President Higgins leads tributes to Tony McMahon

Broadcaster and musician Tony McMahon with his accordion. File picture

President Michael D Higgins has paid tribute to broadcaster and musician Tony McMahon who died yesterday at the age of 82.

The President said Mr McMahon was “one of Ireland’s iconic presences among musicians”. 

"It is with great sadness that the music community will have heard of the passing of Tony McMahon,” the President said in a statement.   

Tony brought to performance in so many forms, places and venues the talent of a maestro. 

"To hear him play 'Port Na bPúcai', for example, was to feel transported into another world,” Mr Higgins said.

Born in Clare in 1939, Tony McMahon began his musical career in the 1950s.

Though he released only a handful of albums over the course of his career, his influence on traditional music over the last 50 years has been far-reaching. 

For nearly 30 years, he made music programmes for both RTÉ radio and television, including The Long Note, The Pure Drop, and The Green Linnet, where he championed the work of dozens of other influential trad performers.

He retired from RTÉ in 1998.

In 2019, a TG4 documentary film Slán leis an gCeol was produced about his life. 

Mr Higgins added that Mr McMahon’s “commitment to traditional music and to the friendship of his fellow musicians was full of integrity”.   

“On behalf of Sabina and myself, agus mar Uachtarán na hÉireann on behalf of the people of Ireland, may I send my deepest condolences to Tony’s family and friends, and to the wider music community at home and abroad.

“Suaimhneas síoraí.”