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"Our own story and its telling is as vital to our sense of wellbeing as a good meal and a warm bed."
Welcome to Irish Life and Lore - the site dedicated to the Oral History of the Counties
of Kerry, Cork, Limerick, Clare, Galway, Tipperary, Laois, Offaly, Kilkenny, Mayo, Wexford, Kildare, Carlow, North and South Dublin, Meath and Donegal. An Oral History Collection was also compiled in the Falkland Islands in November 2009.

Irish Life and Lore - Maurice and Jane O'KeeffeAn archive of over 1,800 recordings have been compiled by Maurice and Jane O`Keeffe of Tralee, Co. Kerry, for their Irish Life and Lore Series. As they are commissioned by the Local Authorities, or other bodies in each county, the O`Keeffes compile an oral history audio Collection of approximately 50 hours or recorded material, with accompanying catalogue. Each recording is produced on an individual CD, and the audio Collection is also produced in digitised format: audio in 128kbps mp3 sound and the catalogue in PDF.

Every topic under the Irish sun is included in the recordings - local and national history, family histories, folklore, music, local customs, traditions and beliefs, teaching and schooling, fishing and farming traditions, boglands and turf, rural electrification and the growth and development of rural villages and towns, the Economic War and the Emergency Period, the 1916 Rising, The War of Independence and The Civil War.



  • Irish Life and Lore Books
    A new book, featuring ten of the people recorded for the three Cork Collections, entitled "Chronicles of Cork - An Oral Record" edited by Jane O'Keeffe came off the presses on the longest day of the year - 21st June 2010. The book is available in bookshops in Cork city and county and will be in shops countrywide from Monday, 26th July at a price of €15. more »

    The new Irish Life and Lore Master Catalogue, in two volumes with index, is now available.

    Liberties Press in Dublin recently published "Written in Stone" by former Kilmainham Jail archivist, Niamh O'Sullivan. The book relates to the grafitti on the cell walls of the Jail, written by Republican prisoners during the War of Independence and Civil War.more »

  • New Digitised Format
    A Master Catalogue in two Volumes with Index, has been compiled in hard copy, which includes information on all 1,800 recordings compiled in the Irish Life and Lore Series since 1994. Digitised versions of all of the recording and catalogues have also been produced - the recordings are in 128kbps mp3 audio format and the catalogues are in pdf format.
    For more information on this new digitised format, please contact us or view the Master Catalogue.
  • The Old Kerry Journal - Second Edition
    The Second Edition of the Old Kerry Journal has been published by Russell McMorran and Maurice O'Keeffe.more »

 

Irish Life and Lore CollectionsMost of the recordings in the Irish Life and Lore archive have been divided into Collections according to the counties in which they were compiled. Each Collection is comprised of approximately 50 hours of recordings accompanied by an illustrated catalogue giving a brief synopsis of each recording. The Collections are on DVD with mp3 sound and the catalogues in pdf format and they are now available at a cost of EU 150 each.
Contact us to purchase one of the collections.

Some special Collections have also been compiled: Cork Institute of Technology Collection, 1916 Collection, Bord na Móna Collection and Falkland Islands Collection.

The most recent Collections completed are:
 

 

 

 

 

 



View all thirty two Irish Life and Lore Collections »

 

Featured Wexford Opera CD
Dr Tom Walsh No. 2
This recording is a continuation of a presentation to Wexford Rotarians in which Dr Tom Walsh recounts the years of the Festival Opera chronologically. He was an honorary member of Rotary, an honour bestowed upon him for his outstanding contribution to the Festival Opera in Wexford.

Featured Cork City CD
Tony Hegarty
Tony Hegarty is well known from his days of stage acting, in the company of the other Hegarty brothers. They performed in many of the venues around the city, in particular in the Father Matthew Hall every Sunday night for a long period of time. It is interesting to record the stories about the parties in the 1930s and Tony’s choir performances as ...

Featured North Dublin CD
Christy O'Rourke
Christy O`Rourke recalls his life’s involvement with fishing in the Howth area. He fished for lobster, herring and mackerel. He also recalled the arduous work of the women in the gutting and cleaning of the fish. Christy’s story also includes recollections of his years spent in the Merchant Navy, in what is a most informative and interesting ...

Featured 1916 CD
Eileen Sprague
I was first introduced to Eileen Sprague in Killarney during the autumn of 2000 and I recorded her recollections at that time, and as she reminisced it became obvious to me that her memory was excellent with regard to historical detail of events in the early days of the 20th century in Dublin city. Shortly afterwards I paid a return visit to ...

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