Dónal Lunny, Influential Irish Musician, Dies at 79

Dónal Lunny, a celebrated Irish musician and multi-instrumentalist widely credited for his pivotal role in the revival and expansion of Irish traditional music, has died at the age of 79.

Lunny was a founding member of three seminal bands: The Bothy Band, Planxty, and Moving Hearts. His career spanned decades, during which he composed scores for television dramas, documentaries, and films, and collaborated with a wide range of contemporary artists including Kate Bush, Rod Stewart, Elvis Costello, Clannad, and Mark Knopfler. U2's Bono once described Lunny as Ireland's "answer to Quincy Jones."

Born in Tullamore, County Offaly, in 1947, Lunny moved to County Kildare at age five. He recognized a profound musical connection with Christy Moore early in life, a partnership that would last for decades. Together with Liam O'Flynn and Andy Irvine, Lunny co-founded Planxty in the early 1970s, a group that significantly redefined traditional Irish music. The band released three albums between 1971 and 1973, with Lunny contributing on bouzouki, guitar, keyboards, and bodhrán.

In 1973, Lunny established Mulligan Records, a label that would release music from numerous artists, including The Boomtown Rats and The Radiators. He joined The Bothy Band in 1975, further pushing the boundaries of the genre with bandmates including Matt Molloy and Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill.

Lunny's collaboration with Bill Whelan on "Timedance," the interval act for the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest hosted in Ireland, laid the groundwork for what would later become the global phenomenon Riverdance. Whelan later expanded on this foundation for the 1994 Eurovision interval.

He served as musical director for the acclaimed 1992 TV series Bringing It All Back Home and composed film scores, including for This Is My Father. In recognition of his extensive career, Lunny received lifetime achievement awards from the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2018 and the RTÉ Radio 1 Irish Folk Awards in 2023.

Musician and composer Neil Martin described Lunny as an "extraordinary figure" whose influence was central to significant movements in traditional music since the mid-1960s. The Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA) stated that Lunny's influence was "immense," stating that "his imagination shaped the sound of Irish music" and that his career was built on "creativity, friendship and collaboration."

Lunny is survived by his children, Oisin, Cora Venus, and Sora Chan, and his partner, Una O'Boyle. His brother, Manus, is also a musician and producer. He had a son, Shane, with musical collaborator Sinéad O'Connor; Shane died in 2022, and O'Connor died in 2023.