Sean O'Suilleabhain (1903-1996) and the Irish folklore commission

Western Folklore, Spring 1998 by Lysaght, Patricia

Sean O Suilleabhain (Sean O'Sullivan) was born in the townland of Doire an Locha (Derrylough) about ten miles southwest of the town of Kenmare, in the parish of Tuosist, in south County Kerry, Ireland, on the 30th of November 1903, and he died in Dublin on the 12th of December 1996.1 He was the archivist of Coimisiun Bealoideasa Eireann (The Irish Folklore Commission) for the duration of its existence (1935-1971), and of its successor, the Department of Irish Folklore, from 1971 until his retirement from University College Dublin in 1974. He was one of the foremost scholars of Irish folklore in the twentieth century.

Sean O Suilleabhain's parents were both primary schoolteachers,2 as was SeAn and three of his siblings.3 Sean received his initial secondary education at St. Brendan's Seminary in Killarney (1917-20), a boarding school which provided secondary education for aspirants to the priesthood, but as he did not have a vocation to the religious life his parents "sent him on to become a teacher."4 After a year spent at home (during which he successfully matriculated for entry into University College Cork),5 he went on to Beaufield Preparatory School some miles from Ballina, Co. Mayo, where he spent a year (1921-22) preparing for the entrance examination to a teacher training college.6 In 1922 he gained entry to De La Salle Training College in Waterford city7 and in 1923 he qualified as a primary school teacher. After two years spent teaching in a one-teacher school with forty pupils of different ages and grades, in the Sliabh Rua area of south Kilkenny lying just across the river Suir from Waterford, he transferred to a school run by the Christian Brothers in Mount Sion, Waterford, and spent eight years there. He subsequently studied the Celtic languages at University College Dublin and in 1934 he was awarded an external B.A. in Celtic Studies from University College London.8 He joined the Irish Folklore Commission in 1935, and so began a long and distinguished career as archivist of the Commission, and as a writer, lecturer and broadcaster.

In the course of his career Sean served in many distinguished cultural bodies at home and abroad. In 1945 he was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy (Dublin). He also served as a member of the Cultural Relations Committee (Department of Foreign Affairs, Dublin) 19591973, An Coimisiun Logainmneacha (The Placenames Commission) (1946-1980), and Comhairle Radio Eireann (Radio Eireann Council, Dublin) 1953-1960. He was a member of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research,9 a member of the Honorary Council of the Folklore Society (London) 1969-1996,10 a committee member (1934-5), Registrar (1936-1980), and finally a Patron (1981-1996) of An Cumann le Bealoideas Eireann (The Folklore of Ireland Society). In 1976 he received the D.Litt.Celt. degree (honoris causa) from the National University of Ireland. While still a schoolteacher in Waterford Sean began to collect the folk poetry in the Irish language of his native parish of Tuosist, county Kerry, and it was through this work that he came into contact with Seamus O Duilearga, Honorary Director of the Irish Folklore Commission (1935-71) for the first time. The suggestion to collect the poetry came from the then parish priest of Tuosist, Father RiobardO Raghallaigh. Sean has described the sequence of events as follows: "...I went back and forth, of course, to Kerry on holidays. And at that time our parish priest at home in Tuosist suggested to me that I should collect the Irish poetry which had been composed in the parish, So for some years on my holidays I went around our parish-which was half Irish-speaking at that time-and I collected the poems of the best poets-Diarmaid O Se na Bolgaighe and five or six other poets as well which has been published by An Grim11 (O Suilleabhain 1937a). And during the time I was collecting the poetry some bits of poetry were being published in An Lochrann12 by 'An Seabhac' (Padraig O Siochfhradha) and Cormac O Cadhlaigh. I wrote a letter which was published in An Lochrann asking if anybody could send me copies of any poems from my home parish.13 And I got only one answer and that was from Seamus O Duilearga who was a lecturer with Douglas Hyde in UCD [University College Dublin] at the time-that was before the Folkore Commission or anything like that started. Seamus O Duilearga told me that he had gone down to Ballinskelligs where he was collecting folklore and that he had taken down a poem there of Diarmaid na Bolgaighe. So he sent me a Copy of it.14 I wrote to thank him. Then he invited me up to Dublin.. and in that way Seamus O Duilearga and myself met and got to know each other, and that is how I got appointed in charge of the archive."

Prior to his appointment as archivist of the Irish Folklore Commission, Sean had shown himself to be a first-rate collector with an almost instinctive understanding of the nature and extent of the task which lay ahead. He had not only collected the folk poetry of his native parish, but also other genres of narrative in his home locality and in parts of county Cork.15 O Duilearga also encouraged him to collect folklore in Waterford and some of the material which he recorded there appeared in Bealoideas in 1939 (O Suilleabhain 1939a).16 O Suilleabhain had also shown himself to be skilled in transcribing Irish-language narratives from Ediphone cylinders.17 While engaged in the study of the Celtic languages in University College Dublin he went each afternoon to the offices of the Irish Folklore Institute (1930-35)18 then located at no.1 Hume Street, Dublin, at the corner of Hume Street and St. Stephen's Green, to help in the work of transcription of Ediphone recordings made by T. P. O Riain, a Christian Brother in Dingle Secondary School, at the time (Lysaght 1993a:49). On the 8th of March 1935 he resigned from his post as a primary school teacher in order to join the Irsh Folklore Commission which was about to be established by the Irish government (Lysaght 1993a:50).