A seanchaí ( or ; plural: ) is a traditional

Gaelic Gaelic (pronounced for Irish Gaelic and for Scots Gaelic) is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". It may refer to: Languages * Gaelic languages or Goidelic languages, a linguistic group that is one of the two branches of the Insul ...

storyteller or historian, serving as an oral repository. In

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...

the word is (; plural: ). The word is often

anglicised Anglicisation or anglicization is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England. It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English place adopts the English language ...

as shanachie ( ). The word , which was spelled (plural ) before the Irish spelling reform of 1948, means a bearer of "old lore" (). In the

culture, long lyric poems which were recited by bards ( in the original pre-1948 spelling) in a tradition echoed by the .

Traditional art

were servants to the heads of the lineages and kept track of important information for them: laws, genealogies, annals, literature, etc. After the destruction of Gaelic civilization in the 1600s as a result of the English colonialism, these more formal roles ceased to exist and the term came to be associated instead with traditional storytellers from the lower classes. The made use of a range of storytelling conventions, styles of speech and gestures that were peculiar to the Irish folk tradition and characterized them as practitioners of their art. Although tales from literary sources found their way into the repertoires of the , a traditional characteristic of their art was the way in which a large corpus of tales was passed from one practitioner to another without ever being written down. passed information orally through storytelling from one generation to the next about Irish folklore, myth, history and legend, in medieval times. The distinctive role and craft of the is particularly associated with the

Gaeltacht A ( , , ) is a district of Ireland, either individually or collectively, where the Irish government recognises that the Irish language is the predominant vernacular, or language of the home. The districts were first officially recognised ...

(the Irish-speaking areas of Ireland), although storytellers recognizable as were also to be found in rural areas throughout English-speaking Ireland. In their storytelling, some displayed archaic

Hiberno-English Hiberno-English or Irish English (IrE), also formerly sometimes called Anglo-Irish, is the set of dialects of English native to the island of Ireland. In both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, English is the first language in e ...

idioms and vocabulary distinct from the style of ordinary conversation.

Modern times

Members of the Irish Cultural Revival took a great interest in the art of the , and through them the stories that they told were written down, published, and distributed to a global audience. At events such as

mummer Mummers were bands of men and women from the medieval to early modern era who (during public festivities) dressed in fantastic clothes and costumes and serenaded people outside their houses, or joined the party inside. Costumes were varied and mi ...

s' festival in New Inn, County Galway, and the

All-Ireland All-Ireland (sometimes All-Island) is a term used to describe organisations and events whose interests extend over the entire island of Ireland, as opposed to the separate jurisdictions of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. "All-Irelan ...

Fleadh Ceoil storytellers who preserve the stories and oratory style of the continue to display their art and compete for awards. Eddie Lenihan is one notable modern-day , based in

County Clare County Clare () is a Counties of Ireland, county in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster in the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern part of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Clare County Council ...

. Actor Eamon Kelly was well known for his portrayals of the traditional , and ran several series of one-man shows in Dublin's

Abbey Theatre The Abbey Theatre (), also known as the National Theatre of Ireland () is a theatre in Dublin, Ireland. First opening to the public on 27 December 1904, and moved from its original building after a fire in 1951, it has remained active to the p ...

Other uses of the term

The term is also found within

and Manx where it is spelt () and () respectively. All uses ultimately have their roots in the traditional poets attached to the households of ancient Gaelic nobility. In Scotland, it is commonly anglicised as . The Shanachies are a cricket club playing in the Inner West Harbour grade competition in Sydney.

Notes

References

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External links