Ireland: Oideas Gael

Background to the project

The Oideas Gael pilot project explored storytelling and a sense of place through the medium of Irish traditional music. As recently as the mid-20th century, music and oral arts such as the telling of sagas and longer tales were both important pastimes, often practiced together, particularly in rural Ireland. While traditional music has since flourished, seachaithe or storytellers are now much fewer in number and their art is frequently restricted to more formalised—often, competitive—settings. Our project was inspired, in part, by dinnseanchas ('the lore of high places'), a particular genre of storytelling in which the stories give meaning to the name of a particular place.

The project's stated goal was to create a musical performance inspired by a particular place in southwest Co. Donegal, Ireland. At the outset of the project, the nature of the performance, the choice of place, and the means by which these questions would be decided, were all unspecified. The project was advertised as an informal course combining aspects of traditional music and local heritage. It was hoped that the participants, along with art educator Helen Diamond and heritage expert Eoghan Ó Curraighín, would co-design the artistic process and that this, in turn, would help create for them a transformative learning experience.

Starting the project

The pilot project began with an open information night in September 2023, one month prior to the course start date. This event had an immediate practical purpose as a means to present the project idea, recruit participants, answer their questions, etc. However, it also generated a number of ideas about the theme and direction of the project. It successfully communicated that the participants would be the ones in control of the work and this may have helped increase participants' interest and allow them to 'buy in' to the initiative. It was also made clear that previous musical or heritage knowledge was not required to join the course, and that everyone would learn and contribute according to their individual strengths and needs.

From October, 12 participants met for weekly 2-hour sessions over an 8-week period. The open-ended nature of the learning process initially presented a challenge for the group, the majority of whom were experienced with more traditional, teacher-led educational settings. Fortunately, Eoghan was able to provide a wealth of sample ideas from the local storytelling tradition while Helen facilitated discussion and encouraged participants to seek out more information where appropriate.

The heritage theme

Within two weeks, the group settled on a central theme for the project. Cill an Spáinnigh, also known as Teach Pobail an Spáinnigh or Teampall an Spáinnigh, refers to two sites, one in the parish of Gleann Cholm Cille and one in the neighbouring parish of Cill Chartha. 'Spáinneach' is the Irish-language word for a Spanish person and local folklore, preserved in the storytelling tradition, relates how sometime early in the 18th century a dying Spanish sailor came ashore on the southwest Donegal coast. He was delivered the last rites by a local priest who, educated in Salamanca, could converse with the Spaniard in his native tongue (under colonial rule at that time, Catholic clerics could not be educated in Ireland). The sailor offered a belt of golden guineas, the price of which was subsequently used to build two churches, each now known as Cill an Spáinnigh. The story, as told by Eoghan, was recorded, transcribed and provided to the group (a copy is available here).

Developing the theme

The selection of a suitable theme was important to the success of the project. Most participants were familiar with at least one of the sites involved, but few knew the precise story behind the name. There was a wealth of folkloric material to provide inspiration, while the Spanish dimension afforded interesting possibilities to draw on European musical traditions. The topic was easy to relate to other stories featuring similar locations and maritime themes.

The course methodology evolved and changed from week to week, depending on the needs of the participants. In the earlier stages, as the participants got to grips with the heritage theme, class sessions took an open discussion group format. The heritage expert was present for most of these sessions, offering ideas and advice, while the art educator facilitated the discussion. Once the focus moved to the musical performance, much more work took place in small groups, arranged according to the participants' abilities. The art educator worked hands-on with those learning a new musical instrument while more experienced performers concentrated on composition. All participants worked together in the composition and performance of a new song inspired by the story of Cill an Spáinnigh. Later sessions focused on preparing for public performance of the finished work.

A particular highlight came in the penultimate group session. Rather than the usual Wednesday-night classroom setting, the group met on a Saturday morning for a field trip to the two heritage sites. On a social and personal interest level, this was a hugely enjoyable event that added variety to the course format. Significantly, it also had the function of 'making the heritage topic real' and relating the intangbile folklore and art work to physical sites in the local area. In subsequent feedback, several participants expressed that this experience was crucial to the benefit they derived from the course.

Use of technology

Digital tools had an important role in supporting the participants' learning. The Oideas Gael team worked to capture any material relevant to the heritage theme and share this with the project participants. Such material included:

• Recordings of the relevant stories.
• Recordings of musical pieces. 
• Photos and video recordings—including immersive 360 video—of the relevant sites.
• A catalogue of relevant materials available in public digital archives.
• Scanned materials from printed sources.

Participants frequently referred to these materials during the course of the project, as they informed both the background research and the musical performance undertaken by the group. Much of this material was distributed via a project WhatsApp group. The participants themselves made use of this group, sharing ideas and materials they discovered, ideas for musical pieces and new compositions, etc. as well as to make practical arrangements.

Working in a bilingual context

Ireland is a bilingual country where English is, today, the majority language and Irish (Gaeilge) is a minority language. The setting for this project was a Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking) community in the northwest of Ireland. Even in communities such as this, English is often the dominant language and impacts the use of Irish in many domains of life. As an organisation dedicated to strengthening the transmission of Irish in Gaeltacht communities, Oideas Gael is particularly keen to see that interventions such as the HEART pilot study promote language use.

In this regard, the experience of the pilot project was a positive one. The informal, participatory nature of the project appears to have attracted a broad range of participants, including those who might not normally be inclined to attend a language course. The make-up of the group allowed for a classroom environment in which Irish was the more dominant language. For less-frequent speakers of the language, there were a lot of positive incentives to engage with the language, not least the fact that doing so brought an enhanced understanding of the source material for the project. That said, it is important, in terms of participant motivation, that such interactions are facilitated in a welcoming, sympathetic manner. The HEART digital toolkit contains a number of exercises related to this topic.

A transformative experience

The culmination of the project was a public performance on 18 December 2023, coinciding with Oideas Gael's Christmas celebration. This included a new composition, Teach Pobail an Spáinnigh, directly inspired by the heritage theme, several songs and tunes related to the area in which Cill an Spáinnigh is situated, and two instrumental pieces inspired by the kind of music that might have been familiar to the Spanish sailor from the story, such as Mille regretz — La Canción del Emperador by Luis de Narváez (c.1500–1552). In addition, our heritage expert Eoghan Ó Curraighín retold the story of Cill an Spáinnigh as well as another saga tale, Cath Fionn Trá, which takes place in associated locations. The event was attended by over 60 people, including a number of new residents in the area who arrived as a result of the war in Ukraine.

While the final performance was a great success and marked a fitting end to the course, it was, in many respects, secondary to the overall goal. The open-ended process that initially challenged the participants and educators alike ultimately caused each person to take ownership of their learning, making the unfamiliar familiar. As evidenced by the participant feedback, almost everyone noted that they gained a new perspective on the area they live in. Musicians were exposed to new pieces and new sources of inspiration. Non-musicians, who joined mostly due to their interest in the heritage topic, spoke of the reward that came from contributing to a project outside their normal comfort zone and seeing the heritage topic brought to life. In the final analysis, the Irish pilot appears to bear out the thesis of the HEART project, that exploring a heritage theme through the lens of a participatory and community-based art education process can lead to profound new understandings for those involved.