Dónal Lunny has died aged 79, with tributes published on Friday, 23 October, recalling the musician and producer’s influence on Irish traditional music. The news brings particular local connections to Tullamore, where he was born, and Newbridge, where his musical partnership with Christy Moore began.

The Irish Traditional Music Archive’s tribute, dated today, confirms his death and describes a career spanning performance, arranging and recording. Midlands 103 reported his death at 4pm, identifying the Tullamore musician’s age as 79.

A partnership rooted in Newbridge

ITMA traces Lunny and Moore’s friendship to their youth in Newbridge. Its account recalls the young musicians working on The Curragh of Kildare after Moore found the song in a collection by P. W. Joyce—a local connection behind a much wider musical career.

Lunny’s work with Planxty, The Bothy Band and Moving Hearts linked successive developments in Irish folk and traditional music. Best known for playing the bouzouki, he also worked across several other instruments and as a producer and arranger.

The archive says recordings he performed on, produced or arranged run throughout its catalogue. It also recalls his recent rehearsals there with Zoë Conway and their appearance at this summer’s Fleadh Cheoil in Belfast.

The archival photograph shows Lunny at Bristol Folk Festival in May 2012. It is by Maybesometime, available through Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 3.0; this WebP version retains the original framing and the same licence.