Dónal Lunny, a musician who played a central role in shaping Irish traditional music through his work with several influential bands, died of cancer. He was 79.
Lunny’s career spanned decades and encompassed work as a performer, arranger, composer and producer. He was best known for adapting the Greek bouzouki into what became known as the Irish bouzouki, an instrument that became integral to contemporary Irish traditional music. Lunny played multiple instruments including guitar, keyboards and bodhrán, but his contributions extended beyond instrumentation to the structural and harmonic development of the music he created.
He was a founding member of Planxty, formed in the early 1970s alongside singer Christy Moore, musician Andy Irvine and uilleann piper Liam O’Flynn. The band expanded on existing concepts of group instrumental performance and gained immediate success, though Lunny departed in 1973 before reuniting with the original members in 1979. Lunny subsequently played with the Bothy Band, an ensemble known for integrating rock elements into traditional music, and later co-founded Moving Hearts with Moore, a band that further pushed musical boundaries by incorporating contemporary sounds and Moore’s politically themed songs.
Beyond these primary collaborations, Lunny worked extensively as a producer and session musician with artists spanning multiple genres, including Elvis Costello, Kate Bush, Sinéad O’Connor and Mark Knopfler. He composed and arranged music for films, documentaries and television, serving as musical director for the 1991 BBC and RTÉ series Bringing It All Back Home, which won an Emmy. In later years, he received lifetime achievement awards from BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2018 and RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards in 2025. A biographical documentary about his life was broadcast in August this year.
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