Dr. Pat Ryan is one of the most scholarly storytellers I’ve ever met. He conducts research, develops and conducts research projects, teaches and trains, collects stories, and tells them in England, Ireland, Italy, America and beyond. He is associated with Glamorgan University in Wales, with whom he conducts some of his innovative projects. He has a wealth of information and insight on the state of storytelling in Ireland, England, Europe, and the U.S.
Pat is known for his great knowledge of the folktales that informed Shakespeare's plays, which resulted in his book, pictured below. I knew that he had experience with Irish Travellers, and I asked him to tell stories he'd learned from them. He told three stories that I’d never heard before, or at least I thought I hadn’t. He told a story that both he and Liz Weir learned from John Collins, a well-known Traveller storyteller who passed away last year. Pat’s version is so different that I didn’t recognize it until Danielle reminded me of Liz’s version. Pat’s version is called “Jack and the Black Horse”, but he said that John wouldn’t have used a title. He would just have said, “I’ll tell you that story about Jack and the black horse”.
Pat told us that when John was about 60, we went to an adult literacy class. When the teacher asked him why he wanted to learn to read and write, John told him that he had many, many stories and poems in his head and he wanted to write them down before he died. The teacher said, “I’ve got a better idea. You tell the stories and I’ll have them transcribed and you can learn to read and write from your own words.”
Pat’s other two stories were “The Golden Ball”, a marvelous story about a young woman who accepts a golden ball from a golden man. When she misplaces it, she is set to be hung. Her sweetheart shows up with the ball at just the right moment and she is saved. He learned it from a Roma teller named Mary Wilson from South Yorkshire. His third story was “Jack and the Three Wishes” which starts out like “Jack and the Beanstalk” but morphs into the classic three wishes type of story in which the wishes are wasted. In this story the first wish is uttered by Jack’s mother who wishes for a tin tea-pot. She gets it, and Jack is so annoyed he wishes it was up her bum. It goes there, so the third wish must be spent getting it out. He learned that story from Sean Gallagher, a settled Traveller who is married to a librarian in Derry, who knew Liz, who got Pat involved.
At one point during the evening, Pat told us that scholars reckon that the majority of Scottish folklore would have been lost if not for Travellers. Pat figures the same is true in Ireland, although Travellers are less respected in Ireland than in Scotland.
After the storytelling several of us headed up to my apartment for tea and stronger stuff after Danielle announced she had a baby-sitter and we’d better make the best of it. Barry brought up the twelve year old Jameson (yum!) and a proper tea pot for actual tea leaves instead of bags and everyone was served something they liked. Eventually, it was down to Pat, Barry, and me. Pat entertained us for another hour or two with stories, stories about stories, stories about Shakespeare’s stories and plays, and much, much more. The man is astonishing.
The first picture is from his session at Eyrecourt Library in Co. Galway on June 9, 2009. The second is the cover of his book, Shakespeare's Storybook.
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