70 years of folklore documented by pupils

THE development of a useful index to the manuscripts of the 1930s Schools’ Folklore Collection from national schools in the West Clare area was an ambitious enterprise undertaken by TY pupils at St Joseph’s Secondary School, Spanish Point.

The heritage project, entitled Hearthstone and Copybook, marked the 70th anniversary of the Schools’ Folklore Scheme, whereby the fifth and sixth classes in national schools all over the country collected stories, riddles, cures, traditions and history from their families, friends and neighbours in the community, wrote them up in copybooks and eventually the collected manuscripts were sent off to the Irish Folklore Commission in Dublin. It is now part of the National Folklore Collection in the Delargy Centre at UCD.
The Spanish Point pupils examined the 1937-1938 collections from 23 schools in the catchment area of St Joseph’s Secondary School and prepared an index to all of them.
The information includes the names of the contributors and informants and other relevant details, as well as a synopsis of the material. It is an easy guide for the reader and should make the work of research into the Schools’ Collection somewhat easier and less time consuming.
The index will be accompanied by many photos from the 1930s of schools and schoolchildren and also current photos of many of the participants in that scheme, who are now in their 80s. In addition, the pupils interviewed some of the participants and documented the proceedings on CD and video.
Last Thursday evening, the pupils were presented with special heritage certificates from the Miltown Malbay-based Old Kilfarboy History Society, in recognition of their significant contribution to local studies.
They also received specially-bound copies of their individual studies in the project. The presentations were made by Maura Egan, a member of the Old Kilfarboy Society and former past pupil, and Anne Clune, chairperson of the society.
Harry Hughes, project co-ordinator, acknowledged all who had helped bring the work to fruition: the teaching team, in particular Anne Scanlon who had assisted with translating material; TY co-ordinator, Deirdre Comber; the staff of the local library and the Local Studies Centre, Ennis; Dr Ríonach Ui Ogáin, director of the National Folklore Collection; the principal and all staff members who had become involved along the way; the principals of the local national schools; Treasa De Barra and Muiris Ó Rócháin, who assisted with background information and Stacey Ryan and Ceri Garfield, who handled design and production.
School principal, Mary Crawford, welcomed everybody, in particular the special guests of the evening, the people who had written material for their schools over 70 years ago and were now able to see the collected work of their schooldays get a new lease of life. Hearthstone and Copybook will be published in September.