Ed Sheeran has named Irish singer-songwriter Gary Dunne as a major influence on his music. The acknowledgement came as the hugely popular superstar played a low key fund-raising gig for the London Irish Centre in London. Dunne, who is from Laois, is the Director of Culture at the centre, as well as a highly regarded singer-songwriter.

“Gary taught me the loop pedal that I use,” Sheeran told RTÉ’s London correspondent Fiona Mitchell. "Gary was the first person I saw use a loop pedal and I got him to play a gig at my house when I was 15! It was kind of like, 'If you come over, my friends will all buy a CD!' So he came around and then he taught me how to use a loop pedal. And we've been friends ever since then.”

Ed has always reflected a deep pride in his Irish heritage. His parents family were from Wexford. He described the work of the London Irish Centre as brilliant. “It’s not just ‘pure’ Irish,” he said, “but (encourages) people from all sorts of different heritage, and lineage, to be proud of their roots and support places like this – because it does such good work.”

Ed Sheeran was joined on the night at the Irish Centre by the broadcaster Dermot O’Leary – who, as it happens, is also from a Wexford background. His parents recently returned home to Wexford to live.

O’Leary spoke in glowing terms about the London Irish Centre to Fiona Mitchell. “It feels like somewhere that's got a great sense of its own heritage," O'Leary said, “and a very proud sense of the Irish in London – yet it's very much looking to the future, and is as inclusive as it possibly could be."

Ed Sheeran recently played a string of sell-out shows in major venues around Ireland, including Phoenix Park and Páirc Uí Chaoimh. In all, 400,000 tickets were sold – equivalent to almost 7% of the total population of the island.

While he was in Dublin, Sheeran joined the legion of major artists who have signed special museum quality prints of Hot Press covers – part of the growing Hot Press Covers Exhibition collection. There is no doubting the affinity the unassuming star feels with Ireland, and with Irish music. A student of Irish folk and traditional music, he is a major fan of Planxty and Christy Moore, as well as later stars like Damien Rice – and along the way has recorded a fine version of ‘The Parting Glass’.