Liz's Ireland Journal

The Official Story Count for the Summer of 2011 is 113!

Wednesday and Thursday, June 23^rd and 24^th, the Study Abroad Ireland tellers told their third stories in class.  With these last 20 stories, plus one more from me, our official count for the summer is 113.  I promised them at least 100 stories and we surpassed that nicely.  It’s been a tremendously rich and satisfying experience.  Here’s what they told:

1. (93) Ashley Sanders told The Fox and the Goat from Duncan Williamson’s The Genie and the Fisherman.
2. (94) Melinda Bokel told The Road to Heaven from Irish Folktales by Henry Glassie.
3. (95) Lizzy Murphy told a story that I told her.  I think I heard LynnAnn Wojciechowicz tell it at some point.  It’s about a piper who goes with the fairies to learn their music.  No idea of the name or source.  Lizzy called it Patrick Murphy.
4. (96) Jesse (“I’m a horse” Yeller) Soper told Willie Brennan from Glassie.
5. (97) Sarah (Tiger Lily) Stephens told The Weakness of the Ulsterman from Over Nine Waves by Marie Heaney.
6. (98) Nikki Dugie told The Hungry Hired Man from Glassie.
7. (99) Faye Daniel told A Strange Pig from Eddie Lenihan’s Meeting the Other Crowd.
8. (100) Angela Roman told The Big Cat and the Big Rat from Sean O’Sullivan’s Folktales of Ireland.
9. (101) Laura Rutherford told her ½ hour version of Deirdre that she has crafted from multiple sources.
10. (102) Kim Wellman told The Skeptic’s Story from Lenihan.
11. (103) Shelli Curtis told The Queen of the Planets from O’Sullivan.
12. (104) Kayla Linn told The Victory of Famine Days from Glassie.
13. (105) Bryan Jagiello told The Magic Spade from Irish Folktales for Children.
    
14. (106) Fidencio (Fiddy) Ybarra told A Pig on the Road from Gort from Glassie.
15. (107) Alysa Brimacombe told The Talking Head of Dunn-Bo from Irish Folk and Fairy Tales by Jarvie.
16. (108) Tammy Chapman told Bridget Gets Lands for the Poor from The Moon in the Well by Erica Helm Meade.
17. (109) Alison Vincent told The Soul Cages from various sources.
18. (110) Melissa Barrett-Traister recited The Lovers of Aran by Seamus Heaney.
19. (111) Michelle Fish told Fallen Angels from Lenihan.
20. (112) Andrea Robinson told an original story, The Rainbow Sheep, that she and Alison Vincent wrote.  It was inspired by the sheep she saw in Northern Ireland during her weekend with Liz Weir.
21. (113) I recited Tomboy by Dee Strickland Johnson again because Bryan Jagiello had asked me to. I closed with the story of The Whole Brain, from Tales Told in Tents by Sally Pomme Clayton.

Bravo to Everyone!

 

The Launch of the Athlone Yarnspinners

 
On Tuesday, June 21^st, the Athlone Yarnspinners was officially launched.  It’s been a dream of Danielle Allison’s for several years to get the Athlone group going.  The Yarnspinners in Ireland was started in Belfast by Liz Weir and there are currently groups active in Dublin, Foyle (Derry), Cork, and the Tullycarnet Yarnspinners (Dundonald, Belfast) who have just had their 20th birthday and produced a cd of their original tape. Several of the members of the Dublin Yarnspinners, who have also just released a cd, came to the Prince of Wales to contribute their talents to the event. Most of my class was in attendance, so I’m including the stories told in our long count.

1. (85) Aideen McBride told a story written by her father Jack Sheehan.  It was a story about a beauty who rejects all suitors, has her beauty marred, and then finds true love.  Beautiful story movingly told by Aideen.  It was far and away my student’s favorite story of the night – even the guys.  I believe that this story will become one of Aideen’s signatures as she told it with such fullness of emotion, presence, drive and authority.  Aideen had told me earlier that she had something “really lovely’ for the concert and that it was her goal to make me cry.  Sure enough, I and almost every other woman in the room, was wiping away a tear when the story concluded.
2. (86) Jack Lynch told Eamonn Kelly’s wonderful story of Mick the Fiddler.  I especially loved the part when Mick/Jack was drawing Manhattan a layer of ashes on the floor. I couldn’t see the floor where Jack was standing, so I could almost imagine that it was covered in ash with a map of New York drawn in it.
3. (87 & 88) Brendan Nolan came next and told us two.  The first was an explanation of why all of Dublin was locked inside during the Queen’s recent visit; suffice it to say that it involves the promise of free cigarettes for all.  His next story was about a man who decides to swim naked in the river and suffers a variety of unpleasant consequences. Brendan told us that he wasn’t bragging when he said that he could stop at every house in his Dublin neighborhood and tell a story about someone who had lived there.
4. (89) After the break, I told The Woman Who Knew a Story and a Song.
5.  (90) Miceal Ross told one of my favorite stories of his, a modern selkie story set in Scotland.  This was another favorite of the students as well, since they had read Eamonn Kelly’s version and heard Tammy Chapman tell a traditional one in class.
6. (91) Paddy Lohan, who Danielle and I had met at the Rosscommon Singer’s Circle in Knockcroghery earlier in the month, told a very funny story about two brothers in their eighties. They decide to get a housekeeper in the traditional way, and one of them marries.  Things get interesting when it turns out they would all be sleeping in the one bed.
7. (92) Jack Lynch closed the evening with one of his stories about P.J.  I don’t know the name, but I believe it can be found on his new cd re-release of The Humors of Breffni.

The variety of tellers and stories made for an evening with great energy.  Almost all of my students commented on it in their reports.  Kayla Linn captured their experience:

I have to say that they are a group of fantastic tellers. They all had their own unique techniques and little ways to make the story so incredibly imaginable. On the way home I was trying to pick my favorite and I honestly couldn’t. Every one of them either had my emotion so high that I thought I was going to cry or that I was laughing so hard my cheeks hurt. Even the man who was a local was extremely good and didn’t really seem like an amateur to me. I especially enjoyed how long their stories were and how they were able to keep my attention the entire time. They all had a story before their story and most of the beginnings tied into the endings and that was my favorite part. It was truly a great experience to see them and I really enjoyed it. 

 

In the picture at the top are Declan Coyne who runs the Rosscommon Singers Circle, Jack Lynch, Aideen McBride, Miceal Ross, Brendan Nolan, and Danielle Allison.

Rock On! A Sweet Summer Solstice Treat

Four years ago I had the opportunity to attend a fire ceremony on the summer solstice at Rathcroghan near Tulsk in Co. Roscommon. Every summer since I’ve made it a point to go to Rathcroghan, traditionally held to be the palace of Queen Medb, on June 21st.   The mound is part of a very large complex, one of the largest concentrations of ancient sites in Europe that was center of the province of Connaught.  And even though archaeologists now reckon that Rathcroghan was used for religious ceremonies rather than as Medb’s court, the whole complex is associated with her and the story of The Tain which begins and ends there.

Last summer when I went there on the solstice I was sitting on the west side of the mound next to the wide, sloped walkway that the druids would have used to access the top of the mound.  My eyes fell on a rock that was shaped like the hind leg of a bull. Bull, Tain, Medb, Rathcroghan – I had to take it.  But I felt a little uncomfortable about it.  I’ve never heard any stories about Medb wreaking havoc in the lives of those who take rocks from her home like those told about Pele in Hawaii, but the uneasiness persisted.  So, before I left Phoenix in May I went into the desert behind my house and selected a rock of similar size and slipped it in my luggage. 

On Tuesday, Nikki Dugie and I were supposed to go to Ballinasloe to tell stories, but at the last minute it got cancelled.  So, we went instead to Tulsk to visit the Cruachan Ai interpretive center that is devoted to the Rathcroghan complex.  After the tour we had a pot of tea and huge pieces of carrot cake, and then we drove up the road to visit Medb’s home.  The day was mostly sunny, breezy and dry and we could see quite a distance from the top.  As Nikki enjoyed the view, I returned to the place where I had taken the rock.  I found a spot to wedge my Arizona rock into the soil, and then I pulled up a small piece of sod and pressed it on top of my rock to force it in deeper and to cover it with grass.  Just for a moment I imagined my Arizona rock at Rathcroghan and the Rathcroghan rock in Arizona. I oriented myself to the directions and could see the line from north-east to south-west that connected the two stones.

When I walked back up to the top of the mound, I was surprised to see Nikki talking to a man. It was Mike Croghan, from the last family of Croghans still living on Rathcroghan. It took me a few minutes, but I eventually realized that I had met him before.  The second summer that I was in Ireland, Mike had taken us to Oweynagat, the Cave of the Cats, traditionally held to be an entrance to the Otherworld.  It is literally the stuff of legends. Mike said, “Would you like to go”?  I said, “Right now, today”?  He said, “Why not?  I’ve got the gear in the truck”. 

Within ten minutes, Nikki and were pulling on large yellow plastic pants and placing lamps on elastic bands around our foreheads as Mike led us to the entrance of the cave.  It’s a deeply feminine place, a womb in the earth.  The entrance is at the ground level and is shaped like a wide triangle. We slid in on our butts, scooched around a sharp turn to the left.  After a few more yards of sliding, we could stand in the chamber. Inside, the cave is also triangular with steeply vaulted sides.  In some places we were ankle deep in dense, sucking clay, the Irish prima materia.

On my previous trip I’d been there with about 30 people and had regretted that I barely had a moment to realize where I was. With just the three of us it was quiet and I was able to bask in the privilege of being in such a place.  We turned off our headlamps and stood in darkness for a couple of minutes. Although damp and mucky, it was actually a little warmer inside than out.  I had an urge, which I successfully suppressed, to free myself of my clothing and roll around in the mud. I’m sure that rolling around in primordial goddess ooze would do a body good. Something to look forward to on a future trip.

We crawled out and walked back to our vehicles.  As we did, a small white butterfly flitted between and around us. Seven summers ago, when Danielle Allison and I went to the Hill of Uisneach for the first time, white butterflies accompanied us back to our car as well.  I thought of the story of Butterfly Soul, and I quickly told it to Mike.  

We thanked Mike for his spontaneity and generosity.  He did admit to having a not so hidden agenda.  He leads tours all around the area and asked us to take brochures, which we did. Check out his website, which includes a virtual tour of the cave, and be sure to call him for a tour of this amazing site.  He is an excellent, knowledgeable guide and in our case, I’d say a gift from the goddess. 

The photos from the top: on the mound, the druids path, the entrance to the cave, Nikki and I in the cave, near the far end of the cave, coming back out, Nikki emerging, Mike emerging, and a panoramic view from the top of Rathcroghan with Nikki.

 

The School of the Four Masters

Monday afternoon, June 20, Laura Rutherford and I told stories at Scoil na gCeithre Máistrí, the School of the Four Masters.  This is the Gaelic language school in Athlone where Danielle’s daughter Katie attends. We spent a couple of hours there telling to Katie’s 1^st class, and then to a 5^th class. We were very well received.

One of the highlights for me was meeting Gearóid Ó Duibhir, who teaches I think the 6^th class and is also their computer expert.  He is interested in connecting his class with Sara Kirby’s back in Phoenix for our long anticipated international children’s storytelling exchange program.  Gearoid and I talked briefly, and his thinking about structure and timing for the project were exactly like mine.  I take that as a very good sign!

The picture at the top shows Laura captivating her listeners.

Awash in a Sea of Story

I tried something new in the Irish Storytelling Tradition this summer.  Since I had, 2/3s of the whole group in my class, I decided to teach them the basics of putting together a short personal story using Donald Davis’ “ Five Ps” – People, Place, Problem, Progress, Point. Twice in the semester, I asked them to select something they had experienced the previous weekend and then to quickly craft and tell it.  The first time, they each told to a partner and we heard a few of them in the second group.  The second time we heard all the stories.  This was a great way to not only teach them an additional skill, but to learn what they’d been up to!  My feeling is that the stories they take home will last longer and have a bigger impact than any souvenir. Here, briefly, is what each one told about after their third weekend in Ireland:

·         Ashley told about their trip to Kildare and missing the train they wanted home by five minutes.  They settled in a pub and entertained each other.  Her point was that “even in a small town, in a good pub with good friends you can pass the time”.

·         Sarah told about fitting everyone in my car, and then enduring the car ride to and from Ballynacargy.

·         Faye told about going to Dublin to see her friends there.  They witnessed a march to improve the treatment of greyhounds.  This was important to her since she is “passionate about animals.”

·         Nikki told about how “content and at ease” she felt touring Galway, since she had some familiarity with the city from the previous weekend.  This was in contrast to the nerve wracking bus trip back to Athlone, as she tried to figure out what she was supposed to do to get off the bus!

·         Kayla told us about her new (cute) haircut and the bleach job that necessitated it.  Her point was “don’t bleach your own hair”.

·         Shelli Curtis (“Needles” as dubbed by Jesse) told about walking at Black Abbey in Kildare when Sarah (“Tiger Lily”) broke the gate, with the Garda sitting in the car right across the street.  Her point was, “don’t break things that aren’t yours”.

·         Fidencio  told about hearing a guitar player in Dublin who had broken the Guinness World Record by playing for 114 hours straight.

·         Jesse told about how Ashley and Sarah “scratched the asses” of the ponies at the Irish National Stud in Kildare.  To his way of thinking this went on rather a long time.

·         Bryan told about how he managed to down 7 shots in 15 minutes when he was chosen as a taste-tester at the Jameson tour in Dublin.  He got a plaque!

·         Melinda and Angela tandem told about their trip to London, which was plagued with difficulties the first day, but very nice the second.

·         Lizzy told about her experience  playing with Chas at an engagement party in Grogan’s pub in Glasson.  She told us about getting Chas to loosen up.  “If you want Chas to play, buy him a beer”.

·         Laura told about going to Northern Ireland with Liz Weir.  She was sick on Saturday and missed the Giant’s Causeway.  But she was much better for the amazing session on Saturday night.  Her point was, “If you ever get a chance to go up to Liz’s, take it”!

·         Alysa told about her failed attempt at sleeping over the weekend and how she went to Flannery’s and got free Guinness.

·         Melissa told about having her windows banged on by hooligans.  She ran out of the apartment screaming for help.  Fortunately, Bob Farwell and Barry Brady were coming around the corner from the Londis.  Barry  chased the guys off, and then he and Bob came and checked the house and made her feel safe.  Her point was that she regretted running out of the apartment and wouldn’t do that again.

·         Andrea told about being asked to tell at Liz’s session in Cushendall.  She was nervous and felt intimidated, but she did it.  Her point was, “If you’re going to hang out with professional storytellers, be prepared”.

·         Alison told about going golfing with Barry Vaughan at Mount Temple.  She was initially disappointed, as she’d never heard of the course before.  But once there, she was impressed.  “It turned out better than I ever imagined or expected”.

I could say the same for my whole summer – it’s been one of the best.

The image at the top is from our trip to the Burren

 

Monday, June 20, we heard the last five of our second set of stories.  Faye Daniel got us started with the 80th story we've heard this month.

16. (80) Faye told the eerie story of The Black Dog from Eddie Lenihan's Meeting the Other Crowd.

17. (81) Andrea Robinson told a very well crafted version of The King with Donkey's Ears that she put together from several sources.

18. (82) Bryan Jagiello told John Broadson adn the Police Officer from Henry Glassie's Irish Folktales, a perfrect match for his temperment.

19. (83) Kayla Linn took great pleasure in telling us The Priest and the Farming Man, also from Glassie. 

20. (84) Shelli Curtis gave us a bravura performance of The Man Who Was Rescued from Hell, from Sean O'Sullivan's Folktales of Ireland.  I was very glad she chose it, since it was collected from Peig Sayers who we were studying during the last week of class.  She had us all spellbound during her 20 minute telling.

Second Stories, Continued

Tuesday, June 21, we heard the last five of our second set of stories.  Faye Daniel got us started with the 80th story we've heard this month.

16. (80) Faye told the eerie story of The Black Dog from Eddie Lenihan's Meeting the Other Crowd.

17. (81) Andrea Robinson told a very well crafted version of The King with Donkey's Ears that she put together from several sources.

18. (82) Bryan Jagiello told John Broadson adn the Police Officer from Henry Glassie's Irish Folktales, a perfrect match for his temperment.

19. (83) Kayla Linn took great pleasure in telling us The Priest and the Farming Man, also from Glassie. 

20. (84) Shelli Curtis gave us a bravura performance of The Man Who Was Rescued from Hell, from Sean O'Sullivan's Folktales of Ireland.  I was very glad she chose it, since it was collected from Peig Sayers who we were studying during the last week of class.  She had us all spellbound during her 20 minute telling. The picture shows Shelli as the brave and tireless woman speaking to Jesus as she brings the souls out of hell.

The Architecture of the Anecdote

My original plan for the weekend of June 18-19 had been to drive to Dublin to do my workshop for the Storytellers of Ireland and then drive up to Liz Weir’s in Cushendall.  Liz took Laura Rutherford and Andrea Robinson with her on Friday the 17^th, and I thought I’d drive up for the Saturday night session and then bring them back on Sunday.

                But as our very busy festival week wore on, the prospect of that many hours in my little blue Suzuki, the double motorcycle with a lid, seemed daunting.  So, instead, I took the train to Dublin on Saturday morning.  My colleague Bob Farwell and I left our apartments at 7:00 to catch the 7:30 express to Dublin from Athlone.  I’d called Danielle Allison just before we left to tell her that we would meet her there and it’s a good thing I did.  She was still in bed.  By some miracle, she made it to the train.  Right at 7:29:30 I saw her waving to us as she raced past the window and then slid into the seat beside me just as the train pulled out.

                Jack Lynch picked us up at Heuston Station and drove us to the Flying Book Club. Set just south of St. Stephen’s Green in a Georgian town house on Leeson Street, the book club is a new venture by Eibhlin Evans, who was responsible for writing Dublin's successful application for status as a UNESCO City of Literature.

                I fashioned the workshop on the ones Marilyn Torres and I have been doing for the Arizona Republic.  European tellers in general don’t tell personal and family stories, but I’ve heard Irish tellers tell about themselves and others to give context to a story.  I wrote the description to capitalize on that: The Architecture of an Anecdote: Tools for Constructing Short Fact-Based Stories. A collection of well-honed anecdotes can function like the mortar between the bricks of a storyteller’s repertoire.  In this fast-paced workshop you’ll add some story structuring tools to your kit and then craft, rehearse, and tell a short 3-5 minute story from your own experience.

                There were doubters and naysayers who opined that I would never get a group of Irish storytellers to stay within a 3-5 minute limit. They were wrong!  The 12 participants more than rose to the challenge, and we heard as many tight, well-crafted and well told stories. 

                Jack Lynch told us about his stint as a nude model, during which he experienced “no personal growth at all, I’m glad to say.”  Danielle Allison told us about heaving bosoms at the badminton club.  Brendan Nolan described running on the tarmac to chase the plane that was to take him and his bride on their honeymoon. Seosamh O'Maolala enlightened us on marble season in Dublin. Adam told how he shaved his moustache in Portugal to escape a mad stalker. Catriona told us about the miraculous finding of her grandmother’s ring.  Nuala Hayes asked us, “What is the truth?” to open her story from her childhood in Dublin.  Philip gave us the beautiful image of him walking home from the hospital after the birth of his daughter.  The full moon was shining on a blanket of snow.  He heard the crunch, crunch of his footsteps, even though he was walking on air.

                We were done right at the stroke of 1:00 p.m., as planned.  Jack and Danielle cleaned up as the participants departed.  A quick scan of the evaluations showed that most of them wished it could have been longer, a gratifying response.  We went to Dunne and Crescenzi on Frederick Street for lunch, met Eibhlin at the gates of Trinity College to give her the key, and Jack got Danielle and me to Heuston Station for the 5:00 p.m. train back to Athlone.

The picture at the top, back row left to right: Mairin, Catriona, Seosamh,Nuala, Adam, me, Eleoore, Hillary and Brendan.  Front row: Jack, Danielle, Nina and Philip. Below, we listen to Eleonore tell about "celebrating life and the magic in small things".

There’s a Rainbow at the Center of Ireland

Friday evening, June 17, I took Chas and three of my storytelling students to Ballynacargy to hear Clare Murphy and the Gombeens perform.  The directions I got from Google turned out not to be the most direct route, but I’m so glad I followed them.  We were on the R390 between Athlone and Mullingar when we spotted a huge rainbow spanning the horizon from north to south.  Just then we came around a curve and there was the Hill of Uisneach and the end of the rainbow was touching earth just above the Rock of Divisions. I’m still in a state of delighted, head-shaking wonderment at the synchronicity of that moment.  Car-load of storytellers and musicians, rainbow, physical and spiritual center of Ireland and me.  It’s a moment in time I will never forget.

Clare and  the Gombeens (Jonathan Gunning and Miguel Barcelo) were performing in the parish hall at Ballynacargy, a small village right on the Royal Canal.  The hall was packed and we stood in the back.  We were a little late, plus, the organizer had decided to start early, so we came in on the end of Clare’s second story,  a version of  the “Clever Manka” type. She followed that with her changeling story which is really excellent.  As usual, Clare brought the characters and their situations to life right before our eyes. When she showed us the changeling pull himself up to the side of the crib and ask for another song from the wise woman you could see her listeners shiver with delight.  I was very pleased that at least a few of my students got to see her tell.

We were then treated to the antics of the Gombeens. I had heard Jonathan Gunning at Clare’s last Story Night, and was excited to see him perform with his partner. The Gombeens are “Jesters to His Majesty the People” and “rebellious and insubordinated”.  They announced that they were professional fools, and then launched into a raucous bit involving a painting that is, no surprise, destroyed.  Much engaging madcappery ensued and the audience loved it.

After a tea break, the Gombeens came back and introduced the local talent.  The highlight of that part of the evening for me was to see the young women and men perform the sean nós dancing.  It’s rawer than step dancing, and the dancers actually display personality and challenge each other, and even try to push each other around with their shoulders as they dance.  It’s lively and sexy, and quite a contrast to the perfect girls with their wigs and stiff dresses we see in America. 

Clare and the Gombeens had been in the schools for two days and had done a performance the night before as well.  The event was funded by the Westmeath Rural Arts.  I’m wondering if they might be a potential source of support for the Three Rivers Storytelling Festival!

We came home by the more direct route through Ballymahon and Glasson and back into Athlone.  It took about 20 minutes off our drive time, but still took us through some gorgeous green countryside.  Here is a link to our route.Below are Michelle Fish, me, Clare Murphy, Sarah Stevens, and Lizzy Murphy.

Midsummer’s Eve in the Midlands

Barry Vaughan has done two great things for me. First, he invited me to participate in Study Abroad Ireland.  Granted, it was after I inquired in 2004 how he could possibly have a study abroad program in Ireland and not teach storytelling.  Fortunately, he agreed, and my first summer teaching for SAI was in 2005.  The second great thing he has done for me is to introduce me to his friends Mary and Frank. The three of them went to graduate school in Oklahoma, and have been very close ever since.  In fact, it was when Barry was visiting them in 2002 that he had the idea for our program.  So, I’d say that without Frank and Mary there would be no Study Abroad Ireland at all.

We have dinner at their home deep in the Midlands of Ireland at least once each summer, and one year they invited all the students to come too.  Last night Barry, Chas Moore and I were invited out and we arrived to find the fire place blazing. This was a welcome sight, since yesterday was freezing and the rain pelted down non-stop all day.  Nonetheless, it was very disorienting to be sitting by a fire and loving it in June, especially knowing that it was 113 degrees in Phoenix. It was like the solstices had flipped.

After a delicious Asian-inspired meal (Mary is a fabulous cook), the rain had stopped enough for us to don the wellies and take the traditional perambulation around their property.  They have a family of owls living in their trees, and we listened for them.  We saw the new patio and the new pathways as the relatively new pups raced between our feet.

We came back in by the fire for Mary’s gooseberry and elder flower fool. Their small daughter took the picture of me with my elder-flower festooned treat. I'd been to her school to tell stories, so she and I reviewed that and talked about what stories I would tell next year. Then the adults talked about everything from the library in Alexandria, to Greek philosophy, the crisis in Greece and the euro, and strange state of college education world-wide.

It was very hard to say good-bye, but as Mary reminded me, the year does seem to fly by.  As we were getting into the little blue Suzuki for the trip back to Athlone we heard the owls calling.

 

 

Eddie Lenihan: "By Pure Dint and Fierce Effort"

Eddie Lenihan visited The Irish Storytelling Tradition on the morning of Thursday, June 16. I had intended for his book, Meeting the Other Crowd, to be our text but not all the students could get it since it’s recently gone out of print.  Eddie started out by telling us a little about the book, which is composed entirely of stories of the fairies, “the good people” or “the other crowd”, that he collected from “the oldest of the old” people living in the west of Ireland.  “I check these places out myself and the landscape matches exactly what the person was talking about. The only thing I did with that book was I chopped down the voice; otherwise it would have been boring.  I had to cut them down to keep people from going to sleep”. Below are the stories Eddie told us along with their number in our long count.

1. (74) Eddie started off with one of my favorite stories from his book, “Refereeing a Fairy Hurling Match.”  He told us it was from Limerick and would normally have been for children. It’s about a man who is coming home late from playing cards. He is stopped in the road by a small man, one of “them”, who asks him to referee their hurling match.  Of course he knew, since he’d been asked directly, that he had to do it.  “Cooperate with the lads if you ever met them.  They’re like us in every way, except one, they need a human being to do things properly.  If you cooperate they are likely to reward you.” He was led behind a bush in a gap in the fence and there was the field and a fairy fort beyond it. There were no goal posts, just hawthorn bushes on either end of the field. He started the game and it was “just like a faction fight. The two teams of fairies were snarling at each other like two packs of wild dogs.  They were small but they were ferocious.  Goal for goal and point for point.”  The human referee engineers it so that the game ends in a tie, which pleases the fairies.  They tell him, “That’s’ the best game we’ve had and we’ve been coming here for the last three hundred years.”

2. (75) To introduce his next story, Eddie told us the Christian legend of the spider. “Don’t harm a spider.  Christ was on the run as a baby from the Roman soldiers.  A spider came and wove its web over the cave where Mary and Joseph were hiding. The soldiers saw it and thought no one was there.  So, leave a spider be it’s a sacred animal because of that.”

3. (76) The spider story was just part of the introduction for his next story which was about a weasel.  He’s working on a book about them. He told us that the Vikings brought both the weasels (the Danes cats) and foxes (the Danes dogs) to Ireland.  Weasels are “Intelligent and dangerous. They have teeth like needles and corner a weasel and it behaves like a cat - the fur goes up and it will spit.  Even a big dog will not attack a weasel, because the weasel will go for the throat.”  The story was about a man near Liscannor when times were hard and good food was not always plentiful. He sees a weasel with a rabbit and manages to get him to drop it.  But then the weasel followed him almost all the way home.  Finally, the man remembers something that his grandfather told him. “Weasels are uncanny and dangerous. If you steal anything from a weasel you’re making a mighty big mistake. You can lock the doors. You can lock the windows, but you’ll be found dead in the bed in the morning.”  The man gave up and threw the rabbit back.

4. (77)  Another story about weasels that a man told him as they waited in the doctor’s office.  It happened near Shannon.  Small fields there and throughout Ireland have names and histories.  And yet they are heartlessly bulldozed by “developers”. This man bought several old fields.  He was warned about two of them by the old man he bought them from but he ignored him.  He bulldozed the old stone walls and made one large field.  But once the sheep came and the lambs were born, the next morning every one was dead.  The old man had been trying to warn him about the weasels’ nests. “They weren’t going to be disturbed.  You can’t talk to people whose only god is money and unfortunately in Ireland we’ve got more of these people.”

5. (78) Eddie’s next story was a remarkable one about an abandoned house, well made, that been a shop in the1880s. In brief, there was young priest who in response to an insult cursed the structure with cats.  The cats overtook and destroyed the business. Eventually the bishop after a very stern lecture to the young priest on his abuse of powers, managed through “pure dint and fierce effort” to confine the cats to the basement. He locked them in and told the owners if they ever opened the door he couldn’t be held responsible for what happened. But no one thereafter could ever live in that house.  Eddie checked it out, and although there may have been other reasons besides haunted cats in the basement, the structure had been bought and sold restored and then abandoned more than once.  Eddie then gave us a postscript to the story.  He met an old man who was coming home from the pub after a couple of pints.  He was walking along and saw that the house, there on the other side of the road from him, was being reconstructed again.  “The door saddle wasn’t in yet, so there was a gap below the bottom of the door. His eye caught a movement. He looked and saw something he’d never seen before. There walking down the other footpath, was a line, a little convoy of cats head to tail, head to tail, at least 12 of them. He stood there watching them stupidly.  One after the other, in under the door with only an inch gap at most.  He wasn’t drunk, but he got home fast that night. He knew the reputation of that place.”  Eddie told us that he had no doubt that the man believed what he was saying.  “This is the difference between reading a book and looking at a person’s face. That person was telling me something that frightened him of a night.  He’s not telling a lie.  That’s interesting in itself.”

6. (79)  Eddie’s last story was about Biddy Early, about whom he has also written.  She lived in Feakle in east Clare, where there is “no plaque to Biddy Early, or gravestone, and she one of the most famous people in Ireland and yet Feakle is afraid of her.” She was married four times, in trouble with clergy, and with the police who accused her of running a shebeen. She was a “woman ahead of her time, a healer, a herb doctor.”  The story is the one about Biddy and the priest’s horse, in which she gets revenge for slanderous remarks he made about her from the pulpit. And yet,” Biddy and the same young man became the best of friends afterwards.”  Eddie told us that Biddy would never ask for payment, yet people would bring her what they could, and that was often a bottle of poitín. Three or four months after Biddy died an “avalanche of empty poitín bottles” was found behind her house, which fueled the speculation that she had been running a shebeen.  But Eddie says that wasn’t the case.  The bottles may have been drunk there, but Biddy wouldn’t have been selling alcohol.

Eddie ended by telling us some of his motivation for doing what he does.  He first got into in when he was doing his M.A in Phonetics.  He was initially collecting for the language, but soon got interested in the stories themselves.  He said, “I was sick and tired or reading bits and pieces of scraps by Anglo-Irish writers like Yeats and Lady Gregory”. He told us that he knew people from around Gort, Lady Gregory’s area, where she was collecting stories. “She was a different class entirely, so they were always that bit afraid or suspicious. It was never an even playing field.  They gave her what she wanted. And, I’m not so sure had Lady Gregory Irish”. So what quality of stories did she actually get?  He wanted to collect the fairy stories from an ordinary person’s point of view.  “Who are they, where do they live, and if you meet them what do you do.” He couldn’t find it, so he collected the lore and wrote the book as a start.  “If you wanted to be bitter in Ireland it would be very easy to. It’s better to get on with your job and do it.”