Singer, guitarist, and composer Dáithí Sproule’s early collaborations with the Ó Domhnaill family (Mícheál, Tríona, and Maighread) led to the groundbreaking group Skara Brae.  Weaving vocal harmonies and improvisational guitar in multiple tunings, the band was recognized with the Grúpa Ceoil award in TG4's 2022 Gradam Ceoil ceremony in Dublin, 50 years after the release of its eponymous album on Gael Linn records.

Dáithí’s vast repertoire of traditional songs in English and Irish was first developed during his teenage years in Rannafast in Donegal, and includes lyrics set to his own compositions.  Songs with his melodies have been recorded by Skara Brae, the Bothy Band, Altan, Trian, Liz Carroll, Aoife Clancy, Loreena McKennitt, the RTE Concert Orchestra, 10,000 Maniacs, and many others.  His song, “The Death of Queen Jane”, has been recorded by more than two dozen artists, and was featured in the 2013 Coen brothers film, “Inside Llewyn Davis”.  Dáithí has presented two television documentaries about Irish song.  “Ceol na gCoillte” (“Woods Music”), was broadcast in 2025 on Canadian and Irish television, tracing the migration of Irish songs and music making into North American traditions through the lumber camps.

Beginning in the early 1970s, Dáithí has been a leading innovator in the use of DADGAD guitar tuning for traditional Irish music, becoming one of the most respected guitar accompanists in the genre.  Over the past 50 years he has performed and recorded in trios with James Kelly and Paddy O’Brien; Trian (Liz Carroll and Billy McComiskey); Seamus and Manus McGuire; Fingal (Randal Bays and James Keane); the Kane Sisters, Martin and Christine Dowling; and Dermy and Tara Diamond, and provided accompaniment on seminal recordings by fiddlers Tommy Peoples and Liz Carroll.  From 1994 to 2024 he toured and recorded with the internationally renowned Irish band Altan, including collaborations with Dolly Parton, and performances at the Sydney Opera House, Royal Albert Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, and for American and Irish Presidents.

Dáithí settled in Minnesota in the early 1980s, where he has performed and recorded with Minnesota-based musicians Laura MacKenzie, Martin McHugh, Peter Ostroushko, Dave Ray, Jode Dowling and Kate Wade, Dean Magraw, Norah Rendell and Brian Miller, Hannah Flowers, and others.  In 2009 he was awarded a Bush Artist Fellowship from the Minnesota-based Archibald Bush Foundation.

Dáithí has recorded two albums of songs in Irish and English, "A Heart Made of Glass" (1995) and "Lost River, Vol. 1." (2011).  In 2008 he released an instrumental guitar album, "The Crow in the Sun", featuring thirteen original compositions.   His 2026 duet album with Cork-based Victoria Adiiye, “There but for Fortune,” features songs and tunes accompanied by acoustic and electric guitars.

Since his teenage years, Dáithí has had a life-long commitment to Irish language and culture. He was a member of the champion All-Ireland Irish language debating team from St. Columb’s College in Derry four years in a row, and was awarded the individual medal, An Cainteoir Is Fearr, in 1968.  His studies on Early Irish poetry and history have been published in Comhar and Ériu, and works from his collection of short stories in Irish, An Taobh Eile, published In 1987, have been anthologized in Irish and English. Dáithí has taught Early and Medieval Irish at University College Dublin and courses on Celtic culture, mythology and history at the University of St. Thomas and the University of Minnesota. He has been a teacher at the Center for Irish Music in St. Paul, Minnesota, since 2006, teaching individual and group classes in guitar and fiddle, the song traditions of Ireland and the US, and Irish language, poetry, history, and mythology.