Irreducible SL(2,C)-representations of integer homology 3-spheres

We prove that the splicing of any two non-trivial knots in the 3-sphere admits an irreducible SU(2)-representation of its fundamental group. Using a result of Boileau, Rubinstein and Wang, it follows that the fundamental group of any integer homology 3-sphere different from the 3-sphere admits irreducible representations of its fundamental group in SL(2,C). Our result uses instanton gauge theory.