Nialler9 is an Irish music site and online music magazine founded in 2005 by DJ and writer Niall Byrne. The site is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. It has been referred to as "the grandaddy of Irish music blogs" by the Sunday Times.
History Founder Niall Byrne started the website as a portfolio after finishing a course in multimedia design from the Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology. The site won five consecutive awards at the Irish Blog Awards in the category of Best Music Blog (2007–2011), and has also won the Irish Web Awards Best Music Site category on three occasions (2009, 2013, and 2014). It was voted the 5th Best Music Blog in the World in a poll of music blogging peers in 2010.
Byrne also hosted a radio show under the Nialler9 name on TXFM before the station's closure in 2016. Byrne has written about music for publications including The Irish Times, the Irish Independent, The Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine and Red Bull.
Byrne co-hosts the Nialler9 Podcast, covering new music, albums, artist deep dives and interviews. The podcast passed 300 episodes in 2026.
The site has published annual end-of-year best-of lists covering albums and songs from Ireland and internationally since its founding. In 2017, Byrne compiled a playlist of 999 songs drawn from Nialler9's history between 2005 and 2017, amounting to over 74 hours of music. The site's annual lists of best new Irish acts provided early coverage of artists who went on to achieve wider recognition. These include Fontaines D.C., Villagers, Adebisi Shank, Fight Like Apes, Super Extra Bonus Party, Rejjie Snow, Lankum, Kojaque, Denise Chaila, Gilla Band, Saint Sister, For Those I Love, CMAT, The Mary Wallopers, Just Mustard and Rusangano Family, Le Galaxie, Talos, Ships, Curtisy, God Knows, and Niamh Regan, among others.
Byrne is a DJ and co-founder of Lumo Club, a monthly club night in Dublin. He has promoted and produced events under the Nialler9 name including the Indie Sleaze Disco Club night and monthly listening parties, and has curated events at SXSW in Austin, Texas, and Camden Crawl in London, as well as for Musictown, the Dublin Theatre Festival, Cork's Sounds From A Safe Harbour festival, and Culture Night Dublin.
Byrne has also worked as a music supervisor and sync licensing consultant, curating music for digital media, advertising, television, films, and in-flight entertainment with an emphasis on emerging Irish music.
Byrne has served on the judging panel for the Choice Music Prize, the annual Irish album of the year award, on multiple occasions including in 2008, 2014, and 2024.
Album of the Year Since its founding, Nialler9 has published an annual Album of the Year list.
Year Artist Album Source 2006 The Knife Silent Shout 2007 Battles Mirrored 2008 Why? Alopecia 2009 Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion 2010 Gorillaz Plastic Beach 2011 SBTRKT SBTRKT 2012 Chromatics Kill for Love 2013 Mount Kimbie Cold Spring Fault Less Youth 2014 Run the Jewels Run the Jewels 2 2015 Kendrick Lamar To Pimp a Butterfly 2016 Frank Ocean Blonde 2017 Kendrick Lamar Damn 2018 Rosalía El Mal Querer 2019 Lana Del Rey Norman Fucking Rockwell! 2020 Dua Lipa Future Nostalgia 2021 Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders and The London Symphony Orchestra Promises 2022 Rosalía Motomami 2023 Lankum False Lankum 2024 Cindy Lee Diamond Jubilee 2025 Rosalía Lux
Irish Album of the Year Nialler9 has published an annual Best Irish Album of the Year list since 2006. From 2006 to 2015 the winner was determined by a public reader vote; from 2016 onwards the selection has been made by Nialler9.
Year Artist Album Notes Source 2006 Si Schroeder Coping Mechanisms Public vote 2007 Super Extra Bonus Party Super Extra Bonus Party LP Public vote 2008 Jape Ritual Public vote 2009 Patrick Kelleher You Look Cold Public vote 2010 Villagers Becoming a Jackal Public vote 2011 Jape Ocean of Frequency Public vote 2012 The Cast of Cheers Family Public vote 2013 Villagers {Awayland} Public vote 2014 James Vincent McMorrow Post Tropical Public vote 2015 Gilla Band Holding Hands with Jamie Public vote 2016 Rusangano Family Let the Dead Bury the Dead 2017 Ships Precession 2018 Kojaque Deli Daydreams 2019 Gilla Band The Talkies 2020 Pillow Queens In Waiting 2021 For Those I Love For Those I Love 2022 CMAT If My Wife New I'd Be Dead 2023 Lankum False Lankum 2024 Curtisy What Was the Question 2025 CMAT Euro-Country
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