The Urban Folklore Project of 1979-1980 has preserved a valuable audio record of Dublin’s folklore and social history. The project was undertaken by the Department of Irish Folklore, University College Dublin, directed by Dr Séamas Ó Catháin. It originated as a Government employment scheme to provide work for university graduates at a time of severe economic recession. From October 1979 to December 1980 a team led by graduates of the Department of Irish Folklore conducted more than 700 interviews with Dublin men and women. These interviews were carefully transcribed and are now bound in 75 manuscript volumes in the National Folklore Collection at UCD.

The Urban Folklore Project collectors were equipped with tape recorders at all times. They also made extensive notes of their fieldwork and kept a diary of all their activities. These documents are important sources of contextual information about their informants and the circumstances in which they worked. The collectors were provided with cameras, and succeeded in amassing almost 14,000 colour and black & white photographs of people, places and situations encountered in the course of their collecting. These images form an invaluable visual record of the fabric of many parts of Dublin city and county at a period of time shortly before the major redevelopment of the late 1980s and succeeding decades. The Urban Folklore Project now constitutes a significant part of the National Folklore Collection at UCD.