Pat Speight: 'My mam and her 7 Kerry sisters all married Cork men'

Cork storyteller Pat Speight, also known as ‘Pat the Hat’, is regarded as one of the finest yarn-spinners in the country. “I put out that rumour myself,” he jokes modestly.

He will be entertaining people at Coughlan’s Bar in Cork city on Thursday, October 9, for another great event in The Gab storytelling calendar.

The Gab is a vibrant community of storytellers based in Cork, dedicated to fostering, preserving and developing the oral tradition of storytelling, in Ireland, and they host monthly events featuring different storytellers interspersed with a bit of music.

They also host monthly workshops for tellers and potential tellers to try out and play with stories, and they encourage both new and established storytellers to attend.

“They are a great group of people,” said Pat, who has been telling stories since he was a teenager, building up a vast repertoire over the years which he has kept stored in his memory bank.

“I am dyslexic, and when I was going to school I suppose I relied more on memorising the stories that I heard, and we also learned poems by rote back then,” he said.

“We had one teacher who used to hold a competition to see who could put the most feelings into a poem. Out of his own pocket, he used to offer the prize of a sixpence. In those days a sixpence would be enough to get you into the pictures.

“I can remember there was a John Wayne film playing that I really wanted to see, so I put in all my efforts to win the prize and can still remember the words of the poem to this day which was in Irish. I definitely gave the Hollywood version, and was lucky enough to win the sixpence.”

It was both the encouragement of a great teacher as well as his home environment that really nurtured Pat’s gift as a storyteller.

He grew up right in the heart of Cork, near Shandon, where the sound of the church bells ringing punctuated the passing hours of each day.

“I never knew that I came from a deprived childhood until I watched Anglea’s Ashes, based on the book by Frank McCourt,” said Pat.

“We lived in an old house which had a huge sitting room and there was another family below who shared the house, I suppose you would call it a tenement.

“I come from a mixed marriage - my father was from Cork and my mother was from Kerry - and she was one of eight sisters who all married Corkmen - they had great taste!

“Every Saturday night, all of my Cork uncles and Kerry aunts used to congregate at our house - it was like a rambling house - and everyone used to have a party piece which they were called on to perform.

“My mother was a great baker, she would make Victoria sponges and queen cakes that were so light they would nearly float out the window, and of course they enjoyed the cake with lots of tea.

“There was not much money around then, so while they enjoyed the odd drink, there wasn’t a whole pile taken.”

It was at these family gatherings that Pat realised how much he enjoyed entertaining others.

“One uncle had a book of songs and he used to pick out different ones and my late sister was brilliant at the Irish dancing, while others used to be called on to sing a song,” said Pat.

“I don’t normally sing, and when I do I don’t sing normally, so when my turn came my party piece was always telling a story or saying a poem.

“I was in the Boy Scouts too so I also enjoyed telling stories around the campfire and learned off all the old tales about Fionn Mac Cumhail, the land of Tír na nÓg, The Salmon of Knowledge, and all the old stories of the Irish tradition.”

Pat describes himself as an ‘organic storyteller’ and before becoming a professional he worked as a carpenter, chef, ship builder and salesman.

He has travelled far and wide, both before and after embracing the art of the storyteller.

He celebrated his 21st birthday in the jungle of Papua New Guinea where he was doing volunteer work.

“Every tree, every rock, every bush has a story to tell in the jungle,” he said.

All of these elements nurtured the young Pat and years later he found his tribe when his wife came home from the hairdresser’s one day and told him about the Cork Yarnspinners group which she had heard about there.

He went along to see what it was all about, and started to meet other storytellers and swap stories with them.

“The Cork Yarnspinners are another fantastic group of storytellers who are still going strong,” said Pat. “It was great to meet other storytellers and watch them perform.

“I was also really influenced by the actor Eamonn Kelly when I listened to him on the radio. He acted as a ‘Seannachí (Irish storyteller), always beginning his stories with the opening line, ‘In my fathers’ time…’

“I was lucky enough to share a stage with him once and asked him if it was OK to use some of his stories in my own set. He generously said of course so long as he was credited as the writer of the story.”

Pat adds: “It’s been great to travel all around the world as a storyteller, looking into the whites of people’s eyes as you perform, knowing that the audience is with you.

“This is the difference between an actor and a storyteller. An actor can look into the lights in the darkness from the stage, the storyteller engages directly with the audience and carries them along on the dance.”

One of the highlights of Pat’s career was performing at the world’s biggest storytelling festival in Tennessee ,USA, where he performed in front of thousands, and while he thoroughly enjoyed the experience, his favourite place is the Cape Clear International Storytelling festival, held on the West Cork island, which he attended every year right up until the pandemic in 2020.

“Meeting international storytellers was a revelation,” he says, “you realise that there are so many similar stories with the same message told in different versions from different cultures.

“It’s really amazing, I loved meeting storytellers from all over the world at the Cape Clear festival. It really broadened my horizons and introduced me to the world element of storytelling.

“When you think about it, all of the wisdom of the world is passed down through story. Take all the religious traditions, for example Jesus told parables, and it’s always been the way of passing down knowledge from one generation to another.

“It’s great that the storytelling tradition is so vibrant here in Cork, and is growing from strength to strength, and it’s brilliant” to see all the young people getting involved.

Pat tells stories for all age groups, children and adults alike - “from two to toothless,” he says- and he enjoys the engagement it brings him with people from all walks of life.

He sometimes draws inspiration from his own life, incorporating tales of his childhood and recalling different characters who he has encountered along his own path.

In recent times, Pat was honoured for his contributions to the storytelling tradition at the Feile na Laoch festival - the Festival of Heroes - which is held only every seven years at Coolea, Co. Cork, a very special moment for him.

The event celebrates our cultural heroes, including storytellers, poets, actors, dancers, singers, and musicians, and was inspired by the life and work of one of Ireland’s and Cork’s true cultural giants, Seán Ó Riada.

Pat Speight’s performance at The Gab event will be supported by Paul O’ Sullivan and Colm Ryan, with music by Trip the Light, at Coughlan’s Live on Thursday, October 9 at 7.30pm.