‘A Systematic and Intensive Trawl’: Éilís Ní Dhuibhne’s Audio Recordings for the Urban Folklore Project

Abstract

Éilis Ní Dhuibhne worked with the Urban Folklore Project – which is now part of the National Folklore Collection at UCD – from 1979 to 1980. She was appointed one of six supervisors in this ambitious project, working on a full-time basis and documenting Dublin lore. She made audio recordings, took photographs, wrote notes, made video recordings, devised and circulated questionnaires and also kept a diary. She collected in farflung places such as Ringsend, Mulhuddart and Ballymun and she interviewed countless people from school children to near-centenarians. This article lists the audio recordings made by Éilís for the project. A manuscript volume in the National Folklore Collection gives a listing in numerical order of the audio tapes made by the collectors for the Urban Folklore Project. This listing includes the names of the collector and the informant and also indicates which tapes have been transcribed and bound in volumes within the National Folklore Collection.