Traditional storytelling has always been a close second to singing in my interests and we were lucky enough to catch a few of the last big storytellers here in Ireland.
I was always fascinated with the manner in which the stories travelled and adapted themselves to the different areas and nationalities.
When Vance Randolph published a collection of bawdy tales entitled 'Pissing in the Snow', I was amused to learn that a well-known Northern Ireland collector proposed to put together a similar one from his area and call it 'F***ing in the Frost'. He later released it under a more acceptable title.
One of the best storytellers we met was a man named Jack Flannery from Cloonfad, on the Galway/Roscommon/Mayo borders (he told us that at night, his neighbour would sit in Roscommon with his feet in Galway and his pipe resting on the hob in Mayo).
When we arrived at his home he asked us did we want the short or long stories - he was pleased when we told him "the long ones", and said that years ago he was visited by a man who only wanted the short ones. When we finally got round to recording the short ones, we found they were only three-quarters-of-an-hour long, while the others were all at least 2 hours.
Collector Tom Munnelly told us of one of his experiences collecting stories in North Clare, where he found an Irish language storyteller with epic-length tales.
When he arrived, the man was extremely nervous at being recorded and insisted on going to the pub for a little 'Dutch courage'.
An hour later they sat down in front of a roaring fire and began work.
Tom's Irish was not great, so his main pre-occupation was to keep an eye on the tapes and change them when necessary.
Eventually (three hours into the first story), the booze, the fire and the man's voice got the better of him and he began to doze. He was woken up by the storyteller saying, "No; I have that wrong; I'll start it again".
Tom beat a hasty retreat, and returned on a later occasion.
Jim Carroll