Public lecture on Kilbaha storyteller

BLIND storyteller Bríd Uí Choisteala will be revered among her own in Kilbaha when her life and times form the basis of a public lecture this weekend.
Friday night’s event, organised by Cuimhneamh an Chláir, the Clare Oral History and Folklore Group, will be held in Kilbaha Community Hall, the very building where Bríd attended primary school in the late 1800s.
Bríd was recorded by Tadgh Ó Murchú on behalf of the Irish Folklore Commission in the 1930s and 1940s and was once recognised as one of the finest tradition bearers in Ireland. Unfortunately, though the passage of time, she has largely fallen from social memory.
According to Tomás Mac Conmara of Cuimhneamh an Chláir, the lack of awareness of Bríd’s depth as a storyteller, is reflective of the broader neglect of women as tradition bearers.
“Women can be fantastic bearers of tradition but often dismiss themselves and shy into the background. In our collection work, we have made every effort to ensure that the memories of Clare’s older women are documented and added to our archive and have been privileged with some of the memories and stories we’ve documented from women in Clare. The case of Bríd Uí Choisteala is a sad example of how, over time, these great storytellers can be largely forgotten outside of their native area,” Tomás laments.
In 2011, Cuimhneamh an Chláir produced an outreach project called Faces of Folklore, County Clare, which aimed to create awareness of central characters in Clare, who were important both as collectors and bearers of folklore.
The project’s pamphlet, which included information about Professor Seamus Ó Duilearga and Stiofán Ó hÉalaoire, also featured Bríd. It was the response to her inclusion that has led to the lecture in Kilbaha, according to Mr Mac Conmara.
“We highlighted in Faces of Folklore that, in a picture of Bríd Uí Choisteala, taken in the ’30s, she had been reduced in the caption to the ‘blind wife of Mr Costelloe’. We wanted to address this terrible reduction and it really seems to have struck a chord with people across Clare. We received a lot of interest in the storyteller over the following months and so decided to arrange a public lecture in her honour in her native place of Kilbaha. In fact, the lecture takes place in the very building where she went to school in the late 1800s.”
Cuimhneamh an Chláir has spent a number of days in the Kilbaha area gathering local tradition about Bríd Uí Choisteala and the group is anxious to meet with any other people who may remember her from their childhood or have heard anything about her.
The voluntary group, who have digitally recorded over 200 of Clare’s oldest citizens, have arranged through a grant from the Heritage Council for Críostóir Mac Cárthaigh, from the Department of Irish Folklore in UCD to deliver the lecture and also to bring audio samples of interviews conducted in the 1930s with Bríd.
The lecture at 8pm, which is part of Cuimhneamh an Chláir’s outreach and education programme, will also feature a sample of the group’s increasing archive of memories.