Irish folklore
[3][4] It was not until 1846 that the word "folklore" was coined, by English writer William Thoms, to designate "the manners, customs, observances, superstitions, ballads, proverbs, &c of the olden time".
[9] The keening Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire composed by Eileen Dubh Ní Chonaill in her husband's wake is a piece of poetry passed down by folk tradition.
As an example, shallow wicker baskets called skeeoges as strainers (to empty the boiled potatoes and hot water on, to drain the liquid) were recorded in the Co. Wexford area by Patrick Kennedy in the 19th century.
They are described as human sized, beautiful, powerful, and in tune with nature, similar to the modern day fantasy race of Elves.
[citation needed] One type of Irish fairy is the female banshee, the death-messenger with her keening, or baleful crying over someone's death,[21] and known by many different names.
[h][40] Other classic themes in Irish folktale literature include Cú Chulainn, Children of Lir, Fionn Mac Cumhail, from medieval heroic and tragic sagas.
[41] An example is the tale of Cú Chulainn's horse[i] remnant in the legend type of "The Waterhorse as Workhorse" (MLSIT 4086),[j] or so argued by C. W. von Sydow.
[42] In the 20th century, the Irish Folklore Commission collected a large corpus of such romantic heroic sagas, particularly the stories of Fionn Mac Cumhail and the Fianna.
[46] The Irish-speaking West, the Gaeltacht included for example the Aran Islands, where some folklore-collecting was performed by Danish linguist Holger Pedersen back in 1896, though the resulting collection was never published until a century later.
After having undergone 3 month tutelage in Uppsala, Sweden under C. W. von Sydow on the methods of folklore archiving, the archivist became instrumental in establishing collecting policies for the IFC.
All in all, the current Irish folklore shows a strong absorption of Christianity, including its lesson of morality and spiritual beliefs, creating a "singular brand of fairy tale tradition".
The Great famine of the 1840s, and the deaths and emigration it brought, weakened a still powerful Gaelic culture, especially within the rural proletariat, which was at the time the most traditional social grouping.
At the time, intellectuals such as Sir William Wilde expressed concerns on the decay of traditional beliefs: In the state of things, with depopulation the most terrific which any country ever experienced, on the one hand, and the spread of education, and the introduction of railroads, colleges, industrial and other educational schools, on the other – together with the rapid decay of our Irish bardic annals, the vestige of Pagan rites, and the relics of fairy charms were preserved, - can superstition, or if superstitious belief, can superstitious practices continue to exist?
[62]Moreover, global migration has helped overcoming special spatial barriers[63] making it easier for cultures to merge into one another (such as the amalgam between Samhain and Halloween).
This was recognised in Seán Ó Súilleabháin's A Handbook of Irish Folklore, which includes a chapter specifically dedicated to collecting "Historical Tradition".
[66] Irish folk history was commonly known by the name seanchas, a term defined by Séamus Ó Duilearga as "orally preserved social-historical tradition.
[72] Irish folklore material is now being used in marketing (with strategies suggesting tradition and authenticity for goods), movies and TV shows (The Secret of Kells, mention of the Banshee are found in TV shows such as Supernatural, Teen Wolf or Charmed), books (the book series The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, the novel American Gods...), contributing to the creation of a new body of Irish folklore.
