You’d be hard pressed to turn over a stone in Ireland without unearthing a story beneath it. Such is the beauty of a country that seems built for stories, that bubble up from the land itself and work their way into every aspect of the culture, from the language to the music to the humor, but mostly to the people.
Ah, but keeping track of those stories is another matter altogether. Thus I was quite intrigued when I visited University College Cork and gave a guest lecture in their folklore department. As you might imagine, it’s a robust department, and keeping track of tales is part of what they do.
Toward that end, they’ve created a an online “memory map” with stories collected from the city of Cork, which is particularly rich in folktales. The great thing about it is that you get to travel around the city and hear older folks share tales, and their voices are as great as the stories. Have a listen!
http://storiesofplace.org/neatline/show/stories-of-place#records
And if you’d like to take that tour through music – and smell! – have a listen to John Spillane’s song Prince’s Street/Follow Your Nose. I got to share the stage with John at the 2016 Cape Clear International Storytelling Festival and fell in love with his songs of Cork. This one is particularly powerful, as it weaves in a a journey by nose through Cork recited by playwright and novelist Conal Creedon, which is simply magical.
By the way, on this trip I learned that Cork was once the producer of 40% of Europe’s butter. Those at the top of the butter supply chain grew wealthy and lived like Princes – hence the name of the street, Prince’s Street.
Like I say, in Ireland, there’s a story to everything.
