The Irish Folklore Commission 1935-1970: History, ideology, methodology
Mícheál Briody
The Irish Folklore Commission 1935-1970: History, ideology, methodology
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"Between 1935 and 1970 the Irish Folklore Commission (Coimisiún Béaloideasa Éireann), under-funded and at great personal cost to its staff, assembled one of the world’s largest folklore collections. This study draws on the extensive government files on the Commission in the National Archives of Ireland and on a wide variety of other primary and secondary sources, in order to recount and assess the work and achievement of this world-famous institute. The cultural, linguistic, political and ideological factors that had a bearing on the establishment and making permanent of the Commission and that impinged on many aspects of its work are here elucidated. The genesis of the Commission is traced and the vision and mission of its Honorary Director, Séamus Ó Duilearga (James Hamilton Delargy), is outlined. The negotiations that preceded the setting up of the Commission in 1935 as well as protracted efforts from 1940 to 1970 to place it on a permanent foundation are recounted and examined at length. All the various collecting programmes and other activities of the Commission are described in detail and many aspects of its work are assessed and, in some cases, reassessed. This study also deals with the working methods and conditions of employment of the Commission’s field and Head Office staff as well with Séamus Ó Duilearga’s direction of the Commission. This is the first major study of the Irish Folklore Commission, which has been praised in passing in numerous publications, but here for the first time its work and achievement is detailed comprehensively and subjected to scholarly scrutiny. This work should be of interest not only to students of Irish oral tradition but to folklorists everywhere. The history of the Irish Folklore Commission is a part of a wider history, that of the history of folkloristics in Europe and North America in particular. Moreover, the Irish Folklore Commission maintained contacts with scholars on all five continents, and this work has relevance for many areas of the developing world today, where conditions are not dissimilar to those that pertained in Ireland in the 1930's when this great salvage operation was funded by the young, independent Irish state."

Language
English
ISBN
978-951-746-947-0
The Irish Folklore Commission 1935–1970
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
A national folklore collection
International and national reputation of the IFC
Need for a reassessment of the IFC’s work
International dimension
Aim and scope of work
Sources and source criticism
The author’s experience of collecting
A note on nomenclature and translated passages
I THE POLITICAL, IDEOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL BACKGROUND
1. Pre-independence period
The decline of the Irish Language
The Gaelic Revival and cultural nationalism
Thomas Davis
The rise of the Gaelic League
The 1916 Rising and Political Foment
Political independence
The Irish Civil War
Bitterness, disillusionment and political polarisation
2. Culture, language and ideology in the new state
Cultural destruction
State ideology in respect of native Irish culture
The fledgling state’s Irish language policy
The Gaelic League and the new state
Nostalgia for rural life and the Gaelic past
The growing power of the Catholic Church
Gender and the new state
Comparative folklore studies and northern Europe
Conflicting ideologies at home and abroad
Neutrality and the Second World War
Partition and Northern Ireland
3. Conclusion to Chapter I
II SAVING THE FOLKLORE OF IRELAND
1. Laying the foundations
The Gaelic League’s Oireachtas competitions
The Founding of the Folklore of Ireland Society
2. Séamus Ó Duilearga’s vision and mission
The Road from the Glens
Interest kindled in the Irish language
University: studies and tribulations
Assistantship to Douglas Hyde
Apprenticeship as collector/Seán Ó Conaill
Meeting with Carl Wilhelm von Sydow
Study trip to northern Europe
Return from northern Europe
State support sought for collecting
Ernest Blythe’s attitude to folklore
The Irish Folklore Institute
Ingenuity in the face of adversity
III THE IRISH FOLKLORE COMMISSION: FOUNDING AND RE-ESTABLISHMENT
1. Negotiations and interventions
Genesis of a new organisation for collecting folklore
Ó Duilearga meets de Valera/Folklore survey agreed
Divergent views and delays
Éamon de Valera’s views
Carl von Sydow’s and Eoin Mac Néill’s intervention
Pádraig Ó Siochfhradha’s intervention
Dept. of Finance proposes limited role for UCD
Idea of folklore commission takes shape
Ó Duilearga’s reluctant acceptance of a government commission
Finance’s reaction to Ó Duilearga’s proposed emendations
Further Dept. of Finance emendations
2. The Board of the Commission
‘Terms of Reference’ and duties
The Finance Sub-Committee
The Inauguration of Coimisiún Béaloideasa Éireann
3. Making the Commission permanent
End of five-year term of office
Issues and problems of the period
Agents: attitudes and arguments
4. The Nineteen Forties/ebb and flow
A permanent, independent foundation
Education’s view on the future work of the Commission
Dept. of Education seeks clarification from Ó Duilearga
Delay in furnishing Education with relevant information
Ó Duilearga proposes a more elaborate organisation
A still more elaborate scheme proposed by Ó Duilearga
Ó Duilearga and Tierney meet with Education officials
Reception of Dept. of Education’s proposal
Procrastination and frustration
Ó Duilearga accepts de Valera’s offer
Ó Duilearga changes his mind
A New Taoiseach and new opportunities
Dept. of Finance assesses the Commission’s position
Ó Duilearga’s health breaks down
5. The Nineteen Fifties/Commission adrift
New vigour but problems with Dept. of Finance
Political instability
Pensions for staff of Commission
Finance Sub-Committee meets with Education officials
Special meeting of Commission, June 27th, 1958
Officials assess the opinions of the members of the Commission
Dept. of Education considers options for future of Commission
Civil Service status for staff of Commission
6. The Nineteen Sixties/on a rising tide
Passing of the ‘old guard’ and the reassessment of nationalist ideals
Death and old age depletes the Commission
Commission on Higher Education
The Commission on Higher Education reaches a verdict
Dept. of Education acts on CHE’s report
Government approves transfer to UCD
Insult to injury
The Commission’s last meeting
Apprehension among staff of Commission
Arrangements between Dept. of Education and UCD finalised
7. Transfer to UCD.
Choosing a successor to Ó Duilearga
Opening of the Department of Irish Folklore
The end of a long road: Séamus Ó Duilearga retires
8. A Postscript to transfer to UCD
IV THE COMMISSION’S COLLECTORS AND COLLECTIONS
1. In the Field/the Collectors at work
Recruiting full-time collectors
Training of full-time collectors
Special and Part-time Collectors
Equipment of collectors
Modes of transport
Collecting and working methods
Keeping of diaries by collectors
Other notebooks
The workload of the collectors
The wives of full-time collectors
Reception of collectors by the people
2. The Schools Scheme 1937–1938
Origins of scheme
Preparing the ground
Operation of scheme
The harvest comes in
Extent of the Schools Collection
3. The Collection of folk music and song
To collect or to wait
Otto Andersson and Nils Denker
Liam de Noraidh
Collecting with pen and paper
Séamus Ennis
Mobile units record folk music
4. Collecting by means of questionnaire
Creating a pool of correspondents
Maintaining a pool of correspondents
Types of questionnaires
The method
The amount of material collected
A final comment
5. Extending the collecting to Northern Ireland
The situation in the North
A full-time collector for the North
The limits of cooperation
6. Collecting in the Isle of Man and Gaelic Scotland
The Isle of Man
Ó Duilearga’s interest in Gaelic Scotland
Calum MacLean reconnoitres
Difficulties with the Dept. of Education
MacLean begins collecting
School of Scottish Studies
Ó Duilearga’s gamble/de Valera’s Celtic Vision
V THE WORK OF HEAD OFFICE
1. The Work of the Director
Organising programmes of work
Employing and supervising staff
Lecturing at home and public relations work
Lecturing abroad and fostering international contacts
2. The office staff of the Commission
Employing the first office staff
Cataloguing and archiving of material
Secretarial and Typing Staff
Ethnologist/Caoimhín Ó Danachair
3. Creating a sound archive
From gramophone recording apparatus to mobile recording unit
Caoimhín Ó Danachair and the mobile recording unit
Leo Corduff takes over
The last years of the Ediphone
Advent of tape recorders and ensuing problems
Legacy of sound recordings
Creating a research library
VI THE SEEDS OF DISCONTENT
1. Salaries and conditions of employment
Finance interference
Salaries and conditions of the initial Head Office staff
Differences in rates of pay of the initial collectors
Travelling and other Expenses for collectors
Dept. of Finance relaxes control
Shorthand typists
Pent-up frustration and agitation
Pensions for the staff
2. ‘Cogadh na gCarad’ (‘The War of the Friends’)
Setting the scene
Åke Campbell’s intervention
Campbell’s Report
The aftermath
Research and publication
The Types of the Irish Folktale and Folktales of Ireland
The heart of the problem
Letting go the helm
A lasting wound
Honorary doctorates
VII AN ASSESSMENT OF ASPECTS OF THE COMMISSION’S WORK
1. Head Office and the field
Processing and cataloguing the material at Head Office
The working methods of collectors
Less control over part-time collectors
Suitability of full-time collectors for job
Limited opportunities for collectors to develop
‘If you were appointed a collector, you remained a collector!’
Collector-Folklorists
2. The Commission’s pioneering role
Text and context
The recording of biographical data
The genesis of the collector’s diaries
The purpose of the collectors’ diaries
3. The neglect of more recent living tradition
‘Dead clay’ and ‘living clay’
4. Neglect of urban tradition
Rural versus urban, national versus international
Collectors and urban oral tradition
Wider context of neglect of urban tradition
An opportunity lost
5. Neglect of English-speaking rural areas
Initial prioritising of collecting in Irish
Extending collecting in English
Continued priority of Irish over English
6. Female collectors and female informants
Obstacles to employing women as full-time collectors
The ratio of female to male informants
Full-time versus part-time collecting
The geographical spread of major women informants
The amount collected by women collectors
A final word on gender matters
CONCLUSION
Some general comments
The actors
Seán Ó Conaill and the Commission’s informants
The collectors
The Head Office staff
The Commission’s Board
Éamon de Valera
Michael Tierney
Pádraig Ó Siochfhradha and Eric Mac Fhinn
The Civil Servants
Séamus Ó Duilearga
The Aftermath
A safe haven?
Need for statutory protection
The future of the collections
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS OF LOCATIONS OF PRIMARY SOURCES
PRIMARY SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
APPENDICES
Appendix 1. Irish Folklore Commission. Terms of Reference
Appendix 2. Membership of the Irish Folklore Commission
Appendix 3. Full-time and special collectors
Appendix 4. A selection of part-time collectors
Appendix 5. Growth of the Main Manuscript Collection
MAP OF PROVINCES, COUNTIES AND IRISH-SPEAKING AREAS.
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