Ciaran MacMathuna

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Ciaran MacMathuna, (born 1925) is a former Irish broadcaster and music collector. He is a recognised authority on Irish Music and has lectured extensively on the subject.

Contents

[edit] Life

MacMathuna was born in Limerick and spent his early years in Mulgrave Street. He was schooled at CBS Sexton St, and later graduated from University College, Dublin with a BA in modern Irish and Latin. Subsequently, he completed a MA in Irish.[1]

After college MacMathuna worked as a teacher and later at the Placenames Commission. In 1954, he joined Radio Éireann where his job was to record Irish traditional musicians playing in their own locales.[1] This entailed visiting such places as Sliabh Luachra, Clare and Sligo, and the resulting recordings featured in his radio programmes:

  • Ceol Tire
  • A Job of Journeywork
  • Humours of Donnybrook

MacMathuna's long-running Sunday morning radio series Mo Cheol Thú began in 1970 and continued until November 2005, when he retired from broadcasting. Each half-hour programme offered a miscellany of archive music, poetry and folklore.

MacMathuna won two Jacob's Awards, in 1969 and 1990, for his RTÉ Radio programmes promoting Irish traditional music. He received the Freedom of Limerick City in June 2004. He was also awarded honorary doctorates by NUI Galway and the University of Limerick.[2]

[edit] See also

List of Irish Music Collectors

[edit] Sources and References

  1. ^ a b The Irish Times, "BELOVED JOURNEYMAN", February 1, 1996
  2. ^ The Irish Times, "'The thrill was in the pursuit of the tunes, as much as it was in their capture' ", November 26, 2005

[edit] External References