News & Events
In response to Niamh Horan’s article “Seanchaí Eddie Lenihan to gift treasure trove of recordings to US after apathy from Irish institutions” (9 October 2022), her assertion that Irish cultural institutions have displayed apathy to the work of Eddie Lenihan is wholly inaccurate. The National Folklore Collection UCD wishes to state that it values greatly the work of Eddie Lenihan, who has done much to promote and sustain the tradition of storytelling in Ireland. The NFC has corresponded with Eddie and his family since 2020 in relation to his exceptional collection. We have also acknowledged its value, and have expressed a clear interest in preserving and digitizing it.
Collecting and recording traditions, customs and oral history at community and national level is a vital process of supporting, promoting and preserving a record of our cultural heritage. The NFC continues the work of the Irish Folklore Commission, established in 1935 to record, preserve and publish Irish folklore, oral history and tradition (see www.duchas.ie). As well as initiating collecting projects the NFC actively encourages community groups and individuals engaged in projects of this kind to consider donating the fruits of their endeavours (or copies of same) to the National Folklore Collection for long-term preservation.
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National Folklore Collection inscribed into UNESCO Memory of the World Register
In recognition of its “world significance” and “outstanding universal value to culture”, the Irish Folklore Commission Collection 1935-1970 at University College Dublin has been inscribed into the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.
The Register has a total of 427 collections and documents from around the world and includes the Magna Carta, the Diary of Anne Frank, the Bayeux Tapestry and the Book of Kells (the only other Irish entry - registered in 2011).
By 1928, the lifestyle of the Irish people was undergoing rapid and fundamental changes. “Old rural customs, such as gathering for a night of storytelling by the fireside in hospitable homes, was being abandoned. A whole culture was in danger of being discarded, unrecorded and lost forever,” noted TK Whitaker.
The Irish Folklore Commission was established in 1935 to collect and preserve Ireland’s declining oral tradition and vulnerable cultural heritage. In 1971, the Irish Folklore Commission, its staff and holdings were transferred to University College Dublin for continued development and safeguarding.
Today, the Irish Folklore Commission Collection, housed within the National Folklore Collection at University College Dublin is among the richest, most diverse tradition archives in the world.Over decades, it made thousands of tape-recordings of speech in the Irish language, but also of song and music. Photographs, sketches and other pictorial representations were also collected.
It contains almost 4,000 manuscripts of interview [transcripts] as well as native hero tales and sagas, wonder tales, local legends, poetry, historical tradition and place-name lore, in both Irish and English. These interviews contain invaluable descriptions of Irish material culture, including vernacular architecture, and traditional Irish society.
Audio and film footage from the 1940s of renowned storytellers like Peig Sayers, and performances of Irish folk drama such as “Wren Boys” and “Mummers” also form part of the collection.
There are several thousand acetate disk records of native Gaelic speakers dating from the 1940s/50s alongside a substantial collection of high quality magnetic tape recordings dating from the 1950s through to the 1960s.
Twenty-one full time (and a great many part-time and voluntary) collectors were employed by the Commission at various times throughout its existence, many of whom were in the Gaeltacht areas of rural Ireland.
UNESCO established the Memory of the World Programme in 1992 in response to a growing awareness of the precarious state of preservation of, and access to, documentary heritage in various parts of the world. War and social upheaval, as well as severe lack of resources, have worsened problems which have existed for centuries. Significant collections worldwide have suffered a variety of fates. Looting and dispersal, illegal trading, destruction, inadequate housing and funding have all played a part. Much has vanished forever; much is endangered.
The UNESCO Memory of the World Register - in some ways the most publicly visible aspect of the Memory of the World Programme - was founded on the 1995 General Guidelines and has grown through accessions approved by successive International Advisory Committee meetings.
Speaking of the announcement, Joe McHugh T.D. Government Chief Whip and Minister of State with responsibility for Gaeilge, Gaeltacht and the Islands noted,
"I am delighted that the National Folklore Collection has been awarded UNESCO Memory of the World status. This award provides due recognition of the importance of the collection, not just here in Ireland, but internationally as well. The archive which was assembled assiduously by the Irish Folklore Commission is one of the largest of its kind, comprising several thousand manuscript volumes of transcriptions, some 80,000 photographs and more than 10,000 hours of audio recordings. All of this work was carried out during a period in our history when profound language, social and cultural change was taking place. The collection therefore forms a unique record of Irish cultural life, society, the verbal arts and music. Many significant elements of the collection have been digitized and published on the Dúchas.ie website in recent years, and I look forward to the continuation of this work."
The full inscription may be viewed online at (opens in a new window)http://bit.ly/2nvpASz
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The 2017 Irish Conference of Folklore & Ethnology
The 2017 Irish Conference of Folklore & Ethnology will take place on Saturday the 25th November (9.30am-6.30pm) in the Humanities Institute in University College Dublin. Attendance is free, and all are welcome!
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PUBLIC LECTURE, 25 September 2017, 7.00pm National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2
Paul Rouse: The Death of Hurling
When the GAA was founded in 1884, it pledged itself to revive the game of hurling. The official history of the Association tells of a game that was dead – or almost dead – before Michael Cusack set upon its rebirth against the backdrop of cultural revival in Ireland. This talk will examine the history of hurling in the years between the Great Famine and the founding of the GAA. Using questionnaires from the National Folklore Collection and a wealth of other national and international sources, an alternative history of hurling will be offered that examines what happens to an ‘ancient sport’ at a time of intense social change.
Paul Rouse is a lecturer in the School of History at UCD. He is the author of Sport and Ireland: A History (OUP, 2015) and has written extensively about the history of hurling. The first meeting of those interested in setting up the Folklore of Ireland Society was held in November 1926. Subsequently the Society was formally established in January 1927. Among its founder members and first officers were Pádraig Ó Siochfhradha (‘An Seabhac’), Douglas Hyde (‘An Craoibhín Aoibhinn’) and J.H. Delargy.
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Welcome to the National Folklore Collection's new website! We hope it will serve to familiarise the public with the breadth and depth of our collections, as well as providing a space in which those interested in learning more about Irish folk tradition and its importance might keep informed of the latest events, publications and projects with which we are involved.
By clicking on the banner headings located at the top of the page, users can find detailed information regarding our holdings; from manuscript collections, sound and video recordings to our specialist library and more.
Coinciding with the launch of our new website is the latest edition of Blúiríní Béaloidis / Folklore Fragments, the monthly podcast from the National Folklore Collection. The podcast aims to explore aspects of Irish (and broader European) folk tradition across an array of different subject areas and topics, so that we might come to know and honour the customs and artistry of our forebears and ancestors. Drawing from various archival sources including sound recordings, manuscripts and older publications, the podcast aims to familiarise listeners with the depth and richness of our traditional cultural inheritance; believing that a knowledge and understanding of our past might better inform our present, and should aim to guide our future.
(opens in a new window)This month’s edition of the Blúiríní Béaloidis / Folklore Fragments podcast focuses on the arrival of the harvest, which was for our forebears a time of great celebration, as it marked the point at which the lean months of June and ‘Hungry July’ (when the year’s stores were traditionally at their lowest), gave way to a period of profusion and plenty. Join us as we take to the fields then, to discuss hilltop celebrations, contests of ability and strength, naked horse-swimming races and the spirit of the crops itself, which appears all over Europe in the form of a female nature spirit known broadly as the ‘Corn Mother’, as well as being symbolically represented by several animals. The podcast can be downloaded from the iTunes store, or at (opens in a new window)this Soundcloud page.