Claddagh Records

{{Infobox record label

| name = Claddagh Records

| founded = {{start date|1959}}

| defunct =

| website = [http://www.claddaghrecords.com Official site]

}}

Claddagh Records is a record label, based in Dublin's Temple Bar area, founded in 1959 by Garech Browne and Ivor Browne.{{cite news |last=Gleeson |first=Colin |title=Losses double at record label that launched the Chieftains |work= |publisher=Irish Times |date=2 May 2018 |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/business/losses-double-at-record-label-that-launched-the-chieftains-1.3481466 |access-date=16 April 2021 }} It specialises in Irish traditional music, song and spoken word.

Garech Browne had been taking uilleann pipe lessons at the time from maestro Leo Rowsome, whom had made many of the earliest Irish music recordings in the 1920s and 1930s through His Master's Voice and Decca; Rowsome went on to be the debut artist featured by the Claddagh label with his album "Rí na bPíobairí" ("King of the Pipers"; also the name of a traditional tune), producing virtuosic recordings.{{cite news |last=Maye |first=Brian |title=King of the Pipers – An Irishman's Diary on Leo Rowsome |publisher=Irish Times |date=11 September 2020 |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/king-of-the-pipers-an-irishman-s-diary-on-leo-rowsome-1.4352817 |access-date=16 April 2021 }} The second release by Claddagh was The Chieftains' debut album, a band who has made history as, arguably, the most globally well-known and longest-running Irish traditional group.{{cite news |title=The Chieftains... out of this world! |work= |publisher=Irish Independent |date=3 March 2012 |url=https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/music/the-chieftains-out-of-this-world-26828349.html |access-date=16 April 2021 }}

Some Claddagh records feature poets reading their own works, amongst whom include Patrick Kavanagh, John Montague, and a young Seamus Heaney. Liam O’Flaherty's 1981 record was to be the only one of him reading his own work recorded by Claddagh.{{cite web |title=Guinness scion who was instrumental in the renaissance of Irish traditional music |publisher=Irish Times |date=16 March 2018 |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/guinness-scion-who-was-instrumental-in-the-renaissance-of-irish-traditional-music-1.3429675 |access-date=16 April 2021 }}

Garech Browne, who died in 2018, was an Irish art collector and a notable patron of the Irish arts, traditional Irish music in particular.{{cite news |title=Garech de Brún, Founder of Claddagh Records Has Died. President Michael D. Higgins Pays Tribute |work= |publisher=Hot Press |date=18 March 2018 |url=https://www.hotpress.com/music/garech-de-brun-founder-of-claddagh-records-has-died-president-michael-d-higgins-pays-tribute-21856909 |access-date=16 April 2021 }} He was often known by his Irish name, Garech de Brún, or Garech a Brún, particularly in Ireland and by Irish speakers.

Ivor Browne, who died on 24 January 2024, was a jazz and traditional musician, as well as a retired psychiatrist and author. In addition to serving as former Chief Psychiatrist of the Eastern Health Board, Browne was also Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at University College Dublin. During his psychiatric career, he was well-known for his staunch opposition to traditional psychiatric treatment methods, particularly with regards to his skepticism surrounding psychiatric drugs; Browne openly discussed his early experiences with psychedelics, like LSD, in a quest for non-traditional, experimental "treatments" of his own mental conditions (such as depression).