Ciarán Mac Mathúna (26 November 1925 – 11 December 2009) was an Irish broadcaster and music collector. He was a recognised authority on Irish traditional music and lectured extensively on the subject. He travelled around Ireland, England, Scotland and America collecting music. According to Sam Smyth in the Irish Independent, Mac Mathúna was "on a mission to collect songs and stories, music, poetry and dance before they were buried under the coming tsunami of pop music". He presented Mo Cheol Thú for 35 years. Upon his retirement in 2005, the managing director of RTÉ Radio, Adrian Moynes, described Mac Mathúna as "inseparable from RTÉ Radio". Upon his death in 2009, the Irish Independent described him as "a national treasure". Early life and education Mac Mathúna was born in Limerick, spending 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 an MA in Irish. Career After college Mac Mathúna 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. This entailed visiting such places as Sliabh Luachra, County Clare and County Sligo, and the resulting recordings featured in his radio programmes: Ceolta Tire A Job of Journeywork — listened to by Johnny McEvoy Humours of Donnybrook — Al O'Donnell and Luke Kelly performed a famous version of "On Raglan Road" on this show in 1979 Director-General of RTÉ Cathal Goan later recalled that Mac Mathúna interviewed him for his first job at the station. Goan assisted in the organisation of Mac Mathúna's music collection for the RTÉ Libraries and Archives. Mac Mathúna's long-running Sunday morning radio series Mo Cheol Thú (You are my music) began in 1970 and continued until November 2005, when he retired from broadcasting. Each 45-minute programme offered a miscellany of archive music, poetry and folklore, mainly of Irish origin. It was one of radio's longest running programmes. The last episode was broadcast on 27 November 2005 at 8.10 am. Mac Mathúna 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. In 2007, he