Joyce and the Collection and Preservation of Folklore

The focus of the chapters in this book so far has largely been on Joyce’s ideas and actions in relation to schooling in Ireland, including his production of textbooks for use in schools and those that reflected his views on the importance of what in later decades came to be referred to as Irish studies. More broadly, however, as pointed out in Chap. 1 , he believed that a major corpus of material on Irish folklore and Irish music should be made available for the nation’s adult population, primarily as a resource that could facilitate their growth in confidence as a people who could be proud of their heritage. At an early stage, and while engaged in his pursuits as an organiser in primary schools across the country, Joyce became aware of his capacity to remember and began to transcribe stories, airs, songs and dances he had experienced in his youth. In doing so, he set for himself the enormous task of collecting material which he felt might otherwise have been lost.