Self-collection of folklore by Irish schoolchildren: strategies and outcomes

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Schools’ Scheme of 1937/8, initiated by the Irish Folklore Commission, was an almost unprecedented experiment. Not only did it contribute to one of the biggest collections of folklore in Europe, but it also arguably boosted the cultural development of children and created a catalyst for the intergenerational transmission of tales. Children from 26 counties collected folk materials on 55 topics indicated in the questionnaires Irish Folklore and Tradition and Béaloideas Éireann (1937). This paper provides a short review of strategies employed by children in their attempts to collect unstructured cultural texts through probable self-collection. It shows how the two questionnaires had an overwhelming influence on the resultant texts stored in the National Folklore Collection of Ireland at University College Dublin. The author employs a philological approach to folklore texts. Their form is analysed along with the contexts of creation (both immediate and wider ones).