Bere Island will host a Storytelling Festival over the weekend of Saturday May 18th and Sunday May 19th which will feature storytelling sessions and oral history workshops, enabling people to document both their own and their family’s stories.
The storytelling festival is organised by Bere Island Projects Group and funded by the Irish Community Archive Network (iCAN). In 2023, Bere Island became one of 33 community groups to have an online archive with iCAN which was established by the National Museum of Ireland, and through their partnership with iCAN the group are working to digitise a number of island heritage collections, and record the island’s oral history.
The weekend starts on Saturday May 18th with workshops in oral history by leading oral historian Dr Angela Maye Banbury who has recorded the oral history of Achill Island and the Irish in Hell’s Kitchen in New York and has also supported Bere Island in their own oral history project. Angela will open the festival with a workshop on the power of oral history and how communities and families can record their own stories. Saturday afternoon will feature stories from Bere Island’s oral history project. On Sunday morning there will be a workshop on how stories can be recorded using a smart phone, and on Sunday afternoon, renowned Beara storyteller Teddy Black, known as the Bard of Beara will recount stories from the Beara Peninsula. Growing up in Castletownbere, Teddy was immersed in people gathering in neighbouring houses, known as a ‘rambling house’ where people would pass on stories and songs.
Venue and ferry details:
The Bere Island Storytelling Festival will take place in the Lecture Theatre, Rerrin which is a 5 minute walk from the pier in Rerrin, head up the hill past the shop/post office and follow the signs.
For ferry times see bereisland.net
