Storytelling on the Northern Irish Border: Characters and Community

8 Anecdotes and the Local Character

To say, as has often been said, that “John McHugh was a great character” reveals something about what a character is in local rather than literary terms. If one man is considered a character then others are not. In emic terms, “characters” are not the narrative representations of all dramatis personae appearing in folklore; they are types of individuals distinguished most often by uncommon wit, effusiveness, gullibility, volatility, backwardness, or some other marked trait of excellence or eccentricity. True, the deceased at a wake is treated as if a character, in the local sense, through anecdotes seeking to identify the essence of the deceased. Therefore , eventually all are afforded the opportunity of being celebrated for individuality while also being characterized in terms of traits and types. However, those like John McHugh who are consistently referred to as “characters” are treated and portrayed as such usually during life, definitely at their wakes, and indefinitely after death at ceilis and the wakes of others. Simply put, in local terms, characters are those people who offer the most entertaining material for anecdotes and are therefore most often discussed. Having earned a reputation, they attract attention from storytellers who are eager for more material and who are not above using traveling motifs or apocryphal elements when adding to the social biographies of local characters. Theattributesthatqualifyoneasacharacter,inlocalterms,areusually behavioral or psychological rather than physical. So, for instance, being exceptionally strong or ugly does not make one a character, but behavioral and psychological attributes may be demonstrated by actions portrayed in narrative, as well as through quoted speech. While some may share personality traits with those spoken of as characters, the character qualifies 8 Anecdotes and the Local Character Anecdotes and the Local Character • 171 as such because he or she embodies certain attributes, perhaps in excess, even to the point of transgressing lines between socially appropriate and inappropriate behavior. Often these transgressions are exactly what make stories of characters entertaining, set social norms in relief, and allow for either a challenge to or reaffirmation of these norms. Untilnow,Ihaveusedtheterm“character”mostlyintheliterarysense of a narrative representation of a persona. The broad and permeable genre I have identified as the local character anecdote serves to characterize—to discern and represent the personality of—actual individuals, whether or not they would be considered characters in the local sense of the word. Likelegends,contemplativeanecdotesinparticularfeaturepeoplewhoare appreciated for virtues such as bravery, patience, or consideration of others . The individual portrayed in a contemplative anecdote may be labeled a “hero,” “saint,” or “modest wee man,” but that individual is not called a character in local parlance. The telling of contemplative anecdotes provides a clear example of people identifying qualities worth emulating. Contemplative anecdotes, like legends, act as windows into the shared values that any ethnographer seeks to identify and illustrate. Glassie’s consideration of “exploits,” more of which seem to have been told in Ballymenone than in Aghyaran, would parallel a lengthier consideration here of local contemplative anecdotes. I wish to focus, however, on comic anecdotes and the people identified, labeled, and portrayed as characters in order to reiterate that serious social work is being accomplished in Aghyaran as much through humor as through more clearly contemplative commemorative discourse. All characterizations of individuals in anecdotes serve as models throughwhichpeoplemayconsiderhumannatureandbehavior.Therefore the objection might be raised that focusing only on characters, in the local sense, skews our understanding of the full range of individuals deemed worthy of narrative portrayal in Aghyaran. Granted, the decision to investigate characters necessarily narrows our focus. However, the fact that the majority of anecdotes told at Aghyaran ceilis and wakes are intended as comic and revolve around characters persuades me that this portion of local discourse is significant and worthy of closer analysis. The nineteenth-century novelist and amateur folklorist Patrick Kennedy may be applauded for his collection The Book of Modern Irish Anecdotes : Humour, Wit and Wisdom, but he sells his subject short: “This Irish medley has no higher ambition than that of agreeably occupying a lei- 172 • Storytelling on the Northern Irish Border sure hour during quiet evenings at home, or periods of forced inaction in steamboat or railway carriage” (1872:iii). When considered in social context, the very sort of stories that fill Kennedy’s collection cannot be dismissed as light entertainment. When appreciated as a form of sociability , telling and listening to comic anecdotes about local characters may be understood as an...