Tullamore-born music legend gets lifetime achievement award
The Irish folk and traditional music legend Dónal Lunny, who was born in Tullamore, was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards in Dublin on Wednesday night.
Organisers said the accolade was in recognition of his status as "one of the most significant figures in folk and traditional music ever to come out of Ireland".
Lunny, who is 77, was a founding member of such influential groups as Planxty, Moving Hearts, Mozaik and The Bothy Band.
A son of Frank Lunny, from Enniskillen, and Mary Rogers, from Donegal, he was born in Tullamore in 1947 and spent the first few years of his life there.
In a 2008 interview with the Irish Independent, Lunny said he still retained memories from his earliest days in Offaly.
"I was born in Tullamore and we stayed there until I was five, when the family moved to Newbridge. But I still have early memories from our time in Offaly," he stated.
"In my earliest memory, I was about a year-and-a-half old and was standing in the backyard of our house in Tullamore, holding a ginger nut biscuit, when a rooster stomped straight up to me, looked me in the eye and snapped the biscuit out of my hand. I was absolutely traumatised.
"And I have a very clear memory from when I was about four and a big gang of local kids had commandeered a rickety old boat and we were sailing it down the canal, all the weeds and the water pouring in through the holes. We thought we were pirate captains."
The RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards were held in Vicar Street on Wednesday night. In being selected for the Lifetime Achievement award, Lunny joins a distinguished list of previous recipients such as Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill (2024), Mary Black (2022), Christy Moore (2021), Steve Cooney (2020), Moya Brennan (2019) and Andy Irvine (2018).
Head of RTÉ Radio 1 and Member of the 2025 Folk Awards Steering Committee, Peter Woods, said Dónal Lunny "defined much of the music of a generation at a time when traditional music was not mainstream and was almost subversive.
"His contribution to that music through Planxty, to Moving Hearts, Mozaik and of course the Bothies and beyond, sits alongside a career as a producer and collaborator across genres and as a true innovator.
"Dónal has done this without losing sight of the integrity of the music. What he has turned his hand to he has enhanced. It is a real honour for RTÉ Radio 1 to be associated with this award."
The celebrations at the awards event on Wednesday night included a live performance by his new group, Dónal Lunny’s Darkhorse.
Highlights of this year's RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards will be shown on RTÉ One television tomorrow, Saturday, March 1, at 10.55pm.