folktales
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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…
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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. …
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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…
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“Along the Flaggy Shore”
How did Seamus Heaney learn he had won the Nobel Prize? A week and a half ago we took a trip through the Burren to the Cliffs of Moher. Our bus driver couldn’t keep the microphone in front of his mouth because the earpiece on the head set was broken. This meant he was often…
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Triple Liz Throw-down and Other Three Rivers Concert Highlights!
The annual evening concert of the Three Rivers Storytelling Festival was held at 8:00 p.m. on June 16th at the Sheraton in Athlone. Danielle Allison and Mary Dillon got the room set up and managed the door. Chas Moore and the SAI musicians played before and between stories. Liz Weir and Eddie Lenihan were the…
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Liz Weir’s Seventh Visit to Study Abroad Ireland
Liz Weir visited The Irish Storytelling Tradition as part of this year’s Three Rivers Storytelling Festival on Wednesday, June 15. She is the only teller who has visited my class every one of the seven summers I’ve been teaching in Study Abroad Ireland. It’s a tradition. She started off by talking to us about her…
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Second Stories
On Tuesday, June 14, we heard 15 of 20 stories of the second round. The numbers in parentheses refer to our on-going count for the summer. (37) Alison Vincent told Paddy Corcoran’s Wife from W.B. Yeats’ Fairy and Folktales of Ireland. (38) Sarah Stevens told The Brewery of Egg Shells, also from Yeats. (39) Nikki…
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Picking Up Speed
Last Monday, June 13, marked the “only-two-weeks-left” point in our experience and everything began to speed up. We were so busy that I didn’t have the time to write a single blog post. So, here it is Sunday, the 19th, and I’m going to spend the day catching up on laundry, paper grading, and blog…
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Presidential Pottery at Shannonbridge
I don’t know if you heard, but Barack Obama was in Ireland a couple of weeks ago. Just kidding! Wait until you see the t-shirts! My favorite shows Mr. Obama, of the Moneygall O’bamas, hoisting a pint of Guinness to his lips. Below the image it says “Tall, Dark, and Had Some.” This is a…
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Clints and Grykes – Cliffs and Gripes
First the gripes. Our driver for our day-long trip to the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher was no Tom Kirwan. Tom, who is the Flagline bus driver we have for most of our field trips, is legendary for his driving skills. And although I doubt he would consider himself a tour guide, whenever he…
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Plugging the Festival
Thursday afternoon Danielle Allison and I stopped by the studios of Athlone Community Radio to be interviewed by Mairead O'Connor. Mairead hosts Athlone Today on weekdays from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. We talked about storytelling, the festival, and I told a story, all in 15 minutes. We were pleased to get to plug our big…
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Pat Speight Comes to Study Abroad Ireland
The Three Rivers Storytelling Festival brought Pat Speight to my class on Thursday, June 9th. All of my students were there, plus six of the remaining twelve in the program. I was very pleased that so many of them got to hear Pat – The Hat, as he brands himself. Speight is pronounced just like…