Dónal Lunny, who has died of cancer aged 79, was a multi-instrumentalist in three of the most influential folk bands of the late 20th century: Planxty, the Bothy Band and Moving Hearts. He played the guitar, keyboards and bodhrán, but he is best remembered for popularising the bouzouki in Irish traditional music. The round-bodied bouzouki from Greece was adapted by Lunny, resulting in a flat-backed instrument with a shorter neck known as the Irish bouzouki.
Lunny often worked in collaboration with the singer and songwriter Christy Moore and the musician Andy Irvine. In all the bands with which he was associated, Lunny played a vital role in arranging the music, being instinctively drawn to developing new harmonic and rhythmic structures. He produced many Irish music albums, also working with artists including Elvis Costello, Kate Bush, Sinéad O’Connor and Mark Knopfler. As a composer, he wrote and arranged the music for films, documentaries and television programmes. In 1991, he was the musical director of the joint BBC and RTÉ television series Bringing It All Back Home, which won an Emmy.
