{"id":664231,"date":"2026-10-24T18:02:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T18:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/664231\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T18:02:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T18:02:13","slug":"christy-moore-pays-tribute-to-best-man-and-dear-friend-donal-lunny-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/664231\/","title":{"rendered":"Christy Moore pays tribute to \u2018best man and dear friend\u2019 D\u00f3nal Lunny \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Musician Christy Moore<\/a> has paid tribute to his \u201cdear friend\u201d D\u00f3nal Lunny<\/a> (79) who died on Friday after a long illness. <\/p>\n

Moore and Lunny were childhood friends while growing up in Newbridge, Co Kildare<\/a>, and began a career-long collaboration that transformed Irish traditional music. <\/p>\n

The lifetime achievement award was presented to Lunny by Moore at last year\u2019s RT\u00c9<\/a> Radio 1 Folk Awards. <\/p>\n

The pair first met at Newbridge College in 1959 when Moore noticed that Lunny had little interest in homework and was more content to tickle trout or climb trees to gaze at wild birds\u2019 nests. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Obituary: Lunny leaves indelible mark on Irish traditional musicOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

They formed The Rakes of Kildare, their first band together, as teenagers along with Lunny\u2019s brother Frank. They were later members of Planxty and Moving Hearts, two of the most influential Irish trad bands, and collaborated when Moore embarked upon a solo career. <\/p>\n

In a statement to The Irish Times, Moore said: \u201cFrom 1962 to 2026 Donal was a constant presence in my working life, a dear friend, a sensitive and creative collaborator, a huge influence on later generations, many of whom may not yet realise what he has given.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"DonalDonal Lunny, Andy Irvine, Liam \u00d3g O’Flynn and Christy Moore playing with Planxty at Vicar Street in Dublin. Photograph: Alan Betson\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

The pair recorded seven albums together as part of a band or collaborating on Moore\u2019s solo projects. <\/p>\n

Moore and Lunny were politically active throughout their respective careers and shared the same republican politics. <\/p>\n

Together they wrote and recorded Ninety Miles to Dublin and then The Time has Come, both songs about the hunger strikes. <\/p>\n

Other songs with a political tint that they recorded together were On the Bridge, about the women in Armagh Prison, and The Wicklow Boy, a song for Nicky Kelly who was wrongfully convicted over the 1976 Sallins train robbery. <\/p>\n

They were also involved in the Carnsore movement in the late 1970s when the government was considering locating a nuclear power plant at Carnsore Point in Co Wexford. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0D\u00f3nal Lunny central to the vibrant spirit of Irish musicOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Moore stated: \u201cWe stood together on many campaigns, H Blocks, hunger strikes, Carnsore, Stardust, Section 31, prisoner rights and Traveller rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was an artist, musician, activist, friend and best man.\u201d <\/p>\n

Many tributes have been paid to Lunny<\/a> with President Catherine Connolly describing him as \u201cone of Ireland\u2019s greatest musical figures, a wonderfully talented musician and producer who was central to so many of the most influential moments of the last 60 years of Irish music\u201d. <\/p>\n

Lunny is survived by his three children Ois\u00edn, Cora Venus and Sora. He also had a son with the late singer Sin\u00e9ad O\u2019Connor. Shane O\u2019Connor died in 2022. <\/p>\n

He is survived by his current partner of many years, \u00dana O\u2019Boyle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Musician Christy Moore has paid tribute to his \u201cdear friend\u201d D\u00f3nal Lunny (79) who died on Friday after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[12486,20528,93,61,60,3770,6085],"class_list":["post-664231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-christy-moore","tag-donal-lunny","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kildare","tag-rte"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664231","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=664231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}