A Meteor Ireland Music Award is an accolade bestowed upon professionals in the music industry in Ireland and further afield. Apart from 2011, they have been bestowed each year since 2001, replacing the IRMA Ireland Music Awards held in the 1990s. Promoted by MCD Productions, the ceremony at which these accolades are bestowed upon worthy recipients is referred to colloquially as The Meteors, though occasionally also by its full title.

Event organisers confirmed in January 2011 that there would be no awards ceremony that year, with Meteor's cancellation of its sponsorship of the event widely blamed for this abrupt occurrence.

The Meteor Ireland Music Awards are the equivalent to the Canada's Juno Awards, the United States Grammy Awards, the Echo Awards in Germany and the United Kingdoms BRIT Awards. The awards take their name from their sponsors, Meteor.

Each year there is a mix of live performances and award presentations at a ceremony conducted in the Point Theatre, Dublin (2001–2007) and the RDS, Dublin (2008–present). Irish artists to have showcased their music include Snow Patrol, Sinéad O'Connor, U2, Bell X1, Aslan, Westlife, The Blizzards, The Frames, The Coronas, Director, Hothouse Flowers, Cathy Davey, The Devlins, The Thrills, Paddy Casey and The Immediate, whilst previous live performances by international artists have included the Pussycat Dolls, Amy Winehouse, Sugababes, Counting Crows, The Darkness, Kaiser Chiefs, Lionel Richie and Tom Jones.

Sharon Shannon (born 12 November 1968 in Ruan, County Clare) is an Irish musician. She is best known for her work with the accordion and for her fiddle technique. She also plays the tin whistle and melodeon. Her 1991 album Sharon Shannon is the best selling album of traditional Irish music ever released there. Beginning with Irish folk music, her work demonstrates a wide-ranging number of musical influences, including reggae, cajun music, Portuguese music, and French Canadian music. Her single What You Make It (da, da, da, da) featured hip hop music artists. She won the lifetime achievement award at the 2009 Meteor Awards.

At eight years old, Shannon began performing with Disirt Tola, a band from County Clare. With Disirt Tola, Shannon toured the United States at age fourteen.

Shannon also worked as a competitive showjumper, but gave it up at age sixteen to focus on her music performing.

Shannon similarly abandoned studying at University College Cork.

In the mid-1980s, Shannon studied the accordion with Karen Tweed and the fiddle with Frank Custy, and performed with the band Arcady, of which she was a founding member.

Nicholas Bernard James Adam Byrne, Jr (born 9 October 1978) is a singer-songwriter, radio and TV presenter and former footballer. From 1998 until 2012 he was the oldest member of Irish pop band, Westlife.

Before his music career, he played professional football and represented Republic of Ireland at several underage levels. Since then he has had a successful international radio and TV presenting career. His wife Georgina is the daughter of former Irish Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and they have twin sons called Rocco Bertie Byrne and Jay Nicky Byrne.

Byrne was a footballer who played for Home Farm and St. Kevins Boys in North Dublin. He became a professional football player, and joined Leeds United as a goalkeeper in 1995, and was a squad member of the FA Youth Cup winning team of 1997

He played for Leeds for two years, leaving when his contract expired in June 1997. He played in a reserve game for Scarborough F.C. and in a trial game with Cambridge United before returning to join Dublin club Shelbourne. He then signed for Cobh Ramblers playing 11 games, then St. Francis F.C., all in Ireland's League of Ireland.

Elaine Crowley (1927 – February 2011), born Helena Bridget Crowley, was an Irish author.

Crowley was born in Ireland, but spent most of her adult life in Wales. She is best known for her novels Dreams of Other Days, The Young Wives and a Family Cursed, all written during her latter years. She died in Swansea.

William "Liam" Clancy (2 September 1935 – 4 December 2009) (Irish Liam Mac Fhlannchadha) was an Irish folk singer and actor from Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary. He was the youngest and last surviving member of performing group The Clancy Brothers. The group were regarded as Ireland's first pop stars. They recorded 55 albums, achieving global sales of millions and appearing at a sold-out Carnegie Hall, New York and the Royal Albert Hall, London.

Liam was regarded as the group's most powerful vocalist.Bob Dylan regarded him as the greatest ballad singer ever, whilst Gay Byrne described him as one of the “most famous four Irishmen in the world”. He was a central figure during the 1960s folk revival, on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Shortly before his death in 2009 The Irish Times said Clancy "does seem a little like a figure from the Pleistocene era": upon his death the newspaper said his legacy was secured.

As a child he was known as William or Willie. He displayed an artistic disposition at an early age, while growing up in Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary. Born there he was in 1935 as one of eleven children of Robert Joseph Clancy and Joanna McGrath. The first song he learned was "The Croppy Boy". He received a Christian Brothers education before taking a job as an insurance man in Dublin. Whilst there he also took night classes at the National College of Art and Design.