It was formed in 1975 by Frankie Gavin (fiddle), Alec Finn (guitar, bouzouki), Johnny "Ringo" McDonagh (bodhrán) and Charlie Piggott (banjo) as a result of sessions in Hughes's Pub in Spiddal, County Galway, Ireland,[citation needed] with Dolores Keane (vocals) subsequently being invited to join the band.

[citation needed] In 1985 the spelling of the name was changed from "Dé Danann" to "De Dannan" for reasons that have never been made clear.

In early 1976, Keane left to marry multi-instrumentalist John Faulkner, with whom she subsequently recorded three albums of folk music.

[2] Irvine left soon thereafter because of scheduling conflicts but proposed as his replacement Johnny Moynihan,[3]: 243  who participated in the recording of the band's second album, Selected Jigs Reels & Songs.

Like O'Connell and Keane before her, Black subsequently went on to explore country, blues and jazz, hopping backwards and forwards between Nashville and Dublin.

In 2008 the original band (Johnny "Ringo" McDonagh, Charlie Piggott, Dolores Keane, Frankie Gavin and Alec Finn) were commemorated on an Irish 55c postage stamp.