Legend Irvine loses his ‘irreplacable’ instruments amid baggage bedlam
MUSIC legend Andy Irvine has lost ‘irreplaceable’ instruments that he used for more than 35 years while travelling from Dublin Airport to Denmark.
The singer, who was going to play at a music festival near Aalborg, lost his Sobell guitarbouzouki and a mandola.
Mr Irvine flew from Dublin to Frankfurt and then to Copenhagen before getting to Aalborg on June 29.
He arrived in Denmark to find the instruments hadn’t arrived.
He immediately reported the missing guitar and mandola, which are worth up to €16,000.
Mr Irvine had to borrow instruments for his set and couldn’t play his songs like he normally would.
He said the audience didn’t mind but it was difficult to play with borrowed instruments.
He told the Irish Daily Mail the instruments had been played on nearly everything that he has ever recorded.
He described them as irreplaceable and the cost of creating similar instruments as ‘prohibitive’.
Mr Irvine said it would not be possible to create exact replicas, adding: ‘I want them back.’
The musician, 80, was a child actor and a founding member of the bands Planxty and Sweeney’s Men.
He has also enjoyed a successful career as a solo artist and is well known for designing his own instruments.
When Mr irvine returned to Dublin on July 5 he spent two hours looking through a large pile of luggage at the airport.
He found guitar cases that were similar to his but the cases did not contain his beloved guitar or mandola.
He is worried Scandinavian Airlines will stop searching for the lost instruments after 21 days and said they could be in Frankfurt or Copenhagen.
Mr Irvine criticised the airline for their slow responses and said he had not been able to reach them by phone.
The singer said the airline’s tracking website had not been updated and he had lost confidence in their tracing abilities.