On this episode of the Irish History Show, John Dorney was joined by Dr. Críostóir Mac Cárthaigh to discuss the Civil War Memory Project, an oral history project in association with the National Folklore Collection (UCD), RTÉ and Scratch Films.

For many years the Irish Civil War of 1922-23 was a taboo topic in Ireland, rarely raised in public, except in a partisan manner.

Now 100 years on a project is underway to collect family and local memories of the conflict to recover how it was remembered at the local and family level.

The National Folklore collection is mounting a major project to collect such memories and these will also be recorded in a documentary, currently in production by Scratch films.

Those who are interested in the project and who wish to contribute can contact the National Folklore Collection at [email protected] or Scratch films at [email protected]

Críostóir Mac Cárthaigh is an Archivist for the National Folklore Collection at University College Dublin. His research interests are vernacular architecture, traditional boats and fishing, the cultural landscape (especially those of Atlantic island communities), as well as folk drama and oral literature. He is joint editor of New Survey of Clare Island: v. 1: History and Cultural Landscape (1999).

Intro / Outro music “Sliabh” from Aislinn. Licensed under creative commons from the free music archive.