Dónal Lunny (born 10 March 1947) is an Irish folk musician and producer. He plays left-handed guitar and bouzouki, as well as keyboards and bodhrán. As a founding member of popular bands Planxty, The Bothy Band, Moving Hearts, Coolfin, Mozaik, LAPD, and Usher's Island, he has been at the forefront of the renaissance of Irish traditional music for over five decades. Lunny is the brother of musician and producer Manus Lunny. He had a son, Shane, with singer-songwriter Sinéad O'Connor; Shane was found dead on 7 January 2022, aged 17. Early life Lunny was born on 10 March 1947 in Tullamore. His father Frank was from Enniskillen in County Fermanagh and his mother, Mary Rogers, came from Ranafast in The Rosses in County Donegal; they raised four boys and five girls. The family moved to Newbridge in County Kildare when Dónal was five years old. He attended secondary school at Newbridge College and in 1963 joined the Patrician Brothers' school for the Intermediate Certificate year. As a teenager, Lunny joined an occasional trio called Rakes of Kildare with his elder brother Frank and Christy Moore. They played mostly in pubs and were also booked for a couple of gigs, one at Hugh Neeson's pub in Newbridge for Easter Monday 1966. In 1965, Lunny enrolled at Dublin's National College of Art & Design where he studied Basic Design and Graphic Design. He also developed an interest in metalwork leading him to become a skilled gold- and silversmith, although he only practised the craft for a short time before devoting his energies fully to music. During his time in Dublin, he played in a band called The Parnell Folk, with Mick Moloney, Sean Corcoran, Johnny Morrissey and Dan Maher. Performing career Emmet Spiceland Later he formed the group Emmet Folk, which also included Mick Moloney and Brian Bolger, and they started a club at 95 Harcourt Street called The 95 Club. "At that time, we'd reached the stage where we had our own repertoire and ... developing [our] own identity rather than just singing everybody's songs. We were taken quite seriously." Eventually, Lunny and Bolger joined forces with brothers Brian and Mick Byrne from Spiceland Folk to form Emmet Spiceland, which continued as a trio after Bolger resigned. Their debut album, The First, was released in 1968. As a vocal harmony group, they had a number 1 hit in Ireland with the