Tom Dunne: Why 1972 was the key year for rock music in Ireland
An early incarnation of Thin Lizzy perform on stage. Picture from RTÉ documentary How Ireland Rocked The 70s.
We get things later in Ireland. Punk hit the UK in 1976, but it was 1977/78 before it made any real inroads here. Studio 54 in NYC was already closed before we really embraced disco and, as for the ‘Swinging Sixties', well, history will show they barely made it here in time for Italia ’90.
Hence it should come as no surprise that 1971, the “year that changed everything”, according to author David Hepworth, didn’t really show its face here until 1972. That said, given the cultural chasm between the music scene of Laurel Canyon and that say of Rathmines, this is hardly surprising.
