RTÉ BROADCASTER AND COLLECTOR CIARÁN MAC MATHÚNA C. 1960 RECORDING JOHN RYAN, A CONCERTINA PLAYER FROM DONOHILL, CO TIPPERARY, IN RYAN’S PUBLIC HOUSE ON THOMAS ST, DUBLIN

Ciarán Mac Mathúna recently retired from fifty years of continuous radio broadcasting with RTÉ and from his long-running weekly radio programme Mo Cheol Thú. Born in Limerick in 1925, he joined Radio Éireann in late 1954 as a music producer with responsibility for traditional music. In the 1950s and 1960s especially he was engaged in extensive field-recording throughout Ireland and in Irish-Britain and in Irish-America, using the new medium of tape recording and supported by various sound engineers, and he presented selections on such radio series as Ceolta Tíre and A Job of Journeywork. In the 1970s and 1980s especially he also worked in television, presenting traditional music series such as Fonn and The Humours of Donnybrook and documentaries on traditional culture such as The Fires of St John.

Photo: Cnuasach an Bhreathnaigh, ITMA. Courtesy Irish Traditional Music Archive