I am slowly working on a novel that includes bits of Irish folklore. I have dug around and found quite a bit of information. However I would love to hear of additional sources that I might have overlooked.
I have read W.B. Yeats who has a lot of minor pieces of folklore. A variety of books on Saint Bridgett, my family name comes from her. Bits and pieces I remember from my childhood stories, but I could not tell you who wrote what. That is why I would like to dig more information up.
There's an old, possibly obscure book my Mom owns, called Celtic Folklore Cooking; it's mainly a cookbook, as the name implies, but it's interspersed with proverbs, anecdotes and the like from Ireland and Scotland, possibly Wales as well (can't remember, it's been years since I've even laid eyes on the book). I'm not sure if it's even in print anymore, or else I'd try to find it on Amazon or whatever for you.
I can see I have a lot of material to look through. Now I have no excuse not to research my material farther then I had previously. Actually half the fun is doing the research.
Hi randy,
I've recently done some research on this topic mostly involving the 'fairy' side of folklore and I use the term fairy loosely because it is very different to what Hollywood would have us believe. I saved a lot of the information sourced from websites on a word document on my computer and if you would like I'm more then happy to send you the attachment. There is some information there about medieval Ireland as well. It isn't huge but might provide some focus topics for you to read further. feel free to inbox me.
A good source is the book "Chronicles of the Celts" by Iain Zaczek. It has Irish, Welsh and tales from Brittany
Another is "The Celtic Tradition" by Caitlin Matthews which has a lot of good stuff in it that might help.
In Dublin I went to a newer place called The Leprechaun Museum and it was fun, a little more entertaining for kids perhaps, but enjoyable nontheless. They talked about the Irish tradition of telling stories and this is a link to their Folklore and Mythology page. Might be a good place to start. National Leprechaun Museum | Irish Folklore & Mythology