Cork has key role in Listowel story festival

THE craft of storytelling is on the rise, and Cork performers are at the helm of its upward trajectory.

After the recent Cape Clear and Courtmacsherry storytelling festivals, next weekend, an array of Cork performers will migrate across the border, to make their way to Kerry for The Listowel International Storytelling Festival. Heading up the event as Artistic Director is Cork’s rising star of storytelling, beansceál Maria Gillen, who will be performing as a storyteller.

At the rambling houses of yore, the presence of a storyteller was a given, and stories were a part of a night’s entertainment that brought together a mix of music, poetry, song, story, and dancing. In keeping with that tradition, the Listowel Storytelling Festival is offering plenty of music as part of its line-up.

In the ‘story through song’ event, Cork musicians Hank Wedel, Ger Wolfe, and Cormac O Caoimhe share the stage with Cork-based singer-songwriter from Kerry, Lorraine Nash, and Kerry-based singer Mickey MacConnell. Fear an tí for the event is Cork’s own Paddy Regan, who people will know from his appearances in shows at the Opera House and The Everyman - he’s also a regular at the Cork Yarn Spinners storytelling nights. Psddy will be interviewing the artists to draw out the unique stories and themes behind each of their songs performed.

The festival, now in its fourth year, is the initiative of Kerry Writers’ Museum in Listowel.

Other events on the bill will feature the best storytellers from Ireland and beyond, including Liz Weir of Antrim; Joe Brennan of Wexford, and Maria Credali from the UK. Rockchapel native and well known storyteller Frances Kennedy will be spinning yarns in her unique style alongside three time all-Ireland storytelling champion Sonny Egan. Also on the bill are Sean Lyons and Godfrey Coppinger, and there will be poetry from Gabriel Fitzmaurice

Reflecting on being a Cork woman at the helm of the Kerry festival, Artistic Director Maria says the inter-county rivalry only adds to the craic in Listowel. “The banter is the national sport between Cork and Kerry” she laughs. “We make very good use of it. We had Cork masks and Kerry masks during Covid.

“They have been so supportive of my ideas and the level of creativity in Kerry is amazing, I definitely have found my tribe there,” Maria says, fondly.

She has been the storyteller in residence in the Kerry Writers’ Museum since 2021 but her links to the Writers’ Week pre-date that and she has regularly performed there.

“The roots of that goes back to John B Keane, and how he used to give us his plays to cut our teeth on, when I was in the CAT Club (Cork Arts Theatre),” says Maria. “I remember he was taken to task about it by a journalist who asked him why he was giving his plays for free. He said, ‘Sure, you have to give back to the well,’ and he used to observe people and write his plays from that.”

The festival was the only storytelling festival to host in-person, live events in 2021. In 2020, the festival went ahead but in an online capacity. So how does Maria feel about being back post-Covid?

“It has been a tough few years where our festival has had to find ways to stretch and change as the world circumstances demand.

“We are so proud that we managed to keep going through the Covid crisis. We are near the end of the tunnel now and are ready to celebrate as the Listowel International Storytelling Festival 2022 gets underway. Come join our tribe, meet old friends and new on the Story Road - all are welcome, and we can’t wait to see you.”

‘Fear an tí’ and board member of the storytelling festival, Paddy Regan has been linked to Listowel for a number of years. Since 2013, he has served as board member for ‘The Kerry Writer's Museum’ which is in the centre of the town, and has been a regular visitor to the Listowel staple 'Writer's Week' for a good number of years prior to that.

Through his experience on the board of the Kerry Writer's Museum, he found himself placed on the board of the Listowel Storytelling Festival. He tells me, to help them devise the festival’s programme, the board members asked themselves ‘what is the definition of storytelling?’

“We would take the view that a story can be told through any vocal medium, as it were,” Paddy explains. “That includes poetry and song. And going a way back in years and to west Clare, where my parents are from, storytelling only formed part of a night’s entertainment in a house. There’d be fiddles and songs and recitations and there’d be dance.

“And from a personal perspective, storytelling needs something else to carry it, and music would be another thing. So when we talk about storytelling, as far as Listowel is concerned, it always includes music.”

I ask Paddy about the large number of Corkonians involved in the event,

He laughs: “I consider it a major triumph being a Cork man on the board of a Kerry festival. We try and spread it, but it just so happens that we’ve great songwriters in Cork”

Manager of Kerry Writers Museum Cara Trant said “We are very Lucky to have appointed Maria as Storyteller in Residence. It’s great to have all this talent on our doorstep, so we’re showcasing the south-west, I suppose really, between Cork and Kerry. There’s a natural affinity between the two counties”

Get tickets at kerrywritersmuseum.com