Going to the Well for Water: The Seamus Ennis Field Diary 1942-1946

Introduction

Introduction Going to the Well for Water: The Séamus Ennis Field Diary 1942–1946 comprises the field diary of the collector of Irish music and song Séamus Mac Aonghusa, better known as Séamus Ennis, for five years of his employment with the Irish Folklore Commission.1 The book is a translation of Mise an Fear Ceoil: Séamus Ennis – Dialann Taistil 1942–1946, edited by Ríonach uí Ógáin and published by Cló IarChonnachta in March 2007. This is the first publication of the complete field diary of any of the full-time collectors with the Irish Folklore Commission in the twentieth century. It is hoped that Going to the Well for Water will encourage publication of the field diaries of other collectors with the Irish Folklore Commission. Ireland in the 1940s Despite the Second World War, Ireland in the 1940s was, in political terms, a relatively stable country. Primarily an agricultural society, it was poor by European standards and some of the more isolated, rural areas were exceptionally poor. A gradual move away from agrarian life was taking place. Jobs in Ireland were scarce and massive migration and emigration occurred during the 1940s from rural areas. Between 1940 and 1950 over 300,000 people emigrated from Ireland. The high birth rate contributed to the need for emigration. Single women tended to emigrate permanently. Many married men went to Scotland, England, the United States and other parts of Ireland, where they worked Séamus Ennis in the 1940s (Courtesy of the late Barbara Ennis-Price) 1 2 Going to the Well for Water for a number of months every year in order to support their families at home. During the 1940s, the Irish language was in dramatic, rapid decline and was becoming increasingly confined as the vernacular language to the west coast of Ireland. People in rural areas were generally self-sufficient and entertained themselves with music, song, story and dance without reference to any type of formal education or training. The gradual modernisation of Ireland heralded a speedy decline in many aspects of a hitherto relatively unchanged lifestyle and its associated traditions and especially in storytelling in Irish. Séamus Ó Duilearga (1899–1980) (James Hamilton Delargy) had witnessed the speed of this decline at first hand as a young student of the Irish language and was inspired with a burning desire to rescue Irish tradition from oblivion. He compared the situation to watching a house burn and stated that he was trying to rescue pieces of furniture from the burning mass.2 Due in great part to his own vision and determination and with government support and the help of a dedicated group of people, the Irish Folklore Commission3 was established in 1935 in order to collect and preserve the folklore of Ireland. Many of those who took part in the establishment of the Commission saw particular value and richness in the Irish language material. Full-time collectors worked in various parts of Ireland and often spent several years in this capacity, devoting themselves to collecting the folklore of the area in which they were living and working. A Handbook of Irish Folklore, compiled by Seán Ó Súilleabháin, the archivist4 with the Commission, was published in 1942. Although primarily a guidebook for field collectors of folklore, the book provided an excellent classification system. The collections of the Commission, in numerous formats – manuscript, sound recording, film and photograph – echo the contents of Ó Súilleabháin’s handbook. The collections have produced substantial studies and have been drawn on by researchers in many academic disciplines. In 1971, the Commission was disbanded and its staff and holdings transferred to the newly created Department of Irish Folklore, University College Dublin, which continued the work of that Commission in addition to undertaking many other tasks, such as the provision of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Irish Folklore. In 2005, a new centre was established, the UCD Delargy Centre for Irish Folklore and the National Folklore Collection, which houses the collections of the former Commission and of the Department of Irish Folklore. The Appointment of Séamus Ennis as Collector In the field of Irish traditional music and song the name Séamus Ennis is legendary. He is remembered as musician, singer, broadcaster, collector of music, song and story and raconteur. Born in Jamestown Lodge, Fingal, north County Dublin in 1919, Ennis attended primary...