Dónal Lunny, the musician and producer who helped shape Irish folk and traditional music across six decades, has died at the age of 79. According to The Irish Times, he died on Friday morning at St James's Hospital in Dublin of cancer.
His death prompted tributes from friends, collaborators and public figures, who described him as a "genius" and praised the scale of his contribution to Irish music. RTÉ, BBC and The Journal also reported the death.
Why it matters
Lunny was involved in three of the most influential groups in Irish traditional music — Planxty, The Bothy Band and Moving Hearts — and later built a parallel career as a producer. President Catherine Connolly said he was one of Ireland's greatest musical figures and described him as a talented musician and producer who was central to many of the most influential moments in the past 60 years of Irish music, according to The Irish Times.
She said he would be remembered in particular for his long partnerships with fellow musicians such as Christy Moore and Andy Irvine, and for the music he left behind both as a performer and as a producer.
From Newbridge to the bouzouki
Lunny was born in Tullamore, Co Offaly, and raised in Newbridge, Co Kildare, from the age of five. He was the middle child of nine. The Irish Times reports that he was a multi-instrumentalist from the start, taking up the harmonica at six and going on to play drums, bodhrán, guitar, bass, mandolin and keyboards. He was best known, however, for the bouzouki, which he took up from sometime bandmate Andy Irvine and made his own.
He designed his own version of the instrument, which is associated with Greek music, to suit his approach. He believed it fitted Irish traditional music better than the guitar, telling the paper that its chords were less dense, easier to play and gave a more open accompaniment to Irish music.
His first band was formed with his older brother Frank and neighbour Christy Moore when the pair were teenagers, performing as the Rakes of Kildare. Moore, who was two years ahead of him at school, remained both a friend and a collaborator for decades. Presenting Lunny with a lifetime achievement award at the RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards last year, Moore recalled meeting him in 1959 and remembered him as more interested in fishing on the Liffey or climbing trees to look into birds' nests than in doing homework.
Lunny enrolled at the National College of Art & Design in 1965 and studied basic and graphic design for three years, but his career lay in music. His first chart success came with the teenage folk band Emmet Spiceland, which reached number one in Ireland with Mary from Dungloe.
Planxty, The Bothy Band and Moving Hearts
In 1970 Lunny began a musical partnership with Andy Irvine that The Irish Times describes as a catalyst for many of the folk acts that would dominate the scene for years afterwards. The pair ran their own club night downstairs at Slattery's pub on Capel Street in Dublin, called The Mug's Gig. Two years later they joined Liam O'Flynn and Christy Moore to form Planxty.
Lunny left Planxty two years after that to join The Bothy Band, playing guitar and bouzouki, and the group quickly became one of the leading acts in Irish traditional music. He was later part of a third such outfit, Moving Hearts, again alongside Moore and with piper Davy Spillane. Moving Hearts blended rock rhythms with Irish traditional music and made a significant impact in the early 1980s.
After the band broke up in 1985, Lunny turned to production through his own label, Mulligan Records. He was producer and music director on the soundtrack of the 1990 five-part BBC documentary Bringing It All Back Home, which traced the influence of Irish music around the world. He produced albums for artists including Paul Brady, Elvis Costello, the Indigo Girls and Sinéad O'Connor, and played with Kate Bush and Mark Knopfler.
The Irish Traditional Music Archive said in a statement that his musical life was founded on creativity, friendship and collaboration, and that his work with performers including Moore, Irvine, O'Flynn, Paddy Glackin, Matt Molloy, Maighréad and Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill and Frank Harte placed him at the heart of some of the most important developments in the genre.
Arts Council director Shona McCarthy said his championing of Irish traditional music helped bring the art form to the fore, describing him as a trailblazer who inspired generations of musicians and balanced tradition with reinvention.
Broadcaster Philip King, a close friend, said Lunny's contribution was immense, both as a musician and as a producer, and that his influence can be heard in current acts such as Amble and Kingfishr. "We would sonically and rhythmically not be in this place with Irish music without him," he said, according to The Irish Times.
Nuala O'Connor, who made the RTÉ documentary On Time: Dónal Lunny, said filming began in 2024 and that Lunny suffered his first serious illness during production. She said they finished in time, and described him as a genius and a naturally gifted musician with no ego who lived for playing.
In January, Lunny became the first person inducted into the Trad Music Hall of Fame during an appearance on The Late Late Show.
He is survived by his children Oisín, Cora Venus and Sora. His son Shane O'Connor, whose mother was Sinéad O'Connor, died in 2022.
Funeral arrangements have not been announced.
