Declan O'Rourke

Few singer-songwriters from Dublin trace their songwriting back to a priest in an Australian country town, yet that is where Declan O'Rourke's story begins. Given his first guitar at thirteen while his family lived in Kyabram, he went on to build a reputation on intimate, warmly sung songs with a strong narrative streak. Born in 1976, he has since built a career across a string of albums, and his voice has drawn praise from musicians well beyond Ireland.

His debut, Since Kyabram, appeared in October 2004 and entered the Irish album chart at number 5, going gold before reaching double platinum. Its launch, across three sold-out nights at Whelan's, was broadcast live on national radio. Paul Weller championed his song 'Galileo (Someone Like You)', later putting the recording on a compilation of his favourites. Big Bad Beautiful World reached number 4 in 2007, and Mag Pai Zai followed in 2011 on his own Rimecoat Records. In 2016 he released In Full Colour, sixteen tracks recorded with the RTE Concert Orchestra.