Schoolchildren will be invited to share stories of their lives and localities as part of a new folklore project for the 21st century.
The project follows in the footsteps of a national schools’ folklore project, set up by the National Folklore Collection in 1937, which is today is regarded as a mould-breaking initiative which captured young people’s voices.
That project gathered 500,000 pages of oral history, folk tales and legends, riddles and proverbs, games and pastimes, trades and crafts from more than 50,000 pupils in 5,000 schools across the State between 1937 and 1939.
The new schools’ folklore project, to be carried out with the National Folklore Collection and UCD Library, will be open to all of the country’s 4,000 primary, second level and special schools.
At an announcement on Thursday, Minister for Education Norma Foley said it would give children the chance to play a leading role in “capturing and preserving the rich stories, traditions and histories of their communities for generations to come”.
Schools are expected to be contacted in the new year to advance the project.
Ms Foley said this represented a change from the original schools’ collection by the National Folklore Project in the 1930s, which focused exclusively on primary schools because most students at that time did not go to post-primary.
It will be optional for schools and students to take part and the schools’ folklore project will gather its information in a variety of formats, including handwritten accounts and digital options for students. The records will form a national archive and will be published after a “substantial” length of time.
Ms Foley made the announcement at an event hosted by the Department of Education at Marlborough Street to mark its 100th anniversary. It was formally established in 1924, under the Ministers and Secretaries Act.
At the event Ms Foley said there had been many successes and milestone moments over the past century. However, she said she was also “acutely mindful” of the need to reflect on the “many failings which have occurred and, in many cases, the lifelong consequences these have had”.
“In recent weeks we have read and heard courageous testimonies about the harrowing experiences many in this country endured in their time at school. They behove us to ensure we don’t forget,” she said.
Ms Foley noted that the system had made significant strides over the past century to expand access to education.
“Barely 40,000 students attended any form of second-level school in 1924 – compared with a figure of more than 400,000 today,” she said.
“Measures to enhance equality of access to education remain as important now as they were in 1967 when minister Donogh O’Malley introduced the free education scheme.
“Despite the challenges that have come our way, whether through emigration, recession or the Covid-19 pandemic, our belief in the power and importance of education has held firm.
The event was attended by former ministers for education, including Michael Woods, Mary Hanafin and Richard Bruton, as well as former secretary general Brigid McManus.
Writer and broadcaster Olivia O’Leary told the event that one of the big failings of the department was to allow a “segregated, sectarian system of education” to develop which, she said, weakened our “common sense of identity with the State” by dividing the population into different tribes.
However, she acknowledged how fortunate she was to have her education paid for by the State, which “transformed my life and gave me a job which I love. I was lucky and I am forever grateful.”
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