Irish Folklore Commission
Government body that preserved Ireland's oral traditions and folklore.
The Irish Folklore Commission (Coimisiún Béaloideasa Éireann) was created by the Irish government in 1935 to gather and study the nation’s folklore and traditions. It replaced an earlier government body, An Coimisiún um Bhéaloideas Éireann (Irish Folklore Institute), which had been set up in 1930 after public opinion grew that the work should not rely solely on a voluntary society. The driving force behind both was Séamus Ó Duilearga (James Hamilton Delargy), who had already founded the Folklore of Ireland Society and its journal *Béaloideas* in 1927. He set strict guidelines for collecting oral tradition, requiring the name, age, and origin of each informant, and the society published material with translations or summaries in German, English, or French. The commission was dissolved in 1971, and its functions were transferred to the Department of Irish Folklore at University College, Dublin, which now holds the collected data—later known as the National Folklore Collection—at the UCD Delargy Centre for Irish Folklore.
The commission’s task was to collect, preserve, catalogue, study, and explain all forms of Irish folk tradition. With limited funding, it typically employed only six to nine full-time collectors. It drew on graduate students, university students, primary teachers, fishermen, and professional collectors, with the principle that anyone working among the people should do so without pretension. The commission also gathered folk music and song. Ó Duilearga admitted he was not musically inclined, so Liam de Noraidh was hired as a full-time collector until ill health forced him to resign in 1942. He was replaced by Séamus Ennis, who made extensive use of the Ediphone recording device. The commission distributed questionnaires, used media to inform the public, and worked closely with Irish-speaking areas. In 1948 it began recording the few remaining native speakers of Manx Gaelic on the Isle of Man. Its work attracted foreign scholars, and by the 1950s many were contributing to its collections and research.
The commission owned many Ediphone recordings on wax cylinders, some bought (such as the Fr. Luke Donnellan folksong collection in 1939) and others made by its music collectors. When Ennis joined in 1942, he first transcribed existing cylinders onto paper, then used the Ediphone for fieldwork, likely between 1943 and 1944. Despite its bulk and th
- founded
- 1935
- predecessor
- An Coimisiún um Bhéaloideas Éireann (Irish Folklore Institute, 1930)
- founder
- Irish Government
- honorary_director
- Séamus Ó Duilearga
- field
- Folklore and oral tradition
- nationality
- Irish
- known_for
- Collection and preservation of Irish folklore, including the School's Collection
Lore & Background
The commission grew out of earlier efforts by Séamus Ó Duilearga, who founded An Cumann le Béaloideas Éireann in 1927 and its journal Béaloideas. Public sentiment that folklore preservation should not be left to a voluntary society led the government to establish An Coimisiún um Bhéaloideas Éireann (Irish Folklore Institute) in 1930, with Ó Duilearga as head. In 1935, this institute was deemed inadequate, and the larger Irish Folklore Commission was formed, with Ó Duilearga appointed honorary director.
The commission employed six to nine collectors due to limited funding, drawing from fishermen, primary teachers, and professional collectors. It collected folk music and song, hiring Liam de Noraidh as full-time collector until 1942, then Séamus Ennis, who used the Ediphone recording device. The School's Collection involved primary schools in all 26 counties of the Irish Free State (the entire Republic of Ireland), gathering folklore from students across the nation. The commission also received a Rockefeller Foundation grant of $500 per year for two years (1937–1938), totaling $1,000, which supported its early work.
Reader's Guide
The Irish Folklore Commission's significance lies in its systematic collection and preservation of Irish folk tradition in all forms, including cataloguing, study, and exposition. Its work ensured that a vast body of oral tradition—stories, songs, and customs—was recorded before it disappeared. The commission's methods, such as requiring informant names, ages, and provenance, set a standard for folklore collection. The School's Collection alone produced 375,660 pages of material, capturing the voices of ordinary people across Ireland. The commission's legacy continues through the Department of Irish Folklore at University College, Dublin, which houses the National Folklore Collection. The Dúchas Project now digitizes and crowdsources transcriptions of this collection, making it accessible worldwide. The commission's attention to Irish-speaking districts and its recording of Manx Gaelic speakers also preserved linguistic heritage. Its work attracted foreign scholars and expanded the understanding of Irish culture globally.
Did You Know?
- The commission's Ediphone recordings had to be reused and overwritten after transcription because the commission could not afford a constant fresh supply of cylinders.
- The commission received a gramophone free of charge from the Edison Company in June 1940, but could not adapt it for field work until 1947.
- The School's Collection involved more than 50,000 school children and produced 1,128 volumes of folklore.
- The commission began recording native speakers of Manx Gaelic on the Isle of Man in 1948.
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