Collaboration between traditional Irish band The Chieftains and Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. Their album Irish Heartbeat was released in 1988 on the Mercury label.

The album was recorded on dates from September to December 1987 and in January 1988 at Windmill Lane Studios, Dublin. The Chieftains and Van Morrison had met years before at the Edinburgh rock festival. They joined up in Belfast during Morrison's No Guru tour and afterwards, Morrison and Paddy Moloney discussed recording an album together during a walk. They each had a list of songs and reached a consensus to cover two of Morrison's previously released tracks (the title track was one) and the rest from traditional Irish songs. In October 1987 they performed together at Balmoral Studio in Belfast. The concert was broadcast on St. Patrick's Day in 1988. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.