Sharing county’s oral history

SINCE it was formed in February 2009, Clare’s oral history and folklore group, Cuimhneamh an Chláir, have been visiting the county’s oldest residents and recording their memories of times past.
Having now spoken to over 260 individuals, resulting in 350 archived interviews, Clare’s oral history will be shared with a wider audience for the first time as Cuimhneamh an Chláir is represented at the Milwaukee Irish Festival.

The independent and voluntary group digitally records, archives and share the memories, folklore, traditions and oral history of the county, through interviews with the county’s oldest citizens. They currently have trained and mobilised 25 volunteers, known as cuairteoirí, from across the county to help in the process.

With this year’s presence at the Milwaukee Irish Fest, it is hoped to attract more cuairteoirí, this time in the United States, with the aim of collecting the memories of Clare emigrants.

“From January 2010 to June 2012, we have documented the life stories, memories and folklore of over 260 of Clare’s oldest citizens, amounting to over 350 recordings and over 700 hours of audio with people aged 65 to 106 (14 over the age of 100).

“In total, 36 of those recorded have since passed away. The latter reminds us of the reality that once lost, the memories of our elders can never be retrieved,” Tomás MacConmara of Cuimhneamh an Chláir said.

Tomás will be speaking at the hedge school within the cultural village at the Milwaukee Irish Fest, which stages a number of lectures on various aspects of Irish culture, tradition or history.

“I’ll be speaking specifically about Clare folklore and oral tradition in the context of what Cuimhneamh an Chláir have been doing over the last number of years. It’s a massive opportunity for us to showcase our work to people in America. It is also an opportunity to identify people from County Clare who are out there and to get them recording or get them involved in the organisation,” Tomás outlined.

Tomás has been sponsored by the Milwaukee Irish Festival committee to attend the event. He was approached after they visited the oral history group’s website and saw the media coverage it is receiving here.

While there, Tomás will have three lecture slots throughout the festival weekend. He said he will focus on the work of Cuimhneamh an Chlair but, more importantly, he will be providing audio samples of recorded memories.

“This is something we have been doing in County Clare and across the country for the last year or two, where we go and try to take the material back out to the public. We would have spoken at conferences and seminars about oral history and folklore as well but the most powerful way to convey what we are trying to do is to play audio samples of the people we have recorded so that will be what I will be doing in Milwaukee.

“I will also be giving the context, background and will be talking more broadly about Clare folklore and tradition to the people there. Providing that audio work is definitely the most powerful thing we can do to convey what we are doing,” Tomás said.

When the cuairteoirí meet with an interviewee, one of the topics they always explore with them is emigration. Many of the recordings discuss those who left Ireland for work and those who emigrated but returned home. Tomás said he will play some of these audio clips.

“It is an interesting perspective on emigration because we are generally talking to people who saw people off, maybe in the very old days of the American wake or later on. So to play that emigration theme from the context of the people who stayed behind in Ireland will be something they will find interesting.

“I find when you have a fairly captive audience, as you would in Milwaukee, whatever theme is explored they will find it interesting, you don’t really need to have much of a hook in that sense. What we would normally do is draw together themes, so it might be on humour, the sense of place or the power of oral heritage. Any of those themes will resonate with the American audience without a doubt,” he said.
Having previously attended the festival wearing another hat, Tomás said he found the people who attend come from the broader Chicago area and are very knowledgeable about Ireland. Many of them would have Irish roots and want to find out more about the culture, tradition or folklore of the county of their ancestors.

“The one thing to link in from the tourism context is I’ve found that people in America, when they come to the country, they want to experience the local traditional experience.

“They are not looking for the honey pot-type destination. They want to experience the local folklore, customs and tradition so by us offering that insight through the memories of our older people that takes them right to the heart where they want to be so that will be something of strong resonance with them.
“Our primary goal in Clare is the preservation of our cultural heritage and its promotion and strengthening but one of the consequences of that is the enhancement of the tourism experience. While it is not our aim, it is a good benefit of it.

“The fact that people want to experience that local traditional, real authentic experience – this access to folklore, oral history, tradition and custom will definitely enhance that,” he said.

He explained that nearly all of the interviews conducted are rooted to a particular place, as Clare’s older people are so rooted in their native place.

“We are a transient age. We are not as connected with place as we were. Everything you listen to as part of the archive is in the context of some place. It might be where someone is from or where their ancestors came from and it’s about talking about areas of County Clare that are not normally spoken about in a general tourism sense. You’ll hear about the Cliffs of Moher but you won’t hear about Kilmihil folklore. You’ll hear about the Burren, but you won’t hear about Tuamgraney’s limestone,” he said.

Currently Cuimhneamh an Chláir is looking into exploring a local lore concept or a local memories map, whereby people could have a mobile phone application walking through a village and listen to local people talking about the local history.

“That is one of the ideas and it is something we’re looking into. That’s a direct way we can link the material we are collecting and link it into the tourism product and enhance the experience of the visitors,” he revealed.

The Milwaukee Irish Festival takes place this Thursday to Sunday.