprehensive understanding of music and the arts in Ireland and overseas. He currently sits on the Board of the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society of Ireland (MCPSI).

Steve Lindsey

After achieving a degree from Liverpool College Of Art, Lindsey began his music career in 1976 as bass-player with first Deaf School and then The Planets. In 1985 he moved into music publishing as professional manager with Warner/Chappell Music and was later appointed general manager of Go! Disc Music, where he worked with The Las and Norman Cook/Beats International. He joined Island Music as creative director and general manager in 1990, and was associated with The Beautiful South Tricky and Massive Attack, and represented Irish acts Hinterland, Gavin Friday, Scary Eire and Marxman. In 1995 he set up as an independent music supervisor and worked on films such as Mission Impossible, Twin Town, Welcome To Sarajevo and TV productions like The Young Person's Guide To Becoming A Rock Star. As a consultant he established publishing companies for Robbie Williams's management company and Massive Attack. Based in Dublin for several years, he has worked on the publishing front with Rodrigo y Gabriela, Mocrac and George Murphy; and handled music supervision for the Noel Pearson produced Tara Road and RTE's The Clinic. During 2006, he enjoyed a major scoop with Rodrigo y Gabriela's stunning performance on The Late Show With David Letterman, and saw their album top the US new age charts. He also feature on the publishing panel at the very successful Music Ireland in the RDS. He's still managing Autamata who continue to write loads of material for TV commercials and films, as well as making nifty records, and with his publisher's hat on can boast of new signings in Cathy Davey, Dustin's Eurovision "song", Niall Byrne (Irish film score composer for Small Engine Repair and How About You?), Mickey Joe Heart and Electric Penguins.

Johnny Lappin

Johnny began in music as an enthusiastic amateur performer in the 1960’s. Having performed in various ‘beat groups’ and cabaret acts, the highlight of this undistinguished career was playing support to the legendary Van Morrison’s “Them” in Dublin in the mid -sixties. His last public performance was in August 1971. Family pressure to get ‘a real job’ resulted in him working in the family’s Hardware business until boredom set in and he decided to go into the business side of music in 1975.

Johnny Lappin has been a full time professional in the music business since then. He started his career as a band manager, managing Stepaside, who were one of the top Irish bands of the seventies. He was involved in the promotion of Ireland’s first ever outdoor rock festival, which was headlined by Thin Lizzy at Dalymount Park Dublin in 1977.

In 1978, he formed one of Ireland’s earliest independent record companies Scoff Records, whose releases included albums by The Atrix and The Rhythm Kings amongst others. He also started a music publishing company, Dark Fox Music Ltd. that acted as the publishing arm of the record company.

In 1979 he decided to concentrate on music publishing full time. In 1980 he was elected Secretary of the Irish Music Publishers Association {MPAI}, a position he still occupies today. From 1982 to 1990 he ran Clannad Music Ltd, the publishing company owned by the international recording artists, where he gained valuable experience in the workings of music publishing worldwide.

In 1990 he set up his own consultancy business which now includes a client list of top Irish artists such as Aslan, Sharon Shannon, Nomos, Cafe Orchestra, 4th Dimension, {Evolving Music} Blink {Blink Publishing Ltd}, Francis Black {Sandi Music}, Johnny Mc Evoy, Jim Mc Cann {Squirrel Music} Speranza, Rob Burke, Liam Reilly, The Celtic Tenors {Foxrock Music} Hazel O Connor {Ad Hoc Music} Jack Tempchin (writer of Already Gone & Peaceful Easy Feelin’) { Night River Music} Frank Patterson {Eanan Music} and Paddy Reilly {Brook Music} now with the legendary Dubliners, to name but a few.

Johnny Lappin is also heavily involved in Industry matters and is a member of the Music Industry Group under the auspices of IBEC which produced the acclaimed report to Government “ A Strategic Vision for the Irish Music Industry”, as well as " Striking the Right Note" the report produced by the Music Industry Group on the industry's requiremements for the 21st century. As a founder member of the pan-industry I.B.E.C. music industry group he was at the forefront in the lobby for the extension of the B.E.S.scheme for the music industry, a Board member of MCPS (Ire) Ltd.

Eddie Joyce

In 1984, Danceline was established by Eddie with businesspartner Pete McCluskey. For over 20 years now, Danceline, as a music publisher and record label, has been committed to the cause of promoting and developing Irish songwriters and Irish acts. In 2003, Danceline established www.irishsongwriters.com as another platform to highlight Irish songwriters internationally. In 2001, Eddie was a founder member of the "Fairplay for Airplay" initiative. A full report on this initiative can be found on the IMRO web site -http://www.imro.ie/music_makers/fairplayforairplayreport.shtml. In 1997, Eddie was elected to the IMRO Board and served for 4 years. In 1991, Eddie was a founder member of the ground-breaking Jobs in Music Campaign. Eddie has also acted as an Irish music industry consultant to Phantom Radio.

 

Michael O' Riordan

Michael O'Riordan was a major player in the success of Release Records in the late '60s when the Irish music scene was mainly dominated by that label and its unrivalled catalogue of showbands, ballad singers and cabaret acts. Since the advent of Ritz Records he has been an unrelenting campaigner on behalf of that labels chief protégé, Daniel O'Donnell, but more recently he has concentrated on the publishing side of the business through his Emma music publishing company. O'Riordan has also devoted much of his time to serving on music industry committees, including the Music Publishers of Ireland (of which he is president), IMRO, with whom he is currently a board member and for whom he chairs the PR committee, and the IFPI.

  

Songwriters/Composers 

Paul Brady

Paul Brady, singer, songwriter, musician, and producer has for over thirty years been at the forefront of music in Ireland, both traditional and contemporary. Spending the first decade and a half of his professional career absorbing influences from Jazz, Blues, Pop, Country and Traditional Irish music throughout many different musical partnerships, he began writing his own songs around the end of the 70’s and since then has steadily gained a reputation as one of Ireland’s leading singer-songwriters, releasing a string of critically acclaimed and commercially successful records.

Not long after he released ‘Hard Station’, his first album of his own compositions in 1981, his songwriting began to come to the attention of artists worldwide and his first cover came the following year when Carlos Santana covered ‘Night Hunting Time’. Following on from that his songs have appeared on many internationally successful records.

Paul Brady continues to write, record and perform. He is married to Mary Elliott, has two children Sarah (23) and Colm (22) and lives in Dublin.

To date Paul’s songs have been sung by Brooks & Dunn, Ronan Keating, Joe Cocker, Mary Black, Roger Chapman, Carole King, Dave Edmunds, Maura O'Connell, Broderick Smith, Tina Turner, Cher, Trisha Yearwood, The Wilsons, Curtis Stigers, Lorin Grean, The Chase, Eric Grip, Ric Trevino, Lynni Treekrem, Maura O'Connell, Johnny Logan, David Crosby, Phil Collins, Graeme Connors, Bryan White, Carlos Santana, Bonnie Raitt, Art Garfunkel, Will Cary, Dolores Keane, James McNally, Dan Ar Bras, Gerry Douglas, Paul Young, Johnny Hallyday and Dan Seals.

Donagh Long

Donagh Long has been writing and performing his own songs for the past fifteen years and, in that time, has established himself as one of Irelands’ finest and most respected exponents of the songwriting craft. His songs have been covered by Mary Black "Greatest Dream", "Nightime" and "The Shadow"; - by Mary Coughlan "Blue Surrender", "Love In The Shadows" and "Drinking The Diamonds"; by Frances Black "Soldiers of Destiny" and more recently by Dolores Keane . "Never Be The Sun" his beautiful composition sung with Emmylou Harris has been recorded on ‘Woman’s’ Heart 2’ and on Dolores’ ‘Solid Ground’. Album. Never be the Sun has been recorded on some twenty-five albums worldwide. The inspiration for Donaghs’ songs come very much from within his own emotions and tend to paint pictures with vivid imagery rather than merely tell stories. A gentle poetic quality is the common thread that connects his prolific body of work. Often, the songs allude to specific people, for example: John Lennon "Greatest Dream", Billie Holiday "Blue Surrender", or Michael Collins "The Shadow". The latter song was the theme for R.T.Es’ acclaimed television documentary ‘The Shadow Of Beal na Blath’. Donagh has also been commissioned to write for a number of other radio and television programs over the years. Well known as a performer in his native Cork, where Donagh has worked closely with a number of leading musicians, most notably Declan Sinnott , he continues to produce songs of rare distinction. These days, Donagh tends to devote more time to writing than "live" work and this policy has resulted in a store of superb new compositions.

Eleanor McEvoy

Eleanor McEvoy graduated from Trinity College Dublin with an honours degree in academic music. She then worked as a violinist in the National Symphony Orchestra for four years. In 1992, she left the classical world behind her to concentrate on her real passion - songwriting. Her first taste of success was when she wrote, recorded and performed the title track of the chart topping album "A Woman's Heart ". In 1993, she signed a contract with Geffen Records in Los Angeles. This led to the world-wide release of her self-titled first album. As a songwriter, Eleanor has had songs covered by artists as diverse as Emmylou Harris, Sonja Kristina and Phil Coulter. She writes, arranges and co-produces all her material - even scoring all the parts for the orchestral musicians for the albums.

Niall Toner

Niall Toner is one of Ireland’s leading authorities on American Country Music, and has performed various styles of Bluegrass and Traditional Country Music with The Lee Valley String Band, The Sackville String Band, and Hank Halfhead and The Rambling Turkeys. He currently fronts his own four-piece outfit, NTB, performing much of his own original songs and music. Niall has been a songwriter and composer since 1990, and he spends a considerable amount of time each year, co-writing with American writers in Nashville. His songs and tunes have been recorded by Paddy Cole, The Nashville Bluegrass Band, John Hogan, The Fleadh Cowboys, Eoin O’Riabaig, Special Consensus and Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings. Niall presents Roots Freeway on RTE Radio One on Tuesday Nights at 9pm featuring music ranging from Bluegrass and Blues to Cajun and Singer-Songwriters. Niall has two CDs of original material to his credit, 'There's A Better Way' AVCD 004, released 2003 and 'Mood Swing' AVCD 005, released 2005.

Charlie McGettigan

Charlie McGettigan started his musical career in the 1960’s in various Rock bands in Donegal. Moving to Dublin in 1968 he honed in on the thriving folk scene there at that time. Moving to the rural environment of Drumshanbo, Co. Leitrim in 1973, Charlie formed the highly successful “Jargon” group, which went on to win the prestigious “Letterkenny Folk Festival” following in the footsteps of bands like Clannad and Pumpkinhead. Jargon released three singles - “ Bailieboro and me”, “The Singer” and “Hey Mr Dreamer”.

Down the years Charlie worked with artists like Maura O Connell and Eleanor Shanley who both recorded many of Charlie’s songs including “ Feet of a dancer”, “A bed for the night”, “If anything happened to you” and others.

He released two solo albums - “Songs of the night” and “Charlie McGettigan” before joining forces with Paul Harrington and Brendan Graham to win the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest with “Rock n Roll Kids”.

Charlie has since released the albums “In your old room”, “ Family Matters” and his current album “Stolen Moments” produced in Nashville by legendary producer Bil Vorndick. Charlie’s songs have been recorded by many artists including De Dannan, Mary and Frances Black, Ray Lynam, Daniel O Donnell, Sandy Kelly and Hal Ketchum to name but a few.

These days Charlie tours both here and abroad. He presents “The Saturday Connection” on Shannonside / Northern Sound Radio, a two hour programme where he previews live music and theatrical events, interviews guests e.g. Kieran Goss, Frances Black, Jerry Douglas and Bela Fleck and plays mostly Irish music and song on CD.

Charlie has been asked to be a board member of The Dock Arts Centre in Carrick
on Shannon and he organises the annual An Tostal Song Contest in Drumshanbo.

Christy Moore

External Director  Philip Flynn

Philip is currently CEO of the Digital Hub Development Agency. The Digital Hub is a €250m Government project of major national importance to create a centre of excellence for Digital Media in enterprise, education and the arts, based in the historic 'Liberties' area of Dublin. Dublin City Council, Enterprise Ireland & the IDA are key partners in the initiative which has as its aims Enterprise Development, Educational Development, Urban regeneration and Community development.

A guitar player himself, Philip was heavily involved in the Music Industry in the late 70's/early 80's as co-founder/organiser of the Ballisodare Festival which was Ireland's first 3-day weekend music festival. The festival ran successfully for 6 years and attracted audiences of 20k at its peak.

In his professional career, he moved to the computer industry in the mid 80's when he joined Digital Equipment Corporation and became Financial Controller of their Clonmel campus. Over 11 years at Digital he had many international executive assignments including Director of European Marketing Operations in Geneva followed by worldwide responsibility, based in Boston, for Commercialisation/Partnerships and Alliances in Digital's Services division.

He returned to Dublin in 1997 as Vice President/MD of international operations, covering Europe and Asia, for Visio Corporation, a Seattle-based PLC which developed and published software for drawing and diagramming. During his time with Visio, the business grew rapidly from 40m to 200m and Philip also represented the company on the board of the 'Business Software Alliance' a copyright management and protection association for software publishers. In January 2000 Microsoft acquired Visio in a deal valued at 1.5bn dollars.

After Visio, Philip took the position of Chief Operating Officer at Orbiscom an indigenous Irish Software company and following 2 years there moved to his current position in December 2002.

Philip holds an MSc. (Mgt.) from Trinity College, Dublin and is also a graduate of Stanford University's executive development programme. He is a member of the Marketing Institute of Ireland and the Institute of Directors.

James Morris

Chairman of Windmill Lane Pictures Ltd. and Board Scannan na hEireann/The Irish Film Board, James Morris is a graduate of Trinity College and trained as a Film Editor in London. He founded Windmill Lane Pictures and Windmill Lane Recording Studios on his return to Dublin. He led the Windmill Consortium to win the television franchise for TV3 in 1989. In 1990 he founded The Mill - Film and TV Post Production Company in London. He was appointed non-executive Chairman of TV3 in 1998. He joined the board of the International Dublin Film Festival in 2004.