Dónal Lunny

Dónal Lunny was born on 10 March 1947 in Tullamore, County Offaly, and grew up from the age of five in Newbridge, County Kildare, where the River Liffey ran through his childhood — more likely to find him tickling trout or climbing trees to peer into birds' nests than bent over homework. The middle of nine children, he came of age in a Ireland on the cusp of a cultural revolution, and he would do more than most to ignite it. He studied art and design at Dublin's National College of Art and Design from 1965 to 1968, developing real skill as a goldsmith and silversmith — a precision that later surfaced in the way he crafted arrangements. But music had already won him. As a teenager he forged a friendship with Christy Moore that would last sixty-six years, and together with his brother Frank they formed The Rakes of Kildare. While still a college student, Lunny's band Emmet Spiceland reached number one in Ireland in 1966 with "Mary from Dungloe," a success that brought scenes of Beatlemania-like attention he found more embarrassing than thrilling. It was through Andy Irvine that Lunny first encountered the bouzouki, and he immediately heard something in it that guitar could not offer Irish music: chords less dense, an accompaniment more open, a sound more honest to the tradition. He designed his own custom instrument, and his adoption of the bouzouki would permanently alter the soundscape of Irish trad. In 1970, Lunny and Irvine opened The Mug's Gig at Slattery's Pub in Dublin — a club night that crackled with the energy of the revival. In 1972, with Liam O'Flynn and Christy Moore, he co-founded Planxty. The band was an earthquake. What Moore later called the "spontaneous combustibility" of Lunny's playing gave Planxty its restless, rhythmic pulse, bringing complex arrangements and a new emotional urgency to traditional forms. He moved on in 1975 to co-found The Bothy Band, then in 1981 reunited with Moore for Moving Hearts, which fused Irish tradition with rock and jazz in ways that still sound audacious today. Away from performing, Lunny built a parallel career of remarkable reach as a record producer and arranger, working with Kate Bush, Elvis Costello, Sinéad O'Connor, Mark Knopfler, Paul Brady, and Baaba Maal among many others. He co-founded Mulligan Records in 1976 as an artist-first independent label, and served as musical director for the landmark BBC documentary series Bringing It All Back Home in 1990. A member of Aosdána and the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Trinity College Dublin, he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the RTÉ Radio 1 Irish Folk Awards in February 2025. Known for his ready smile and his warmth with audiences everywhere, he cycled around Dublin with quiet ease, carrying an outsized influence very lightly. He performed his last public appearance at Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in Belfast in August 2026. Dónal Lunny died on 23 October 2026 at St James's Hospital, Dublin, aged 79, after battling cancer. He leaves behind a tradition transformed by his hands.