Irish Ethnologies, edited by Diarmuid Ó Giolláin, is the English-language edition of a collection of essays originally published in 2011 as a special volume of the French journal Ethnologie française dedicated to Ireland (vol. 41, #2). It is a wide-ranging collection, presenting research undertaken in various academic disciplines--contributors are employed in university departments of anthropology, sociology, and history, as well as folklore--all of which can be said to have a bearing on Irish ethnology. The title of this English-language edition--Irish Ethnologies--gives a sense of its wide scope and signals a welcome branching out, drawing together different but related academic disciplines under the umbrella term ethnology--or rather, as the title suggests, a heterogeneously conceived plural ethnologies.
The title of the French-language original was Irlande après Arensberg et Ó Duilearga (Ireland after Arensberg and Ó Duilearga). In his magisterial introduction, editor Diarmuid Ó Giolláin charts the development of ethnological studies in Ireland from two originally separate and distinct roots. The title's “founding fathers”--Arensberg and Ó Duilearga--working at about the same time, can each claim to have introduced to the Ireland of the 1930s a professional and systematic approach to ethnology. Conrad M. Arensberg and his collaborator Solon T. Kimball conducted a sociologically oriented anthropology in their fieldwork in county Clare that brought Ireland to the attention of anthropologists worldwide (Arensberg and Kimball 1940). Séamus Ó Duilearga (James H. Delargy) established and spearheaded the legendary Irish Folklore Commission that within a few decades amassed one of the most extensive oral archives in the world.
Ó Giolláin eschews oversimplification and amply acknowledges the diverse strands of both folkloristically and anthropologically oriented ethnologies. He draws attention to the international Umfeld of the interest in collecting Gaelic oral literature; nevertheless, the reader may be forgiven for getting the impression that, as Ó Giolláin puts it, "folkloristics in some ways belongs to a more local discourse than anthropology" (14). It is certainly true that anthropology in Ireland was essentially an international endeavor; introduced to Ireland from abroad it only gained a foothold in academia in the last third of the twentieth century (Ó Giolláin, 13), while Irish folklore studies, by contrast, developed within Ireland, defined by Irish-trained and Irish-based scholars. However, folklore as a discipline is every bit as international as anthropology, and the international and comparative dimension of Delargy's Folklore Commission and the academic department that grew out of and alongside its archive (now the Delargy Centre for Irish Folklore and the National Folklore Collection) can hardly be over-estimated (Ó Catháin 2008, Briody 2007, Lysaght 1993, Ó Giolláin 2017).
A volume as broadly defined as Ó Giolláin's "ethnologies" cannot hope to encompass all aspects of the field; from a folklore point of view, one cannot help but notice that only a third of the chapters (Ó Crualaoich; Muller; Beiner) address core areas of folklore and ethnology (indeed, only one of the eleven contributors is affiliated with a folklore or ethnology department). One might have expected a volume entitled Irish Ethnologies to have a significant focus on such areas as material culture and traditional lifeways, past and present; on social custom, ritual and belief; and on cultural self-expression, including storytelling and song tradition.
There is, nevertheless, much that is of interest to the folklorist, not least because it offers a welcome sampling of research conducted by anthropologists today. Ó Giolláin has long advocated a closer relationship between folklore and anthropology in Ireland (2000, 183), and this volume represents a step towards this goal.
Anne Byrne's contribution revisits the methodology of Conrad Arensberg --one of the founding fathers--in particular his use of letters to keep in touch with and elicit further information from his Clare informants. Arensberg's correspondence, as well as his field diaries, offer further evidence for the innovative and holistic research methods that made Arensberg’s and Kimball's study so compelling. One of the many fascinating snippets that Byrne brings to light is Arensberg's 1933 encounter with Stephen Hillary (Byrne, 40), a native Irish speaker better known to folklorists as Stiofán Ó hEalaoire, a tradition bearer whose stories and lore were recorded by Delargy (Ó Duilearga 1981). The meeting had been suggested by Delargy, who "provided an extensive range of contacts and letters of introduction for Arensberg and Kimball" (Byrne 39). Two years later, Delargy arranged for Swedish ethnologists Campbell and Nilsson to survey and document the vernacular dwelling house in which Stiofán lived (Lysaght 1993). Delargy and the Folklore Commission thus formed a lynchpin for much of the ethnological work carried out in Ireland.
Hastings Donnan's helpful review of anthropological studies in Ireland shows how in the decades after Arensberg and Kimball, anthropologists continued to study rural western communities. In recent decades, however, the focus has shifted towards urban and eastern locations, to the investigation of subgroups, and the interaction between the local and the national/transnational--trends that are in evidence in several of the present contributions (Crowley; Ruane; Bryan; Wulff; McCann). Ethel Crowley describes the interaction between west Cork farmers and the bureaucrats sent to monitor their implementation of agricultural policy. Joseph Ruane looks at the Protestant community in the Republic and its sense of being silenced or erased. (As a small measure to counteract such collective silencing, the National Folklore Collection launched in 2016 the successful Protestant Folk Memory questionnaire, explicitly inviting members of the Protestant community to share their historic experiences and traditions.) Dominic Bryan analyzes three public events in Belfast within the context of ongoing sectarian tensions, including the Twelfth of July parade traditionally organized by the Orange Order, and the St. Patrick's Day parade recently introduced as a cross-community event. Helena Wulff looks at the way contemporary creative writers experience and reflect the profound social and cultural changes that have taken place in Ireland during the last few decades. Anthony McCann investigates the Riverdance phenomenon of the mid-1990s as well as the well-publicized A River of Song program, both of which caused a public debate about the meaning and ownership of “tradition.”
Sylvie Muller's discussion of the migratory legend of The Man Who Married the Mermaid probes the symbolism of supernatural narrative and belief. Pauline Garvey and Adam Drazin provide an excellent history of the formation and development of Irish museum collections, including both colonial-era collections of overseas artifacts and Irish folklife material. Guy Beiner examines local accounts of the Battle of Ballynamuck, the disastrous final battle of the 1798 rising. Beiner's groundbreaking analysis of oral accounts of the rebellion, collected in the first-half of the twentieth century (Beiner 2006 and 2017), shows how folk history can complement official renditions of history. My own personal favorite is Gearóid Ó Crualaoich's wise and warmhearted overview of the field. Reading the history of folklore studies in Ireland against Lauri Honko's model of the folklore process, Ó Crualaoich gives an account of his own journey as a folklorist, as well as an astute and generous appraisal of his fellow folklorists.
We are indebted to Ó Giolláin for making this stimulating and wide-ranging volume accessible in English. Under the umbrella of ethnology (or ethnologies), Ó Giolláin brings together anthropologists, sociologists, historians, and folklorists, demonstrating the wide array of disciplinary skills and approaches which can be harnessed in the service of Irish ethnology.
Works Cited
Arensberg, Conrad, and Solon Kimball. (1940) 2001. Family and Community in Ireland. Ennis: CLASP Press.
Beiner, Guy. 2006. Remembering the Year of the French: Irish Folk History and Social Memory. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Briody, Mícheál. 2007. The Irish Folklore Commission, 1935-1970: History, Ideology, Methodology. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society.
Lysaght, Patricia. 1993. "Swedish Ethnological Surveys in Ireland 1934-5 and Their Aftermath." In Tools and Traditions: Studies in European Ethnology Presented to Alexander Fenton, edited by Hugh Cheape, 22-32. Edinburgh: National Museums of Scotland.
Ó Catháin, Séamus. 2008. Formation of a Folklorist. Dublin: Folklore of Ireland Council.
Ó Duilearga, Séamus, ed. 1981. Leabhar Stiofáin Uí Ealaoire. Prepared by D. Ó hÓgáin.
Ó Giolláin, Diarmuid. 2000. Locating Irish Folklore: Tradition, Modernity, Identity. Cork: Cork University Press.
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[Review length: 1322 words • Review posted on July 11, 2018]