Throughout his 50-year broadcasting career, Ciarán Mac Mathúna was the 'voice of Irish music', writes Siobhán Long
Ciarán Mac Mathúna entered the world of Radio Éireann broadcasting when battery power was so minuscule that he was known to resort to placing a rock on the accelerator of his van, so that the power of the engine could provide life support to his mobile recording unit. Tomorrow Mac Mathúna will broadcast the final programme in his 35-year-long series, Mo Ceol Thú.
Undoubtedly a broadcasting institution, and essentially the "voice of Irish music", according to many traditional music fans and radio listeners, Mac Mathúna has played a pivotal role in recording and preserving the personality of traditional music's regional styles, and particularly that of Sliabh Luachra.
Born in Limerick in 1925, he was conferred with the freedom of his native city last June, and has received honorary doctorates from both NUI Galway and the University of Limerick. Working in RTÉ, or Radio Éireann as it was when he first stepped up to the microphone in 1955, Mac Mathúna's earlier radio series, A Job Of Journeywork, was an apt description of the labour of love which defined his lifelong passion for traditional music. Throughout his various radio incarnations, he demonstrated a keen understanding of the relationship between broadcasting and music, using his highly personal style to connect with his listeners, positioning himself virtually in their kitchens and sitting rooms, where his genteel closing entreaty "Go dté sibh slán" became his hallmark.
Mac Mathúna didn't satisfy himself with brief forays into the field; for him, the thrill was in the pursuit of the tunes, as much as it was in their capture. When he started recording musicians, he found that many hid their fiddles and concertinas under their coats, and required more than a little encouragement and plamás before they would submit themselves to the perils of the tape recorder. Whether recording the Tulla Céilí Band, Junior Crehan, the renowned Clare concertina player, Mrs Crotty, or corresponding with musicians from a distance, in the gentlest hand imaginable (his closing comment to Patrick O'Keeffe in 1956: "Until we meet again, under a 'darker water', beannacht leat"), he engaged with both music and musician with a passion that fuelled a broadcasting career which has enjoyed an unparalleled longevity.
More recently he's been known to journey with his close friend, Seamus Heaney. On one occasion, following the announcement of Heaney's Nobel prize, Mac Mathúna was accosted by a passer-by who congratulated him on his winning of the Pulitzer prize. A case of mistaken identity that doubtless brought a smile to both men's lips.
MAC MATHÚNA TAKES his leave of Irish broadcasting at a time when radio personalities are thinner on the ground than they were in his heyday, but his legacy lives on, primarily in the beating pulse of the music which is played more widely than ever before. His relaxed demeanour and languid delivery were just the thing to gently lure the listener in, never force-feeding but always stretching the listener's experience beyond the known into the unknown.
Mac Mathúna's interests and influence are as broad as they are long. A key player in the annual Merriman Summer School, and a stalwart supporter of the Patrick O'Keeffe Festival in Castleisland, he also served many years as a member of the Cultural Relations Committee of the Department of Foreign Affairs. His wife of 50 years, Dolly McMahon, brought yet another vital element into his life: an unparalleled song repertoire and a shared love of music, song and poetry, the pair regularly making forays to sessions and concerts throughout the country.
RTÉ producer and piper, Peter Browne, describes Mac Mathúna as a "remarkable man, whose love of the music was infectious". Neil Martin, cellist and founder of the West Ocean String Quartet, has been working on a new arrangement of Lark In The Clear Air, Mac Mathúna's signature tune, for the quartet's forthcoming CD.
"Ciarán's propagation of traditional music for more than half a century is inestimable," he says. "His rare skills of trusted collector and revered broadcaster have shown just how natural a communicator he is, and Mo Cheol Thú has been as steady and reliable as the dawn each Sunday morning - always there, dependable, true. Generations of us will miss his gentle reassurance."
Ciarán Mac Mathúna's final programme of 'Mo Ceol Thú' will be broadcast at 8.10am on RTÉ Radio 1 tomorrow