{"id":23896,"date":"2025-09-16T00:49:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T00:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/23896\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T00:49:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T00:49:21","slug":"donal-lunny-returns-to-stage-after-illness-with-surprise-appearance-in-cork-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/23896\/","title":{"rendered":"D\u00f3nal Lunny returns to stage after illness with surprise appearance in Cork \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

D\u00f3nal Lunny<\/a> has made his return to the stage, more than a year after he was struck down by serious illness. In a surprise performance in Cork<\/a> on Sunday night, Lunny appeared with singer Andy Irvine<\/a> in a five-bouzouki ensemble to mark a new film about Lunny\u2019s life. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great to be here \u2013 and to quote M\u00e1irt\u00edn O\u2019Connor<\/a>, it\u2019s great to be anywhere,\u201d Lunny said, referring to button-accordionist O\u2019Connor. <\/p>\n

Lunny, a seminal figure in Irish music, was greeted with a standing ovation in the packed Christ Church auditorium at the Triskel arts centre. With him and Irvine were brothers Brian and Diarmuid Mac Gloinn of Ye Vagabonds, Evan \u00d3 Cual\u00e1in and Fionn O\u2019Hanlon. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing to say but how thrilled we are to find D\u00f3nal Lunny back on the stage with us after so long,\u201d Irvine said, adding that they have been playing music together for three lifetimes. \u201cI\u2019m sure nobody has ever seen so many bouzoukis.\u201d <\/p>\n

Directed by Nuala O\u2019Connor, In Time \u2013 D\u00f3nal Lunny explores his pioneering contribution, spanning six decades, to the revival of traditional and folk music. The Cork showing was part of the Sounds from a Safe Harbour festival. <\/p>\n

Lunny was a founder member in 1972 of Planxty<\/a> and, later, of The Bothy Band and Moving Hearts. Among the songs played on Sunday were the West Coast of Clare, the Bonny Light Horseman and You Rambling Boys of Pleasure, each popularised by Planxty. <\/p>\n

Lunny had been scheduled to perform last year with The Bothy Band when he became ill, necessitating major surgery and a lengthy recuperation. He left hospital for one day late last year for the filming of an intimate song with Christy Moore<\/a>, who was in the original Planxty line-up alongside Lunny, Irvine and the late Liam O\u2019Flynn. <\/p>\n

Moore, Irvine and fiddler Paddy Glackin are among many musicians featured in the film, which examines Lunny\u2019s creative process in a \u201clife lived entirely for art\u2019s sake\u201d. Also examined are Lunny\u2019s relationships and the death in January 2022 of Shane O\u2019Connor, his teenage son with the late Sin\u00e9ad O\u2019Connor<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"DonalDonal Lunny and Andy Irvine performing after the screening of In Time, at the Triskel for Sounds from a Safe Harbour festival. Photograph: Br\u00edd O\u2019Donovan \"EvanEvan \u00d3 Cual\u00e1in, Donal Lunny, Fionn O\u2019Hanlon, Br\u00edan Mac Gloinn, Andy Irvine and Diarmuid Mac Ghloinn at the screening of In Time. Photograph: Br\u00edd O\u2019Donovan <\/p>\n

The film\u2019s backers include Adam Clayton<\/a> of U2<\/a> and University College Dublin<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Interviewed by Clayton at the Triskel centre, Nuala O\u2019Connor said the project was long in gestation before filming began: \u201cI started with just talking to Donal, spending a lot of time before we ever shot anything just talking to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clayton said Lunny was an \u201camazingly humble\u201d and \u201cvery modest man\u201d, going on to describe how he changed the way \u201cwe look at ourselves and the way we look at our traditions\u201d and music. \u201cI felt I was with him and I felt all of us here were with him every step of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"D\u00f3nal Lunny has made his return to the stage, more than a year after he was struck down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[20530,20529,12486,46,20528,93,61,60,16147,18097],"class_list":{"0":"post-23896","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-adam-clayton","9":"tag-andy-irvine","10":"tag-christy-moore","11":"tag-cork","12":"tag-donal-lunny","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-planxty","17":"tag-sinead-oconnor"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}