Dónal Lunny, legendary Irish musician and founder of Planxty, The Bothy Band and Moving Hearts, has died

The key facts

Dónal Lunny has died at the age of 79; he was a founding member of Planxty, The Bothy Band and Moving Hearts.
He is regarded as one of the key figures in the revival of Irish traditional music; Bono called him 'Ireland's answer to Quincy Jones'.
The Timedance suite, created by Lunny and Bill Whelan for the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest, formed the basis of Riverdance.

The death of one of Ireland's foremost musicians

Dónal Lunny, one of the most celebrated Irish traditional musicians and multi-instrumentalists, has died at the age of 79, BBC News NI reports. Lunny was a founding member of three influential bands — The Bothy Band, Planxty and Moving Hearts — and is widely recognised as one of the key figures in the revival and development of Irish traditional music. He also composed music for television series, documentaries and film, and in recent years collaborated with contemporary artists including Kate Bush, Rod Stewart, Elvis Costello, Clannad and Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler. Bono of U2 once called him 'the island's answer to Quincy Jones'.

Early years and Planxty

Lunny was born in 1947 in Tullamore, County Offaly, and moved at the age of five to Newbridge, County Kildare. According to Irish broadcaster RTÉ, in 1959 he met the young Christy Moore, and the schoolfriends discovered a musical bond that lasted for decades. As one of the founders of Planxty, alongside Moore, Liam O'Flynn and Andy Irvine, Lunny helped reimagine traditional Irish music: between 1971 and 1973 the band recorded three albums, on which he played bouzouki, guitar, keyboards and bodhrán. In 1973 he founded the label Mulligan Records and released 17 albums, including recordings by the Boomtown Rats, The Radiators and Agnes Bernelle.

The Bothy Band and the road to Riverdance

In 1975 Lunny joined The Bothy Band, where, together with Matt Molloy, Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill, Kevin Burke, Paddy Glackin and Paddy Keenan, he pushed the boundaries of traditional Irish music. In 1981, when Ireland hosted the Eurovision Song Contest, Lunny and Bill Whelan composed a three-part suite of traditional music with baroque influences called Timedance, performed by Planxty in the contest's interval act. When Whelan was invited to prepare the interval act for the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest, again held in Ireland, he developed that foundation — the piece later grew into the full-scale show Riverdance, featuring Michael Flatley, which became one of the most successful touring shows in the world. 'I didn't call it Riverdance by accident, because it is directly connected to Timedance,' the BBC quotes Whelan as saying from Leagues O'Toole's book The Humours of Planxty (2006).

Recognition and later years

In 1992 Lunny produced and served as musical director of the award-winning television series Bringing It All Back Home, beginning a years-long creative partnership with producer Philip King. He also composed music for films, including This Is My Father, starring Aidan Quinn and James Caan. In 2018 he received a lifetime achievement award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, and last year a similar honour at the RTÉ Radio 1 Irish Folk Awards. One of his last public performances took place in August at Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in Belfast.

Reactions and tributes

Musician and composer Neil Martin, who collaborated with Lunny for many years, described the loss as 'enormous' and characterised him as 'an outstanding figure'. 'From the mid-1960s onwards, virtually every significant movement in the world of traditional music had Dónal at its epicentre,' he said on BBC's Evening Extra programme. According to him, although the musician had long been ill, the news of his death came as 'something of a shock', and he is glad that his last memory of meeting Lunny 18 months ago is a 'happy' one. The Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA) stated that Lunny's influence on Irish music was 'enormous' and that he 'opened up new harmonic and rhythmic possibilities'; according to the archive, 'his imagination shaped the sound of Irish music'.

Family

Lunny is survived by his children Oisín, Cora Venus and Síora Chan, as well as his partner Úna Ó Boyle. His brother Manus is a well-known musician and producer. In the early 2000s Lunny had a brief relationship with his musical collaborator Sinéad O'Connor; in 2004 their son Shane was born, who died in 2022 at the age of 17, and in 2023 his mother also passed away.