received the Musicians Award at the 10th annual TG4 Traditional Music Awards. Joe Kennedy in the Sunday Independent in 2007 compared Mac Mathúna to "an amiable rock, rolling gently along, still picking up some moss and morsels of music that he may have missed". Personal and later life His wife Dolly MacMahon (using the English version of her surname) was a singer of traditional songs. She came from Galway and met her husband in 1955. He had two sons named Padraic and Ciarán, one daughter named Déirdre, and four grandchildren at the time of his death: Eoin, Colm, Conor and Liam. He died on 11 December 2009. Taoiseach Brian Cowen paid tribute, saying: “He was encyclopaedic in his knowledge of Irish traditional music and its artists and for many decades, wherever good Irish music was played and enjoyed, Ciarán was to be found in its midst”. Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism Martin Cullen described Mac Mathúna as "a man of great intellect with a wonderful commitment to and understanding of Irish folklore and the traditional arts". Niall Stokes, editor of Hot Press, spoke of being "in the process of losing a great generation of Irish folk pioneers" — musician Liam Clancy had died just days previously – and called for a "[continuation of] justice to the extraordinary work they did in reviving the true spirit of Irish folk and traditional music and re-instating it at the heart of the Irish experience [...] in our public policy, and in particular our broadcasting framework". A billboard advertisement for Mo Cheol Thú with the caption “The Touch of the Master’s Hand’’ was positioned in Terenure College Chapel where his corpse was carried. Mac Mathúna's funeral on 15 December 2009 was attended by hundreds of people, including aides-de-camp of the President and Taoiseach, RTÉ Director-General Cathal Goan, poet Séamus Heaney and others. Heaney said at the funeral: Over a lifetime he helped the population of Ireland to realise the beauty, strength and value of their native cultural possessions, above all their musical culture. The musical instrument which Ciaran played to magical effect, and which entranced generations of listeners, was his own voice. Musicians to perform at the ceremony included Peadar Ó Ríada, Cór Cúil Aodha and members of The Chieftains and Planxty. The corpse was then taken to Mount Jerome Crematorium. Journalist Kevin Myers said Mac Mathúna's legacy would be the "rebirth of