Seán Ó Súilleabháin (1903-1996) and the Irish Folklore Commission

Author(s): Patricia Lysaght

Source: Western Folklore , Spring - Summer, 1998, Vol. 57, No. 2/3 (Spring - Summer,
1998), pp. 137-151
Published by: Western States Folklore Society

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1500217

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Sedn 0 Suilleabhain
(1903-1996) and the
Irish Folklore Commission
PATRICIA LYSAGHT

Sefan 0 Suiilleabhfain (Sefan O'Sullivan) w

Doire an Locha (Derrylough) about ten mile
Kenmare, in the parish of Tuosist, in south Co
30th of November 1903, and he died in Dub
1996.1 He was the archivist of Coimisiun B
Folklore Commission) for the duration of i
of its successor, the Department of Irish Folklo
ment from University College Dublin in 1974.
scholars of Irish folklore in the twentieth cen
Sean 0 Sfiilleabhaiin's parents were both prim
Seain and three of his siblings.3 Seain receiv
cation at St. Brendan's Seminary in Killa
school which provided secondary education fo
but as he did not have a vocation to the religi
on to become a teacher."4 After a year spent a
cessfully matriculated for entry into Univers
to Beaufield Preparatory School some mile
where he spent a year (1921-22) preparing f
to a teacher training college.6 In 1922 he gaine
ing College in Waterford city 7 and in 1923 h
teacher. After two years spent teaching in a o
pupils of different ages and grades, in th
Kilkenny lying just across the river Suir from
a school run by the Christian Brothers in M
spent eight years there. He subsequently st
University College Dublin and in 1934 he wa
Celtic Studies from University College London
Western Folklore 57 (Spring and Summer, 1998):137-51

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138 WESTERN FOLKLORE

lore Commission in 1935,

archivist of the Commiss
In the course of his caree
bodies at home and abroad. In 1945 he was elected a member of the

Royal Irish Academy (Dublin). He also served as a member of the Cultu

Relations Committee (Department of Foreign Affairs, Dublin) 19
1973, An Coimisiuin Logainmneacha (The Placenames Commi
(1946-1980), and Comhairle Radio Eireann (Radio Eireann Council,
Dublin) 1953-1960. He was a member of the International Society for Folk
Narrative Research,9 a member of the Honorary Council of the Folklore
Society (London) 1969-1996,10 a committee member (1934-5), Regis-
trar (1936-1980), and finally a Patron (1981-1996) of An Cumann le
Bialoideas Eireann (The Folklore of Ireland Society). In 1976 he received
the D.Litt.Celt. degree (honoris causa) from the National University of Ire-
land.

While still a schoolteacher in Waterford Se'in began to collect the folk

poetry in the Irish language of his native parish of Tuosist, county Kerry,
and it was through this work that he came into contact with Seamus 0
Duilearga, Honorary Director of the Irish Folklore Commission (1935-71)
for the first time. The suggestion to collect the poetry came from the then
parish priest of Tuosist, Father Riobird O Raghallaigh. Sean has described
the sequence of events as follows: "...I went back and forth, of course, to
Kerry on holidays. And at that time our parish priest at home in Tuosist
suggested to me that I should collect the Irish poetry which had been
composed in the parish. So for some years on my holidays I went around
our parish-which was half Irish-speaking at that time-and I collected the
poems of the best poets-Diarmaid 0 Si na Bolgaighe and five or six other
poets as well which has been published by An Gim11 (O Suiilleabhaiin
1937a). And during the time I was collecting the poetry some bits of
poetry were being published in An L6chrann'2 by 'An Seabhac' (Pidraig O
Siochfhradha) and Cormac 0 Cadhlaigh. I wrote a letter which was
published in An Ldchrann asking if anybody could send me copies of any
poems from my home parish.13 And I got only one answer and that was
from S6amus 0 Duilearga who was a lecturer with Douglas Hyde in
UCD [University College Dublin] at the time-that was before the Folkore
Commission or anything like that started. S6amus O Duilearga told me
that he had gone down to Ballinskelligs where he was collecting folklore
and that he had taken down a poem there of Diarmaid na Bolgaighe. So
he sent me a copy of it.14 I wrote to thank him. Then he invited me up to
Dublin...and in that way S6amus 0 Duilearga and myself met and got to

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SEAN 0 SUILLEABHAIN 139

know each other, and th

archive."

Prior to his appointment as archivist of the Irish Folklore Commission,

Sein had shown himself to be a first-rate collector with an almost instinc-
tive understanding of the nature and extent of the task which lay ahead.
He had not only collected the folk poetry of his native parish, but also
other genres of narrative in his home locality and in parts of county
Cork.15 0 Duilearga also encouraged him to collect folklore in Waterford
and some of the material which he recorded there appeared in Bialoideas
in 1939 (0 Stiilleabha'in 1939a).16 O Suiilleabhfiin had also shown himself
to be skilled in transcribing Irish-language narratives from Ediphone
cylinders.17 While engaged in the study of the Celtic languages in University
College Dublin he went each afternoon to the offices of the Irish Folklore
Institute (1930-35)18 then located at no. 1 Hume Street, Dublin, at the cor-
ner of Hume Street and St. Stephen's Green, to help in the work of
transcription of Ediphone recordings made by T. P. 0 Riain, a Christian
Brother in Dingle Secondary School, at the time (Lysaght 1993a:49).
On the 8th of March 1935 he resigned from his post as a primary school
teacher in order to join the Irsh Folklore Commission which was about to
be established by the Irish government (Lysaght 1993a:50).
Before taking up his post as archivist of the Irish Folklore Commission,
however, he went to Sweden to learn archival procedures, at the behest of
Seamus 0 Duilearga who had also made the necessary arrangements
with his colleagues in the universities of Lund and Uppsala. Seain received
archival training over a period of three months in 1935 with C.W. von
Sydow, professor of folklore and director of the folklore archive, Univer-
sity of Lund (Fig. 1), and principally with Ake Campbell (Director) and Ella
Odstedt in the then Landsmdlsarkiv (Dialect and Folklore Archive), Upp-
sala (Lysaght 1993a).19 On his return to Ireland in June 1935 he took up
his post as archivist of the Irish Folklore Commission,20 and in that capac-
ity he played a decisive role in the evolution of the Commission's collection
strategies. These included the development of a system of full and part-time
field collectors, conducting the (National) Schools' Scheme (1937-38) for
the collection of folklore by primary-school children, and the creation of
a network of questionnaire correspondents throughout Ireland, both as a
means of collecting folklore on a country-wide basis and to facilitate
scholarly research at home and abroad. He also successfully adapted the
classification system in operation in the folklore archive in Uppsala for use
in the archive of the Irish Folklore Commission in Dublin.21 (O'Sullivan
1957a; 0 Siuilleabhdin 1970a). He was also involved in the recording of

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140 WESTERN FOLKLORE

FAl'

Fig. 1 : Sean 0 Sfiilleabh.in, C

in the grounds of the Irish F
Green, Dublin, 1949. (Photo:
University College Dublin)

some of the most renowned

on gramaphone records, in
Green, in 1940 and 1941.22
It was also 0 Suiilleabhain w
Commission's collectors. Shor
Commission he compiled
shorter Irish-language LAimh
use by collectors especially
monumental A Handbook of
work became, and has remain
out Ireland, as well as provi
folk tradition, and it serves
Irish folklore collections to
of topics in Irish (0 SUiille
1937d) for use by teache
throughout the South of Irel
the collection of folklore. T

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SEAN 0 SUILLEABHAIN 141

prises the so-called Schools

now in the archive of the De
Dublin.
Guidelines for collectors in the area of folk narrative tradition are to be

found throughout the Handbook, but the topic is dealt with specifically in
the chapter entitled 'Popular Oral Literature' (Ch. 13). Here information
is sought about storytellers and their art-text, context and perfor-
mance-, and about the various genres of folk narrative, including examples
of international folktales told in Ireland. Seain summarised about three hun-

dred of these tales already collected from Irish oral tradition for the assis-
tance of field workers. The success of field collecting enabled Sein, in
collaboration with the eminent Norwegian folklorist, Reidar Th. Chris-
tiansen of the University of Oslo, to compile The Types of the Irish Folktale
(1963), a catalogue of some 43,000 versions of about 700 international folk-
tales found in oral currency or in print in Ireland up to the end of 1956.
Further tales of magic, as well as animal, romantic, humorous, and ori-
gin tales, other than those listed in The Types of the Folktale (Aarne and
Thompson 1961) and which seemed to be Irish types or ecotypes, were also
brought to the attention of field workers, and this collection strategy has
also yielded an abundant harvest.
With the intention of focusing on the native Gaelic tradition Sein
also included in the Handbook summaries of tales belonging to the so-called
Ulster and Fenian cycles and heroic romantic tales, and as a result a
large body of narrative, particularly concerning Fionn Mac Cumhail and
his band of warrior heroes, the Fianna, has been collected over the
decades. Also brought to the notice of collectors, with considerable success,
were genres such as the cante-fable, songs and airs, prayers, charms,
proverbs and riddles. In Storytelling in the Irish Tradition, (0 Suiilleabhiin
1973), Sean gives a concise account of the storytelling tradition in Ireland
and of the genres of Irish folk narrative.23
Sein 0 Suiilleabhdin's published work (0 Danachair 1978; Danaher and
Lysaght 1980-81) includes the aforementioned collection of the folk
poetry in the Irish language of his native parish of Tuosist, Co. Kerry (0
Siuilleabhain 1937a),24 as well as annotated anthologies of folk narratives:
Scdalta Crdibhtheacha (Dublin 1952 = Bialoideas 21), this being a selection of

religious tales from the Irish-speaking areas of Ireland (0 Suiilleabhfain

1952) ;25 Folktales of Ireland (O'Sullivan 1966); The Folklore of Ireland (O'Sul-
livan 1974), as well as Legends from Ireland, (O'Sullivan 1977b).
Sein studied the Irish versions of two international tales: Brother Chosen
Rather than Husband or Son (AaTh 985) (O Sfiilleabhfiin 1940) and Danish

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142 WESTERN FOLKLORE

Heather Beer (AaTh 2412E, T

1961b).26 His legend studie
belief legends about the d
between the living and the
ratives about the fairy wor
tradition of the south-east i
trative legends concerning t
wrong acts or words (0 SU
a preliminary catalogue of
1970b).
Irish folk history is also re
the legends of Oliver Cromw
excellence of Irish oral trad
county Kerry in 1867 (0 S
On more international an
the development and theore
(0 Suiilleabhiin 1967c), Sca
Russia (0 Siiilleabhaiin 19
h~in 1967f), in series of art
discussed the nature and f
the relationship between
1977). In discussing the co
analysed the use of folklo
famous writers in the litera
Latin literature, and in th
land, Norway, Sweden, De
SUiilleabhaiin 1962).
Seain 0 SUiilleabhaiin also
Irish-language writers of C
leabhaiin 1971b), and he has
content of the prose works
Millington Synge (0 SUiill
Familiar with the remainin
land, Sean has also written a
ryteller (O Sliilleabhaiin 1
As archivist and chief cata
0 SU6illeabhiin had probab
Irish folk tradition, and, no
some extent, beyond the fie
Irish calendar custom (0

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SEAN 0 SUILLEABHAIN 143

(0 Sfiilleabhiin 1945a, b; 1
and belief (0 Suiilleabhaiin
mortuary customs (0 Suiill
for the dead, led to the pub
Thorraimh (O Suiilleabhai
translation under the title I
As an exposition of the hosp
with the wake for the dead
the Catholic church's attit
issued by episcopal synods a
the twentieth centuries, t

National University of Ireland

University College, Dublin

Notes

1 Biographical details are taken from a conversation which I had with Sean 0 Stiil-
leabhiin in his home at 27, Ardilea, Roebuck, Dublin 6, on 3 November, 1989.
Seain remarked that he was born in the poorest parish in Ireland, a 'one
priest parish'. Commenting on his year of birth (1903) Seain said 'That was the
year, I think, that Queen Victoria died; when she died I was sent along!'
2 Both taught in the same primary school in Lehid, four miles distant from the
family home in Doire an Locha ('The Oak-wood of the Lake'), the lake in ques-
tion being Cloonee Lough. Seain's father, Eoghan, was the principal teacher. He
was born in Clogheraun, county Kerry, a townland at the foot of the Healy Pass
in the Caha mountain range on the south western border between counties
Kerry and Cork, looking down on Glanmore Lake. His father (Sefin's grand-
father) had been a farmer and weaver. On the rough, wild land at the foot of
the Caha mountains sheep were reared and flax (for linen weaving) was
grown, and there were looms in several houses in the townland. Seain's
mother, Helena, was also an O'Sullivan, but she was born in county Cork, in the
townland of Inse an Thaglain, about four miles distant across the Caha moun-
tains from the birth place of her husband. Seain remarked that a 'famine road'
across the mountains, which had been undertaken as a public works scheme
during the Great Famine (1845-49), was left unfinished at that time due to a
lack of finance. The unfinished one-mile stretch in the middle was finally com-
pleted in 1922 thanks to influence in government circles, especially with
William T. Cosgrave, president of the executive council of the Irish Free
State, of Tim Healy, the first Governor General of the Irish Free State, who was
a native of Bantry, county Cork, and it was called the 'Healy Pass' in his hon-
our. According to Seain the name for the old track over the mountains -
Bealach Scairt, 'Way of the Scrub'-should have been retained, Bealach ('Way')

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144 WESTERN FOLKLORE

being 'a fine Irish word' in

SHis sister Eileen, and bro
school teachers. Another bro
in Maynooth seminary, co
which swept Europe durin
4 Some day boys from Kill
dan's College. Seain was sen
had no vocation, he stayed
then spent a year at hom
matriculation examination f
university, however, as hi
themselves. Seain explained
saying that at that time dur
few opportunities-in the c
is, for children from a mi
5The universities act of 190
National University of Irela
Galway, and the Queen's Un
6 This school was run by T
After completing the seve
monitor-an apprentice teac
of a qualified teacher-and,
a qualified teacher himself
Beaufield, Co. Mayo. His w
principal of the boys' sch
close friend of Walter Star
borough Street Dublin, an
Beaufield, a preparatory sc
nation to teacher training
Beaufield Preparatory Scho
boys had lodgings in the f
socialize locally, including
hood. It was as a result of h
the differences between the conduct of the wake there and that in his own

locality in south Kerry, that Seain decided to write about Irish wake game
work which appeared initially in the Irish language under the title Caithea
Aimsire ar Th6rraimh (0 Sfiilleabhaiin 1961b) and later in English translation
the author as Irish Wake Amusements (0 Sfiilleabhaiin 1967a). Sean was
Mayo in the spring of 1921 during the Anglo-Irish War (1919-1921), a very d
turbed period in Ireland. Seain told me that, while sitting the examination
Castlebar during Easter 1921, for entry into a training college, he and
number of companions (being strangers in the town) were arrested by th
British military (the Black and Tans) and kept overnight in the barracks, a
were, fortunately, let out on the following morning to complete their exa
nations!

7 According to Sein the students from Munster usually went to the teacher trai
ing college in Waterford while those from Connacht usually went to th

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SEAN 0 SUILLEABHAIN 145

training college in Drumcon

tional ones) maintained thei
dence in 1922, and some, such as those in Drumcondra and Limerick,
function in the same capacity to the present time.
8 Sein took leave of absence from his teaching position in Waterford to study
Irish and Welsh at University College Dublin, then located at Earlsfort Terr
near St. Stephen's Green in the city (Lysaght 1993a:49). His examiner in
don was Robin Flower, the then Keeper of Irish Manuscripts in the Br
Museum, and Honorary lecturer in Irish in University College London si
1913 (0 Lfiing 1991:143) and a well-known visitor to Dublin and the Gr
Blasket Island (where he was affectionately known as Blaithin ["little flower
county Kerry, where Sean had met him in th early 1930s.
9 He was sponsored by the Irish government to attend the Midcentury Inte
tional Folklore Conference held at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indi
July 21-August 4, 1950, organised by Stith Thompson. Sean also attend
the Third Conference of the International Folk Music Society held on July
21 immediately prior to the folklore conference, having traveled to Bloo
ington by car from New York in the company of Reidar Th. Christian
and his wife, and Pete and Peggy Seegers. After the conferences Sein spent
weeks traveling in the USA in the company of Prof. and Mrs. Christiansen a

Fig. 2: The Third Conference of the International Folk Music Society, Indiana
versity, Bloomington, July 17-21, 1950

Front row, l-r: Ake Campbell (Uppsala), Mrs. Lumpkin (England?), Sig
Erixon (Stockholm), Reidar Th. Christiansen (Oslo), Walter Anderson (Dor
Estonia), Maud Karpelis (London), Otto Anderson (Abo)

Back row, l-r: Seain 0 SUiilleabhWin (Dublin), ?, Lauritz Bodker (Copenha

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146 WESTERN FOLKLORE

Alan Lomax, before making

101 would like to thank Car
information.

11 State agency for the publication of Irish-language books.

12 An Lochrann ['The Torch', i.e. the 'guiding light']. Pdipear miosamhail dd
theangthach le haghaidh Gaedheal [A monthly bi-lingual paper for Gaels
Triighli (Tralee), 1907-13; 1916-20; 1925-27; 1930-31; = An Lochrann agus 'A
Scuab." Nollaig 1926-luil-Lunasa 1927.
1s The following letter by Seain 0 Suiilleabhaiin appeared in An L6chrann
Samhain (November), 1930, p. 4:
Cogair !
Is gearr 6 t6gadh leac i gCill Mhoicheall6ig i gCiarrai i gcuimhne ar
Dhiarmaid na Bolgaf O Se agus ar Mhortai O Suiilleabhiin Learaf, beirt fhili a
mhair i dTuaith 0 Siosta trath nach cian. Tithar ar intinn a gcuid amhrin agus
dainta araon a bhailiui agus leabhar a dheanamh diobh le h-eagla a gcaillte ar
fad. Bhi cuid diobh i gcl6 cheana in irisleabhraibh agus i bp'ipearaibh thall 's
i bhfus agus 'se td 6n gCoiste anois nai eolas d'fhaiil ar na cinn sin a bhi f6 chl6,
n6 ar aon chinn atai scriofa sios ag einne. Is eagal go bhfuil cuid den chaint
bhrea imithe f6n gcre cheana f6in gan fdiil thar n-ais uirthi go deo; ach tA tea-
gar maith tagaithe slin leis, buiochas le Dia.
Nior mhaith linn go mbeadh aon bheirna mhfichailleach ins na dinta nuair
a foillseofar iad, agus, mar sin, iarraimid ar einne go bhfuil amhrfin n6 dfin n6
mairbhne n6 flu amhaiin smut de cheann aige e do sheoladh go luath go dti

Seain 0 Suiilleabhiin, O.S.,

21, An Ce, Port Liirge.
[Listen!
A short time ago a memorial stone was erected in Kilmakilloge to the
memory of Diarmaid na Bolgai 0 Se and Mortal 0 Suiilleabhaiin Learai, two
poets who lived in Tuosist not so long ago. It is intended that both their songs
and poems be collected and published in book-form for fear they might be lost
for ever. Some of them have already appeared in print in journals and papers
here and there, and the Committee now wants to find out about those which
have been published, or written down by anyone. No doubt some of the fine
language has already disappeared with those who have died without any hope
of its recovery ever again. But a goodly quantity has also survived, thanks be to
God!

We would wish that there would be no blemishing gaps in the poems

when they are published, and, therefore, we ask anybody who has a song or a
poem, or an elegy, or even a fragment of one, to send it soon to

Sean 0 Suiilleabhiin, Schoolteacher,

21, The Quay, Waterford.]

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SEAN 0 SUILLEABHAIN 147

14 In the years between 1923

toire of
Kerry. the storyteller
A story Sea.n 0NaConaill
about how Diarmaid of obtained
Bolgaighe Cill Rialaigh,
the giftBallinskelligs,
of poetry Co.
appears on p. 340. (0 Duilearga 1948). See also p. 302 in the English trans-
lation by Maire MacNeill (MacNeill 1981).
15 This material, collected between 1932-1935 for the Irish Folklore Institute is
included in vols. 30, 31, 32, 33, 130, 217, 303, of the Main Mss. Collection,
Department of Irish Folklore, University College Dublin.
16 In a note to his article in Bealoideas 1939 (45-46), 0 Suiilleabhain tells us
how he began to collect folklore in Waterford. He states that in 1933 while he
was teaching in Waterford city Seamus 0 Duilearga asked him to be on the
look out for storytellers and to collect what he could from them. Across the
road from the school where Sein taught was a home for the elderly run by the
Little Sisters of the Poor, and there on May 6, 1933, Sein was directed to an old
man of eighty years of age, with a long, wavy, grey beard, called Padraig
Breathnach, a native Irish speaker from the eastern part of county Waterford.
Sein visited him every Saturday prior to his departure from Waterford city and
collected a variety of traditions from him which he wrote down longhand, or
recorded from him using the Ediphone recording machine.
17The Ediphone recording machine using wax cylinders was essentially an aid to
transcription.
18 The Irish Folklore Institute (Institifid Bealoideasa Eireann) which had a
small government subvention (?500.00) was the precursor of the Irish Folklore
Commission, a fully government-subvented organisation (Lysaght 1993a:56-57,
note 4).

19three
Before his departure
months to Sweden
there he had Sea.n was able
gained competency in to read some Swedish,
understanding and after
and speaking
the language, also. Sean, who was a native Irish speaker, was multi-lingual, and
included Russian among the languages of which he had a competent knowl-
edge.
20 On his return to Ireland he was accompanied by Dr. Ake Campbell, Landsmdl-
sarkiv (Dialect and Folklore Archive), Uppsala, and Dr. Albert Nilsson, Uni-
versity of Lund, who had been invited by the Irish Folklore Commission to
carry out ethnological surveys in Ireland. Sean's first assignment on his
return was to accompany Albert Nilsson around the south-east, south and south-
west of Ireland and to assist him with the survey--see Lysaght 1993b.
21 See also Almqvist 1977-79 and Lysaght 1993a
22 See in this connection the Register of Disks (ten-inch) in the Sound Archive of
the Department of Irish Folklore, University College Dublin. It is likely that the
recordings were made when the singers and storytellers were in Dublin for an
event such as An t-Oireachtas, the annual celebration in Dublin of the culture
of the Gaeltacht areas. (Nowadays An t-Oireachtas tends to be held in the

Gaeltacht areas.) Among the singers recorded were: Labhr.s 0 Cadhla, Co.
Waterford, Muircheartach
Mhuimhneachiin, 0 Seaghdha,
Co. Cork, Seosamh Siobh.n
0 hEighnigh, Ni Sheaghdha,
and Sorcha and C.it Ni
Ni Ghuairim,
Co. Galway, and Aodh 0 Duibheannaigh, Co. Donegal. He also recorded

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148 WESTERN FOLKLORE

stories from Seain Bain Mac Grianna, Eamon Mac Grianna, and Seamus 0
Searcaigh, Co. Donegal, PLidraig Mac an Iomaire, and Sean 6 Conghaile, Co.
Galway, Micheil Traoin, Co. Waterford, as well as from the full-time collector
Seain 0 hEochaidh, Co. Donegal. He made recordings also of conversation with
Douglas Hyde, and of Eamon de Valera reading from the Irish Constitution of
1937.

23 The storytelling tradition in the Irish language, including the contexts and art
of storytelling, major and minor folklore genres, seanchas (traditional lore of
the countryside), and deisbhialai (witty retorts either humorous or satirical), are
further dealt with by 6 Sfiilleabhaiin in his article entitled: "Irish Oral Tradition"
(O Sfiilleabhaiin 1969).
24In "Irish Oral Tradition" (see previous note), 0 Suiilleabhiin also discusses the
"hidden corpus" of native folk poetry in the Irish language, including love
songs (47-50), and the figure of the poet as bard and magician is dealt with in
O Sfiilleabhain 1971a.
25In "Irish Oral Tradition" (see note 23), 0 Suiilleabhain deals also with religious
songs and prayers in the Irish language (50-53).
26 See also Almqvist 1991.

Works Cited

Aarne, Antti and Stith Thompson. 1961. The Types of the Folktale: A Classification and
Bibliography. FF Communications. no. 184. Helsinki: Academie Scientiarum
Fennica. Second Revision, Third Printing 1973.
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