Preserving the folklore tradition - UCD Collections on Display
While history tends to deal with the broad sweep of social and political events that have shaped a nation, folklore is more concerned with the stories, traditions, and popular beliefs that define its people. From a paste of cow parsnip, ashes and watercress to cure all ills to prayers imploring calm seas, the subject matter of folklore is rich and diverse. Olive Keogh (BA 1979, MA 1984) talks with some of the UCD folklore custodians.
UCD has a significant folklore collection running to hundreds of thousands of items. A small sample has just gone on show in the James Joyce library in an exhibition to mark the 75th anniversary of the Irish Folklore Commission. The exhibition is entitled Béaloideas, Folklore in UCD Collections and Archives, and will run until December.
Shown above: Work of the Commission and Department of Irish Folklore: Tadhg Ó Murchú recording on the ediphone from Padraig Ó Suilleabháinm, in Spuncán, Waterville, Co. Kerry, circa 1936. Photo available online via IVRLA
Listen to recordings from the Folklore audio archive
For historic reasons, folklore material is held in three different repositories on the Belfield campus. The largest of these is the National Folklore Collection which is home to one of the most important collections of oral and ethnological material in the world, consisting of recorded information (in various media types) and related documentation. T his collection has been housed at UCD since 1971 when the university was entrusted with the holdings of the Irish Folklore Commission. The National Folklore Collection also contains books, periodicals and off-prints on Irish and comparative folklore, ethnology and related fields.
Special Collections , which is part of the UCD James Joyce library, also contains folklore material. This collection was formed when UCD took over the collections of the Catholic University of Ireland and the Royal College of Science and it contains books, pamphlets and journals on a variety of subjects from the 17th to the 20th centuries.
Members of the Irish Folklore Commission, planning a new Irish Dcitionalry in Earlsfort Terrace in 1962. Pictured (l-r): Sean O Heochaidh; Tomas de Bhaldraithe; Ciaran Bairead; (Richard) Hayes; Seamus O Duilearga
The third repository for folklore is within UCD Archives. The Archive is home to outstanding collections of private papers and institutional archives which document the foundation and development of modern Ireland.
View the Special Collections slideshow
All three repositories are represented in the exhibition. “Each repository has important source material of outstanding quality that sheds light on the Irish folk tradition,” says Ríonach uí Ógáin, Director of the National Folklore Collection and Professor of Irish Folklore in the UCD School of Irish, Celtic Studies, Irish Folklore & Linguistics, where today ever-increasing numbers of students participate in folklore collection as part of their modules in folklore. “This exhibition aims to underline the importance of tradition and to illustrate aspects of the history of folklore collecting in Ireland. UCD has a national role to play in the conservation of folkloric material that is both unique and historically highly significant.”
Deciding what to include in the exhibition was the greatest challenge. “Basically we were spoilt for choice so we decided to choose materials from full-time collectors that would give a good geographic and chronological spread,” Professor uí Ógáin says. “The exhibition reflects the documentation of tradition on a number of levels. Contextual information adds levels of potential interpretation which are of interest from an academic point of view.”
Evelyn Flanagan is Special Collections librarian. “The oldest exhibit is actually from our collection and is a manuscript written in 1726 containing prayers and herb prescriptions (in Irish) collected by Eugene O ’Curry, a 19th century antiquarian,” she says. “We hope the exhibition will be informative for academic staff and students alike and will encourage more people to come and explore what’s available.”
Pictured at the opening of the Béaloideas exhibition were: Seamus Helferty, Principal Archivist; Evelyn Flanagan, Special Collections librarian; Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport, Mary Hanafin TD; Prof Ríonach uí Ógaín, director of the National Folklore Collection
The exhibition is compact, offering time-pressed visitors a quick snapshot of the folklore
within archives. “The exhibit is just the very tip of the iceberg,” stresses UCD Librarian Dr John Howard. “We hope it will raise awareness of the different collections and will whet people’s appetites to explore them in more detail.”
The exhibition was opened by Mary Hanafin TD, Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport. “The UCD folklore collection is a real treasure that reminds us of our history, culture and heritage,” Ms Hanafin said. “I’m often struck by how little is being written down in this era of mobile phones and short messaging. I really wonder will we still have collections like these in the future?”
Folklorists at work
“Jim Dunne here below, the foes got his grandfather and put him in a barrel. They put spikes in the barrel and rolled him down Newtown hill, about a mile from here. He was dead when he came to the bottom.”
Folklore accounts often shed light on the bare bones of historical events. Good students of Irish history will know the facts of the United Irishmen’s rebellion, but this rather bloodthirsty account of the demise of Jim Dunne’s grandfather in Co. Wexford in 1798 brings home the personal reality of such conflicts.
The account, which is featured in the exhibition, came from 83 year old W alter Furlong from Rathnure, Co. Wexford who recounted it to collector Jim Delaney in 1954.
There have been full-time folklore collectors at different times down through the years, but much of the available material has been gathered by enthusiastic individuals with an interest in a particular subject.
Retired teacher, Leslie Matson, now in his 80s, who attended the exhibition, has had a lifelong fascination with the Blasket Islands. H e has painstakingly researched the lives of the islanders over many years and has recently completed life histories of 125 islanders which he has given to UCD and hopes will be of interest to scholars.
“Many individuals have an important role to play in folklore collecting today, “says Professor uí Ógáin. “We have not had a full-time collector since 2007 though colleagues at the National Folklore Collection frequently undertake fieldwork whenever possible. We are dependent on people to contribute written material, photographs and recordings. Folklore is very much about capturing what’s in people’s minds and imaginations whereas history might be said to be more about determining the accuracy of events. Folklore is a product of the past but also a process of the present - it is ongoing.”