Nine years ago, on the eve of a US tour, Andy Irvine – one of Ireland’s most accomplished musicians and singers – made a dramatic, but not altogether unexpected announcement: This would be his last visit to America as a performer.

Although he always relished playing around the country and seeing old friends, “the US powers that be just make it too difficult,” he explained on Facebook, pointing to the 30 percent withholding tax he and other visiting artists had to pay. There also was “the tiresome, expensive, and ultimately humiliating application for a work visa – which very often doesn’t come through in time.” 

In contrast, Irvine noted, American musicians touring Ireland encountered no such conditions. “Enough is enough,” he declared.

Irvine did make a trip to the US several years later, not to perform but to make the rounds of his many friends and acquaintances in America – among them legendary singer-songwriter Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. Irvine found the ties he’d cultivated across the US were just too deep, too important to relinquish.

So, he took a deep breath, went through the process, and is coming back to the US on a solo tour that includes two stops in Boston: The Brian O’Donovan Legacy Series at The Burren on Oct. 1 (two shows) and the following day at Boston College’s Gaelic Roots Series. 

“It rankled me, and still does,” says Irvine, referring to the visa situation. “But when I came to the US and traveled around, caught up with Ramblin’ Jack and other friends, I thought: ‘I love these people, and I want to keep them in my life.’ And I’ve always simply loved playing in the US, technical details aside. So, I thought I would organize a tour that would enable to see all of them.” 

In fact, Irvine says, somewhat to his surprise, getting the visa proved a lot easier this time around, and what’s more, he was also able to arrange for tours in 2026 and 2027.

All of which means that Irvine is more than ready to continue on this long and winding road of music and fellowship he has been traveling for more than six decades – whether on his own or as part of iconic bands like Sweeney’s Men, Planxty, Patrick Street, Mozaik, and Usher’s Island, or other collaborations, notably with Paul Brady. 

“I’ve never discovered any other way of living: It’s just what I do, and I can’t imagine a life without traveling,” he says. “Luckily, my health has held up, and as long as that’s the case, I don’t see why I should stop.”

Irvine has often drawn comparisons with Woody Guthrie on a few levels, not least of which as a wayfaring troubadour whose foray into traditional songs and ballads provided a basis for his own works. Guthrie was in fact an inspiration for Irvine, especially in his harmonica style – long a staple of Irvine’s music – but also for the themes of social justice, equality, and heroism in so many of Guthrie’s songs. 

Irvine has penned biographical songs on figures like Raoul Wallenberg, Mother Jones, polar explorer Ernest Shackleton, Irish National Land League founder Michael Davitt, and Industrial Workers of the World activist, editor, and writer Tom Barker, among others.

There are many other Irvine songs that have become staples, and not just in his repertoire: “West Coast of Clare,” “Indiana,” “Lest We Forget,” “O’Donoghue’s” – a sweet, funny, full-hearted paean to one of his early musical proving grounds – and his own tribute to Guthrie, “Never Tire of the Road.”

Praised as he is as a gifted singer – possessed of a voice with a warm, utterly natural quality – Irvine has been likewise hailed for his musicianship on an assortment of fretted-string instruments. He set his course as an early pioneer of what would become the world music genre through his visits to Eastern Europe in the late 1960s that sparked his intense interest in that region’s music traditions and an inclination to incorporate some of its elements into Irish music – a defining feature of his years with Planxty, and further explored on “East Wind,” his 1991 album with Davy Spillane that also featured Bulgarian musician Nikola Parov and Hungarian singer Márta Sebestyén. In recent years, he’s been exploring Scandinavian music. 

With such a vast repertoire of traditional, contemporary and original songs to draw from, Irvine could easily do 100 concerts – probably more – with an entirely different set list each performance, and please the audience each time. But there are some that he finds himself turning to regularly because they hold such an important place not just in the hearts of his fans but also his own (others may “take a while to get into a set,” he adds). 

The oldest of these, he says, is “A Blacksmith Courted Me,” the final, spellbinding track on the first Planxty album in 1973 (paired with Irvine’s instrumental “Blacksmithereens”), full of exciting Balkan rhythms and riffs. “West Coast of Clare” – practically an anthem by now – is another mainstay; in fact, Irvine performed it last month along with the National Symphony Orchestra at a special concert for outgoing Irish President Michael D. Higgins.

“I don’t do it every night,” he says, “but I always remember where I was when I wrote ‘West Coast of Clare,’ and that whole time of my life. So, it’s a song that has come to be very meaningful to me, and apparently to many other people.”  

 Irvine spent a lot of time visiting with, and learning from, venerable traditional Irish singers like Eddie Butcher and Len Graham. Butcher, who was from Derry, was the source for Irvine’s version of “Thousands Are Sailing to Amerikay.” 

“I just remember sitting around with him and his wife, having a cup of tea and talking about the songs, and it was such an enjoyable visit,” he says. “Usually, Eddie – or whoever I was visiting with – would sing something, and I’d be accompanying them, and in that way, I came to learn the song. I have very special memories of those times, and when I sing something in concert I learned from Eddie, or Len – who’s still alive and still singing – or someone else, I make a point of mentioning their names: They were invaluable to the great Irish song tradition.”

Boston is a place with a strong Irish music legacy all its own, of course, which is why Irvine has always liked coming through town, whether performing by himself or in any of multiple collaborations. Some visits have been memorable, though not always for music-related reasons.

“Patrick Street was playing one winter at, I think, the Somerville Theater, and we were supposed to fly to Portland, Ore., next morning,” he recalls. “We’d wrapped up the show, and were looking forward to relaxing a little, getting a good night’s sleep before heading out. But the soundman had seen a weather forecast and said, ‘We had better get out now, because there’s a snowstorm coming that’s going to close everything down.’ So, we packed up, hurried to the airport and got the last flight out before the storm; we probably would’ve been stranded for days if we hadn’t.”

Wherever he’s performed – whether close to home or thousands of miles away, in fair weather or foul – Irvine says he focuses on one thing: “I’ve always simply enjoyed my relationship with the audience, and if I perform well, and if they enjoy what I’ve done, well, then that’s an optimistic, hopeful thing for me.” 

For information on Irvine’s concert at the Brian O’Donovan Legacy Series at The Burren, see burren.com/music.html

Details about the Boston College Gaelic Roots series are at events.bc.edu/group/gaelic_roots_series