Irish bouzouki

The Irish bouzouki is a development of the Greek (Greek: μπουζούκι) adapted for Irish traditional and other folk music from the late 1960s onward.

Adoption for "Celtic" music

The original Greek bouzouki was a three course/six-string instrument (trichordo). In the 1950s, a four course/eight-string (tetrachordo) version was developed. The newer tetrachordo bouzouki was introduced into Irish traditional music in the mid-1960s by Johnny Moynihan of the popular folk group Sweeney's Men.

Shortly after Andy Irvine returned from Eastern Europe in late 1969, he met Dónal Lunny—who had only been playing guitar up to that point—and gave him a Greek bouzouki he had brought back from his travels. Being left-handed, Lunny reversed the strings and mounted them in unison, thus changing the character of the instrument. This modified bouzouki became fully integrated into Irish folk music when Irvine and Lunny popularized it with the advent of Planxty in 1972. Irvine, however, credits Moynihan with having "brought the bouzouki to Ireland" in his lyric to "O'Donoghue's", his memoir of his experience of the early folk revival days in Dublin in the early 60s.