The Irish Folklore Commission (established in 1935) tasked itself with the documentation of the unwritten customs, beliefs and narratives of the Irish people; those ‘disiecta membra’ (as James Hamilton Delargy described them) of a rich heritage which it was feared was in danger of dying out and disappearing forever unless swift action was taken to gather up the fragments that remain, lest they perish. Delargy, and those with whom he worked, endeavoured to secure for future generations the sources of inspiration and pride which he saw as having languished in the ‘lumber room’ of history; those tales, traditions and songs of Ireland, cultural expressions he understood as representing ‘the State Papers of a forgotten and neglected people’.

The work of the Irish Folklore Commission then, in recording the voices and ideals of the ordinary people of Ireland , aimed to represent those communities whose voice was not heard among the formal archival records of the state. But, there are silences in every archive, and the Irish Folklore Commission was no different, having its own particular biases and tendencies. Among these biases was an initial focus on the customs of rural people over those in towns and urban areas. Another, and one which is the subject of today’s discussion, was the absence of material collected from Ireland’s Protestant community. Thankfully, this has recently been addressed by Dr. Deirdre Nuttall, who, working with the National Folklore Collection between 2013 and 2017 conducted a folk history of Ireland's Protestants consisting of ninety eight interviews and seventy six questionnaire responses, the results of which she has recently published in her book ‘Different and the Same: A Folk History of the Protestants of Independent Ireland’.

Join Jonny and Deirdre as they discuss 19th century conceptions of 'the Folk', examine Protestant origin stories and consider counter-narratives to Ireland's major historical events embedded in the communal memories of Ireland's Protestant community.

'Different and the Same' is published by Eastwood Books, and is available from the publisher directly at:

https://eastwoodbooks.com/different-and-the-same/

The book is available in all good bookshops in Ireland, and online.