Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland Darach Ó Laoire began playing the violin at an early age. He studied classical music formally while also being steeped in the Irish traditional music tradition. He switched to guitar in his early teens. While studying classical guitar he became attracted to Jazz and American folk music. He studied Jazz guitar with Louis Stewart and Dr Mike Nielsen at T.U. Dublin and began to play concerts with various Irish Jazz musicians. In 1998 he won a national arts council scholarship award to study at the Skidmore Jazz institute in New York. There he studied with the internationally renowned guitarist Pat Martino and drummer Ed Shaughnessy. This was followed by studies at Berklee college of music in Boston, Massachusetts and a move to Manhattan, New York. During four years spent in New York he had the opportunity to perform and record in various settings. Upon returning to Dublin he continued to perform in local clubs while also making return stints to the United States to study at New York University with John Benitez, Mark Whitfield, Peter Bernstein and Jack Wilkins.
In 2010 he joined the Irish group Republic of Loose. He has had the opportunity to record and tour extensively, playing in venues across Ireland as well as tours in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The group was awarded the gold medal of honorary patronage from Trinity college philosophical society in Dublin in 2018. He also contributed guitar tracks to the ‘Exit Pyro’ album which was criically lauded in 2023. Having been awarded the Fiosraigh dean of graduate research award by T.U. Dublin, he completed his PhD in 2025. The PhD deals with the first two guitarists to record improvised solos in an ensemble context, Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian. In particular, the research focuses on finding points of origin for harmonic and melodic innovation in the published output of both musicians through transcription and analysis.