Aslan are an Irish rock band from Dublin who formed in 1982. Composed originally of Christy Dignam, Joe Jewell, Tony McGuinness, Billy McGuinness, and Alan Downey, the band has released six studio albums: Feel No Shame (1988), Goodbye Charlie Moonhead (1994), Here Comes Lucy Jones (1997), Waiting For This Madness To End (2001), For Some Strange Reason (2007) and Nudie Books and Frenchies (2012).

Aslan took their name from the fictional lion in C.S. Lewis's series of books chronicling the land of Narnia (Aslan is the Turkish word for "Lion"). The band came from the working class areas of Finglas and Ballymun in Dublin's Northside, in the mid-1980s. They released a demo single, "This Is", in the spring of 1986. It was a success and a popular single on Ireland's pop radio station, RTÉ 2fm.

In the summer of 1986, they played a series of shows in the UK and Melody Maker noted: "Lucky the label that signs this band!" Janice Long at BBC Radio 1 recorded Aslan in session and it aired three times in the subsequent weeks. At the end of 1986, Aslan were awarded The Stag/Hot Press "Most Promising New Band" award and signed to EMI.

In 1988, Aslan recorded their debut album, Feel No Shame, which went to number one on the Irish Albums Chart. Within a couple of months it was certified Gold, and the band embarked on a promotional U.S. tour. However, in August 1988 after the option for their second album had been picked up, and just before Feel No Shame was due to be released Stateside, Dignam's spiralling heroin addiction led to him being fired from the band. The remaining members recruited singer Eamo Doyle, who previously played with Dublin band The Lookalikes, but according to drummer Alan Downey in the Made In Dublin DVD: "it was like U2 trying to go on without Bono... it was just never going to work". Eamo Doyle then played with Les Binks from Judas Priest. Christy Dignam went on to form Dignam & Goff with guitarist Conor Goff, whilst the other members went on to form The Precious Stones.

On 11 July 1993, Aslan played what was planned as a one-time charity performance in Finglas. Rather, they decided to reunite proper and then landed a new record deal with BMG. The first single "Crazy World" entered the Irish Singles Chart at number four and stayed in the chart for three months. "Crazy World" also won the "Single of the Year" at 1993's Hot Press Awards. A few months later the follow-up single, "Where's The Sun", reached number three on the chart.

The latter part of 1994 was spent touring in Ireland and recording their album Goodbye Charlie Moonhead, which was released in Ireland at the end of 1994 and charted at number one, going on to be certified Gold weeks later. But by 1995, the band were dropped by their record label BMG. In April 1996, Aslan began recording a new album without a record label. This album, Here Comes Lucy Jones was released in October 1997 and the album went into the Irish Albums Chart at number fourteen. Aslan were nominated in seven categories of the 1997 Hot Press readers poll.

Shame About Lucy Moonhead, a compilation of the best of Aslan's recorded work on EMI, was released in July 1998. It reached number one in the Irish albums chart and was later certified double platinum. In March 1999, Aslan played five sell-out shows at Ireland's Vicar Street venue, during which their live album and video concert movie/DVD Made In Dublin were recorded. Both reached number one in their first week of release. The album went platinum within three weeks and remained in the top ten for eight weeks. Towards the end of 1999 Aslan sold out Ireland's largest indoor venue (9,000 capacity), the Point Theatre on 26 December, sharing the billing with Picture House.

In the summer of 2000, Aslan toured Australia for the first time to promote the release of the album Shame About Lucy Moonhead and sold-out shows in Sydney and Melbourne. Aslan ended 2000 by playing for the first time in the Netherlands to a sellout crowd. Afterwards, they returned to Ireland to sell out the Point Theatre on 27 December.