Ailbe van der Heide is Collections Curator at the National Folklore Collection, having joined the staff in 2020, shortly after graduating from the MA in Irish Folklore in 2020. For several years now, Ailbe has managed the National Folklore Collection’s reading room service, along with fielding an array of queries from members of the public keen to explore our collections. Throughout her work, and in response to enquiries made regarding our collections, Ailbe noticed an at times stark difference between the material found as part of our fieldwork collections, and that which can be found online regarding supernatural figures in Irish tradition. Researchers looking for information on supernatural lore would often cite specific terminology which was indicative of literary forms, rather than expressions of folk culture. On the interplay between literature and folk tradition, Anne O’Connor has noted that:

“Folklore and writing exist in specific social and historical circumstances: it is not mere chance that certain stories arise and gain currency at certain times, and the tracing of such complex and interwoven interactions has long been the challenges of professional folklorists, in Ireland and elsewhere. Written texts are also produced within particular cultural contexts but their interpretation is not necessarily dependent on a detailed knowledge of the circumstances of their production. Any analysis of oral narratives and belief complexes in Ireland reveals and raises inevitable questions of adaptation, attribution, contextualisation and interpretation, and these questions become even more apparent when analysing literary recourse to Irish folklore.”

In this episode, Ailbe and Jonny explore the interplay between oral literature, folk tradition, gothic literature, examining the discrepancies and distortions between those two forms, and considering their impact on popular culture. It would appear that many contemporary conceptions of the supernatural in Irish tradition stem less from our oral literature and folk tradition, but from a 19th century literary tradition. This episode (we hope!) will appeal to artist’s, writers, filmmakers, and anyone who is interested in aspects of folk horror, literature and the supernatural. My thanks to Ailbe, and to Andrew and Veronica in University Relations, for filming and producing the podcast! Some links:

19th century sources mentioned:

Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland by Thomas Crofton Croker

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/39752/pg39752-images.html

Fairy and Folktales of the Irish Peasantry by W.B. Yeats

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/33887/pg33887-images.html

Fair Gurtha; or, the Hungry Grass by William Carleton

https://www.google.ie/books/edition/The_Dublin_University_Magazine/WwdFAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22man+of+hunger%22&pg=PA435&printsec=frontcover

Irish Folk Lore: Traditions and Superstitions by John O’Hanlon

https://archive.org/details/IrishFolkLoreTraditions/page/n25/mode/2up

‘The Child that Went with the Fairies’ by Sheridan le Fanu

https://www.online-literature.com/lefanu/1772/

Ordnance Survey Letters, Londonderry

https://www.askaboutireland.ie/aai-files/assets/ebooks/OSI-Letters/LONDONDERRY_14%20D%2021.pdf

20th and 21st century sources:

Blood Relations by Brian Earls

A Handbook of Irish Folklore by Seán Ó Súilleabháin

Folktales of Ireland (with forward by Richard Dorson) by Seán Ó Suilleabháin

The Lore of Ireland by Daithí Ó hÓgáin

Locating Irish Folklore: Tradition, Identity, Modernity by Diarmuid Ó Giolláin

Miraculous Plenty: Irish religious folktales and legends by Seán Ó Súilleabháin (translated by William Caulfield)

Neighborliness and Decency, Witchcraft and Famine: Reflections on Community from Irish Folklore by Ray Cashman