A flowing radio voice tunes out

"Looking back, it was a great life," said broadcaster Ciarán Mac Mathúna at a party in RTÉ last night to mark his retirement after 50 years in broadcasting.

For the last 35 he has been synonymous with Mo Cheol Thú, the traditional music show that he will present for the last time this Sunday morning on Radio 1. "Of course, it's sad I'm going," he told guests in RTÉ's Studio 1, "but it's my own choice. They didn't force me out".

Among those gathered to pay tribute was Seamus Heaney, who joked that Mac Mathúna was "a man for all sessions". He praised his "natural grace, ease and dignity" and his "great intelligence, stealthily stowed away". Then, quoting Wordsworth's poetic description of a river at the bottom of his garden, he said that for many Irish people Mac Mathúna's was "the voice that flowed along our dreams".

In a statement read by RTÉ director general Cathal Goan, the Taoiseach said he would be joining thousands of listeners tuning in to Mo Cheol Thú this Sunday with a feeling of "pride, gratitude and loss": pride in the presenter's half-century of broadcasting, gratitude for being eased into so many Sunday mornings by the programme, and loss that he would not be hearing Mac Mathúna's signature opening again.

He wished the broadcaster "a well deserved lie-in on Sunday mornings". In fact, Mac Mathúna has been enjoying Sunday lie-ins for years, because the show was prerecorded. "You fooled them all," said the director general.

Goan praised Mac Mathúna's "magnificent and unrivalled contribution to broadcasting" but added that he was not finished yet. He would be back for "special occasions", including his regular Christmas Day morning programme, Good People All.

The managing director of RTÉ Radio, Adrian Moynes, said that just as 19th-century engineers mapped Ireland for the ordnance survey, Mac Mathúna had been central to the "cultural survey" of the 20th century.

He was "a living bridge" to Ireland's old traditions.

Guests at last night's event included singer Paul Brady, founder of the Willie Clancy Summer School Muiris Ó Rócháin, and Dr Seán Mac Reamoinn, described by Mac Mathúna as "my old friend" and "very cross mentor".

Messages were read from members of The Dubliners, Mary O'Hara, Benedict Kiely, Maeve Binchy, Larry Gogan and Garech de Brún.

The guest of honour was presented with a framed version of his musical compilation A Touch of the Master's Hand, which is to be rereleased next week.