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The 1938 Essays of
The Irish Folklore Commission
by Aine McNeely
The essays written for the Folklore Commission in 1938
are available on micro film in the county library in
Castlebar. Even though at the time, the National School
integrated boys and girls in the classroom, the essays were
recorded according to those written by boys and those
written by girls.
This experiment in collecting folklore was unique and has
not been repeated on a national scale. In the directions
which were sent to every school in the country, set
procedures were laid down and teachers were expected to
insist their pupils adhere to them. During the 1930's there
was an urgent sense that so much heritage had already been
lost and the lack of any documentary evidence of what had
been retained had to be remedied. The appeal was based on
the grounds that the "story of the Irish countryman will
never be known" unless the real tradition was recorded in
every townland throughout Ireland. Teachers and children
alike were asked to approach their traditions as if "it is
the first time and perhaps the last time they will be
recorded". Nothing was to be excluded. Children were
encouraged to speak to the oldest living member of their
family and their community and to record everything in the
big book "as if nothing had been recorded in the
district".
A set of 5 instructions were given, the most important
stressing the value of what was obtained locally. Also
provided was a list of subjects for compositions and these
were adhered to very strictly. Under the suggestion "Hidden
Treasure" pupils were told that "many tales of this
character current in Ireland are of great antiquity and when
hundreds of such narratives are recorded (and their exact
location given) an important source of scientific material
will be made available." This was the purpose of the scheme
- to make available to scholars a vast amount of material
which hitherto had been dispersed and at times, undervalued
as a source for social and cultural history.
Brief History of Folklore
Collection
It is not true to say however, that Irish folklore had
been previously ignored. As a field of study it had, in the
19th century, attracted the attention of the American
anthropologist and linguist, Jeremiah Curtain, who published
folk tales he had collected in the New York newspaper "The
Sun" during the 1890's. European philologists had been
attracted to Irish folk tradition from the 1870's and of
course many Irish speaking writers worked in this field,
most notably Douglas Hyde, President of Ireland and Lady
Gregory. However, it wasn't until 1927 that the Folklore of
Ireland Society (Cumann le Bealoideas Eireann) was set up.
The society took on board the collection and publication of
Ireland's past, or what remained of it, through it's journal
Bealoideas. In the early editions it published items of
specialist interest in Irish such as anecdotes, tales,
prayers, proverbs, riddles and songs. It also included some
articles of general interest in English. The journal is
still being published today.
In 1930 the government grant-aided the foundation of the
Irish Folklore Institute. A Rockefeller foundation grant of
£500 provided further financial help and within 5 years
the institute had built up a collection of over 100
manuscript volumes. In 1935, the government, again for a
term of 5 years, set up the Irish Folklore Commission with
the primary job of collecting material. For such a task it
is obvious that planning and method were very important,
especially if the material was ever to be classified and
made available to students. In this the Irish Commission
drew on the experience of Sweden who were to the fore with
the most up-to-date methods of collection. In 1937-38, with
the help of the Department of Education, a collection of
folklore was initiated throughout the National Schools of
the 26 counties. The net result - 4,574 official note books
were returned to the Commission - these have continued to be
used by students of social history both here and in
Europe.
What the Essays Tell
Us
For the local historian, the essays of 1938 provide a
very valuable source. What is striking here in Mayo Abbey,
is that in a parish with a history of international
importance because of its Monastic site, there is very
little reference to it. The instructions given for
compositions on local ruins are very precise. Students were
asked to write about traditions surrounding local ruined
churches or monasteries and to cite any carvings or
ornamental stones in the vicinity. With the school so
closely situated near a site of such antiquity and
archaeological richness, it remains surprising that there is
so little mention of it. This, I think, reflects more on the
national education system itself than on the local
community. Mayo Abbey school children were not unusual in
knowing little about their locality - the emphasis in the
teaching of history was more national rather than directing
students' attention to events in the history in their area.
Many who were at school in the 1930's and 40's would agree
that they simply weren't taught anything about their area,
and what they knew came from sources such as their family or
neighbours. This emphasis is no longer the case. Research
into the folklore of Mayo Abbey continues today, already
some members of the community have taken part in the scheme
to collect and record stories, poems, place names and the
history of the parish.
For the reader in the 1990's these essays continue to
enchant. They hark back to a period in our society which has
all but disappeared. As a key to how our forefathers'
thought about themselves and their world, the essays reveal
a very different way of life. Their way of living was closer
to the natural world. They relied on weather lore and they
examined the activity of birds, sometimes to help them
anticipate the future, more times to interpret present
conditions. These essays reflect the concerns of the people
from whom the information was collected. What they tell us
of Mayo Abbey is that it was an agricultural community. The
pieces on the weather are longer and more detailed than the
others. eg. those on emblems and objects. The extracts on
riddles and "pisreogs" are by far the longest and this, I
think, reflects a superstitious approach to life on their
behalf. Behaviour was governed by signs. The following is a
typical example recorded by Paddy Delaney from Walter
Hughes, Mayo Abbey:"
"If a person sees the first young lamb of the year with
his face towards him, good luck will follow. If his tail is
towards him it means bad luck for the year. If a person saw
a new moon over his left shoulder and blessed themselves 3
times they would never get a toothache."
Folklore, the study of the folk-mind and the
investigation of the world and ways of ordinary people,
continues to attract students. The culture of the ordinary
citizen and the traditions of the past remain significant.
To quote the historian Francis Shaw - writing in the 1940s,
just after the publication of Sean O' Suilleabhain's
"Handbook of Irish Folklore" (1942) -"When truth and beauty
and goodness cannot be found in modern civilisation, we are
forced to seek for those values in other places......we must
retrace our steps to where we strayed from the road.
Excerpts from the 1938 manuscripts collection have
been reprinted with the kind permission of the Irish
Folklore Commission, Belfield, Dubiln.
If you have any bits of folklore concerning Co Mayo
please let us know.
We will be publishing extracts from the Mayo Abbey
Folklore over the coming weeks.
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