Customer Reviews

A Treasury of Irish Folklore: The Stories, Traditions, Legends, Humor, Wisdom, Ballads and Songs of the Irish People

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Whether you are Irish by blood, or just wish you were, A Treasury of Irish Folklore is the book for you. Everything from Irish myths, superstitions, and even songs of Ireland are included. From blessings, to spells, this book is chocked full of info, ready for you to crack the cover. Check it out, I promise you, you won't be dissappointed

Padraic Colum's wonderful compendium of all things Irish was my first introduction to my Irish Heritage. I could not have found a better. Under one cover, Colum draws from Irish history, folklore, myth, song and legend to introduce the reader, in a mere 613 pages, to the best of authentic Ireland.

First printed in 1944, this volume captures an Ireland that has long since faded into memory. Today, there are no more clay cottages roofed in thatch, except, perhaps, for the tourists. The Shenache (Irish storyteller) has largely been replaced by the television and the internet. But, before the incursions of electric entertainments, Column preserved that Ireland for us with great charm and energy.

Colum begins by describing what he calls the "Irish Edge," that bit of bite in the humor that is typically Irish: If ...[those girls] were hanged for their beauty, they'd die innocent." Or this: "A man who has a face that looks like somebody threw it at him in anger always marries before he's old enough to vote."

The Editor then takes the reader through a tour of Irish myth, which may or may not be history, the Heroes of Old, then into recorded history, Irish customs, ways and traditions, and into the New World with the wit and wisdom of the Irish Americans.

The collection of Irish stories is, by itself, worth the price of the book.

In short, if you want an introduction to the Irish character, what makes the Irish what they are, you can do far worse than this volume of authentic Irish Folklore by perhaps one of the last of the great Shenaches, Padraic Colum.

This "oldie but goodie" is a real treasure for anyone interested in Ireland and its past. Colum has written and collected so much into this volume of fact and folklore which has formed the country. He is one of the important early collectors whose work remains readable and informative today.