Like a father who hasn't quite got the hang of bathing a new-born baby, Carlos Prieto settles his cello carefully into its enormous black case and straps it in, the distinctive russet varnish which earned it the nickname "The Red Cello" gleaming in the late afternoon light.

This, though, is some baby - a 1720 Stradivarius which has accompanied the Mexican maestro to just about every corner of the planet over the past two decades, giving recitals, concerts and no fewer than 60 world premieres.

This week the pair visit Ireland for the third time in four years: but as Prieto explains, for the Stradivarius, it's a kind of homecoming. "The cello lived in Ireland from 1818 to 1853," he declares, arranging his gangly frame on a leather sofa in the airy music room of the Mexican ambassador's residence. "Ever since I acquired it, I began to work like a detective to piece together its story - slowly, and with a great deal of luck. The 20th century was easy, of course; the 19th century was more complicated; and the 18th century was very difficult."

The cello was built in Cremona in 1720 and made its way to Cadiz, then a lively and prosperous city which controlled much of Spain's lucrative trade with the Americas, as part of an Italian opera orchestra in 1762. It was bought by an Irish-born, Cadiz-based sherry merchant by the name of Allen Dowell. When he returned to Dublin in 1818 Dowell brought the instrument with him - and, three years later, sold it to a Reverend Booth for 300 guineas. In 1831 it was bought by Samuel J. Pigott, owner of Pigott and Co, Musical Instrument Importers and Music Publishers.

Prieto, who has written the cello's "biography" in Spanish, warms to his subject. "After Mr Pigott's death it was sold to an Englishman called Colonel - later General - Oliver. He had three cellos, which the famous Italian cellist Alfredo Piatti used to look after for him, playing and checking them regularly. One day Gen. Oliver said to him, "which one would you prefer?" He played them and said, "No doubt about it - the Red Cello has the most beautiful sound." "Take it. It's for you," said Gen. Oliver. Piatti couldn't believe this, so he left. An hour or two later, a carriage and horses arrived at his house, with the cello inside."

In 1901 the cello came into the hands of the Mendelssohn family, nephews of the composer Felix - and in 1972 the last Mendelssohn, Francesco, gave it to the Marlborough Foundation in the US. "Six years later," finishes Prieto with quiet triumph, "I acquired it. And we have had many, many more adventures since then."

Life with a priceless Stradivarius has, he confesses, its lighter side. On a recent trip from New York to Boston he phoned ahead to La Guardia airport and, as is his custom, reserved two tickets on the shuttle flight for himself and "Cello Prieto" - "Cello" being, as he explains with a delighted grin, a woman's name in Spanish.

"When I presented myself at the ticket desk, the young airline employee said, `Ah, so this is Cello Prieto.' I said, `Yes'. She said, `How old is Cello Prieto?' I said, `Well, just this month Cello Prieto is 280 years old'. So she said, `OK, no problem - we'll give Cello Prieto a senior citizens' discount'."

The instrument not only travels in a regular passenger seat with its seat-belt primly fastened - it also earns air miles. "I've had to forge Cello Prieto's signature a couple of times to claim those," its owner muses, unabashed. Prieto's own musical pedigree is hardly less distinguished than that of his partner. A friend of Stravinsky and Shostakovich, a pupil of Pierre Fournier and Leonard Rose, he has had works written for him by the creme de la creme of Spanish and Latin American contemporary composers, including Joaquin Rodrigo, Manuel Castillo and Tomas Marco.

He has made a point of playing Mexican music on each of his visits to Ireland, and on this three-city tour will perform, with William Butt, Samuel Zyman's Suite for Two Cellos - a European premiere - along with Kodaly's dazzling solo sonata, Op 8. The programme for each concert opens with Bach's Suite No 3 for cello solo - which, apart from being an acknowledged masterpiece of the cello repertoire, was written in or around 1720, making it the same age as Cello Prieto. A winning combination, if ever there was one.

Carlos Prieto performs at Grennan Mill, Thomastown, Co Kilkenny on Friday and at the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, Parnell Square, Dublin on Sunday at noon