Sharing Stories booklet to be launched in Moate

KAYLEY HARDIMAN

Every year for Heritage Week, Moate library organises an event with the dual aim of celebrating their history and heritage as well as attempting to involve the local community. The Sharing Stories project is based loosely on the Folklore Commission’s Schools’ Collection. Between 1937-1939 folklore was collected by children from their parents, grandparents and neighbours with more than fifty thousand children taking part in this scheme at the time.

These children collected information on riddles, school days, folktales, past-times and crafts. This collection is an invaluable source of oral history from the early decades of the twentieth century. The theme for Heritage Week this year is ‘Sharing Stories’ so Moate library have used this as an ideal opportunity to re-create the Schools Collection.

Several local children who use the library were asked if they would to take part in the operation and interview their grandparents on a wide range of topics, similar to the ones used by the Folklore Commission.  A collection of stories and anecdotes have been compiled in the form of a booklet about school days in Eyrecourt, Drumraney, Tubberclare, Athlone and Moate. This booklet will also include stories of haunted houses and ruined castles, of those long since deceased and of traditions long forgotten. The booklet will be launched in Moate Library this Thursday at 6.30 pm.