‘Stories bind us together’: Cork poet says there's a hunger for tradition in modern life

Paddy Doyle is on a mission to preserve the ancient art of oral storytelling.

The poet, writer, and storyteller is now based in Kinsale, where he will perform at this autumn’s Words by Water literary festival. His passion for stories, however, was forged during his formative years in rural Kilkenny.

“I started out as a writer and a journalist”, he reflects. “I started writing poetry and short stories, but I realised in doing so that, actually, I’d always been around stories growing up”.

Paddy’s family home, a farmhouse, was what is traditionally known as a rambling or open house, where, as he explains, “people will call around in the evenings to have a chat, maybe gossip, sing a song, that kind of thing”.

“I grew up in that house,” Paddy continues, “so I was kind of reared on stories, in a way... It sparked that desire to tell stories, listen to stories, and share stories in that way.”

Paddy now keeps the tradition of sharing stories alive in his day-to-day life, performing at festivals, other events, and in his own one-man show about druidic Ireland, The Cauldron of Poesy.

Paddy’s shows mix his own original poetry and stories with old Celtic myths and legends, as he explains.

“I try to work with [the myths and legends] in a way that gives shape to the concerns of contemporary times.

“What is in the old stories that has relevance for today? I find that really interesting because, for me, stories are living things. They were around long before we were ever around, and they present different aspects of themselves to different generations and different times.”

Paddy also shares stories of his own life, both his childhood in the countryside - “all those old characters and old ways” - and his adult years dabbling in counter-culture in the U.S and Berlin. “I call it gangster mythology,” he says of this element of his work, “a bit of beatnik gangster mythology”.

A huge lover of beat writers like Allen Ginsberg and Jack Keraouc, the young Paddy growing up in rural Kilkenny had his sights set on the other side of the Atlantic.

“I just wanted to go to New York and be a beatnik,” he recalls.”So I did that and I had a good time and good fun.”

Ireland, and Irish stories, however, were never far from Paddy’s mind.

“When I was in these places”, he continues, “I was just always telling stories about the people at home... Sometimes, you have to go away to realise what you walked away from. So I went off looking for something, but only when I went away did I realise that the thing I’d been looking for was at home.”

As a storyteller, Paddy is part of an ancient Irish tradition that stretches back for thousands of years.

His keen interest in the past led to him studying archaeology and Celtic Studies, subjects that have proved intrinsic to his career.

“When I studied Celtic Studies,” Paddy says, “I really realised that we have a tradition in Ireland that goes back a long, long time.

“Some of the stories I was working with, and some of the poems, are thousands of years old, passed down orally around campfires. So looking into that tradition was very exciting for me because there seemed to be an undercurrent of tradition that went on underground for a long time.

“There’s a huge emotional draw for me in that. There’s also a huge body of lore there.”

Another important element of Paddy’s work is his frequent collaboration with the Traveller community.

“My family have always been friends with Travellers,” he says. “They were part of our lives and they’ve always been very close to my heart.”

Paddy’s event at this year’s Words by Water Kinsale Literary Festival is with singer and actor, Rosie McCarthy, a member of the Traveller community from Macroom.

The event, entitled Bonfires of Remembrance, will uphold the old practice of cuardíocht, a tradition - now dying - that Paddy grew up with.

“It means the kettle’s always on the hob, the door is always open, everyone’s equal, everyone’s welcome. That was the old tradition of hospitality in Ireland, and the Travelling people were always a huge part of this tradition, coming around with their news and their wares - it was a bit of excitement... The world is not like that anymore and it’s poorer for it.”

At Bonfires of Remembrance, audience members can look forward to an evening of story, poem and song, and will be invited to light a candle for, and maybe share a story of, a person they would like to remember.

This ancestral remembrance is a significant feature of the tradition.

“In creating this cuardíocht with Rosie,” Paddy considers, “I am trying to create a space again where settled culture and Traveller culture can be friends for a night, and we can share our connections and our memories and our kinship, our shared inheritance, and to invite people in to experience and share that as well.”

While many aspects of Irish traditional storytelling have been lost, Paddy believes there is something of a renaissance underway.

“I see a definite hunger there,” he says of a return to tradition. “I do a lot of community heritage work, and I really notice that there’s a real drive for people to learn old skills and old ways of being.

“A lot of these old skills and ways of being are rooted not in extraction, but in connection”.

For Paddy, stories play a crucial role in preserving the old ways and reinstating the human connections that many of us yearn for in modern life.

“The world is woven out of stories,” he says. “It’s stories that bring us together. Our connections with people, the stories we have, the things we do, it’s the stories that bind. The world is formed out of stories. It always has been”.

Bonfires of Remembrance with Paddy Doyle and Rosie McCarthy will take place at the OHK in Kinsale on Friday, October 2, 7pm-8.30pm. For tickets or more information, visit https://www.wordsbywater.ie/event/bonfires-of-remembrance-with-paddy-doyle-rosie-mccarthy/

The Words by Water Kinsale Literary Festival runs from October 1-4. The full brochure of events is available at https://www.wordsbywater.ie/