The Irish Folklore Commission 1935-1970: History, ideology, methodology

Front matter

MÍCHEÁL BRIODY

The Irish Folklore

Commission 1935-1970

Contents

PREFACE peee bab She eee a saa Saa Peele BE gCais i gus 13 INTRODUCTION isea cain e gael eels £84 ap aud kare eh eee SÍ NSS 19 Aim and scope of work ... sisi ig ge GE 6 RR eects 24 Sources and source criticisM .. 1... aa eee ee eee 27

I THE POLITICAL, IDEOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL BACKGROUND. . .33

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Chapter I: The cultural, political, and ideological background

This Chapter outlines the cultural/linguistic, political, and the ideological milieu that lead to the systematic collecting of the oral tradition of Ireland. The decline of Irish over a number of centuries from a position of dominance to near-extinction, as well as efforts to restore it as the main vernacular of the independent Irish state in the first half of the twentieth century, is crucial for an understanding of both the urgency felt in certain quarters to initiate a salvage operation to record for posterity the rich oral traditions of Gaelic Ireland, in particular, as well as the many vicissitudes experienced by the body established by the Irish Free State to accomplish this task, namely the Irish Folklore Commission. Section 1 of this Chapter will deal roughly with the period before the establishment of an independent Irish state, and Section 2 with the first two decades of native government. It should be stressed that this chapter does not aim at providing an in-depth analysis of Irish history or society during the period, rather it aims to give readers a framework to help them understand the rest of this work. If this study were solely directed at an Irish audience, treatment of certain matters in this chapter could be somewhat briefer than is the case.

Chapter II: Saving the folklore of Ireland

Section 1 of Chapter II deals with the foundations that were laid over a number of decades for the establishment of the Irish Folklore Commission. It briefly traces efforts to have the folklore of Ireland collected by various bodies and individuals from the Gaelic League in the late nineteenth century down until the setting up of the Folklore of Ireland Society in 1927 and the Irish Folklore Institute in 1930. Section 2 deals with the formative years of the main progenitor of the Commission, and its Director for the three and a half decades of its operation, Séamus O Duilearga. The treatment of bodies such as the Folklore of Ireland Society and the Irish Folklore Institute in this chapter, is meant to illustrate the chain of events that led to the setting up of the Commission. Both these bodies deserve full-length studies in themselves. I have not sought to outline the evolution of folklore collecting in Ireland further back than the Gaelic League. To have done so would have greatly enlarged this work.’

Chapter III: The Irish Folklore Commission: Founding and re-establishment

Chapter III deals in detail with the setting up and making permanent of the Irish Folklore Commission. Section 1 deals with the preliminary efforts to transform the Irish Folklore Institute into a more effective collecting body as well as the protracted negotiations that in time resulted in the setting up of a reconstituted body, the Irish Folklore Commission, in April 1935. Section 2 deals with such matters as the Commission’s Terms of Reference, the membership of its Advisory Board and Finance Sub-Committee, and the inauguration of the Commission itself. Sections 3 to 7 treat of efforts from the early 1940’s to the late 1960’s to have the Commission made permanent. These efforts eventually resulted in the transfer of the Commission to UCD in 1971, where it was reconstituted as the Department of Irish Folklore. The problems and vicissitudes that delayed for more than a generation the finding of a permanent home for the temporary Irish Folklore Commission are also dealt with in detail. In section 8, I briefly assess the various other options proposed for the Commission apart from incorporation into UCD.

Chapter IV: The Commission’s collectors and collections

Section 1 of Chapter IV deals with the full-time collectors: their selection and training, their collecting methods and equipment, their workload, and

12 Foran account of some of the pioneer collectors of Irish oral tradition during the late 18" and 19" centuries, see Ó Giolláin 2000, pp. 94 ff.

their reception among the people. It also deals with the work of special and part-time collectors. Sections 2 to 7 deal with various collecting programmes of the Commission: for example, the Schools Scheme, collecting by means of questionnaires, and collecting in Gaelic Scotland. It has not been my intention to undertake a complete assessment of the collections of the Commission, nor of any individual collector. Even if such were possible, it would be a huge undertaking, and certainly not possible for somebody who does not live in Ireland, nor have ready access to all the relevant sources.

Chapter V: The work of Head Office

Chapter V deals with the work of the Head Office staff. Section 1 will deal with Séamus O Duilearga’s direction of the Commission both in the field and at Head Office, as well as other aspects of his work such as public relations and lecturing at home and abroad. Section 2 will deal with the work of the actual Head Office staff: their recruitment and duties in the early years, the archiving and cataloguing of the material, as well as the indispensable work done by the secretarial and typing staff. This section will also deal in brief with the work of the Commission’s ethnographer, Caoimhín Ó Danachair, who worked from Head Office. Space does not allow me to deal in greater detail with Ó Danachair’s work in this section, but his work, both ethnographic and other, is dealt with in various parts of this study." The folk-music collector Séamus Ennis also worked from Head Office, but he is treated of in Section 3 of Chapter IV. This Chapter also deals with the creation of a sound archive and a research library by the staff of Head Office and the Commission’s Director.

Chapter VI: The seeds of discontent

This chapter deals with certain matters at once peripheral and central to an understanding of the Commission’s work and achievement, and in some cases lack of achievement. Section 1 of this chapter deals with the salaries and conditions of work of the staff of the Commission. It is only by looking at such matters that we can understand fully the great personal sacrifice many of the Commission’s employees made, and indeed the great achievement of the Commission as a whole, which managed to do so much on very slim resources. Section 2 deals with conflict at Head Office between O Duilearga and senior members of staff. The deterioration of relations between the Director of the Commission and certain members of his office staff greatly affected the work of the Commission, especially during its latter years, and had repercussions even after O Duilearga’s retirement and the transfer of the Commission to UCD. Although this is a sensitive issue, it is necessary to deal with the matter in this study, for it also forms part of the history of the Irish Folklore Commission: a story of at times almost superhuman effort,

13 I hope in a separate publication to deal more comprehensively with Caoimhín Ó Danachair’s work for the Commission.

but all too human effort nonetheless. It should be emphasised that all the participants in this dispute are now dead.