Preserving the Past
We (Srs. Eucharia Ryan & Mary Minogue) were asked to attend a conference/workshop conducted by
the Oral History Network of Ireland as Sr. Angela Bugler felt this conference would have relevance to
oral archives. This Oral History Network organisation was established recently to co-ordinate and
strengthen the work of oral history practitioners and groups across the country. It developed from a
summer school and symposium held at the University of Limerick in 2009/2010.
The conference took place in Kilkenny Castle towards the end of 2011. There were several speakers,
a number of whom were history lecturers and collectors of folklore and culture. On Friday afternoon
Catherine O’Connor who completed a PhD in University of Limerick and specialises in the area of oral
history, gave a very interesting talk on conducting an interview. She stressed the importance of
preparation, sensitivity and the questioning and listening process. Those of us involved in interviewing
could have felt very proud of the tutoring we got when we started out, as Ms. O’Connor corroborated
all we had been taught. She dwelt also on the ethics involved in interviewing and the necessity of a
“consent form”.
Tomás Mac Conmara was our next speaker. He is the founder and Project Coordinator of
“Cuimhneamh an Chláir” the Clare Oral History and Folklore Group and has been engaged in the
preservation of Clare’s cultural heritage for many years.
He opened his talk with the following quote: “When an elderly person dies a library is burnt”. The aim
of his group is to record, collect, preserve and share the memories of Clare’s elderly people. In doing
so they hope to stimulate increased accessibility, interest, and engagement in the traditions, customs
and cultural heritage of County Clare. He stressed the urgency of the work, mindful that our current
elderly population may represent the last link to an older way of life. All elderly people who are willing
to offer their memories will be interviewed. Multi-thematic approaches are adopted as well as
identifying interviewees across Clare. Tomás was enthusiastic, inspiring and an expert in his field who
really conveyed the value of oral archiving to his listeners. He brought home to us the importance of
oral archiving in our own Congregation so we hope that anyone who has a story to tell will be willing
to preserve it in the Mercy Oral Archives.
The guest speaker at the Conference was Professor Alistair Thomson from Melbourne,
Australia. He spent 22 years in England as Professor of Oral History at the University of Sussex. His
knowledge and experience in oral history was phenomenal! He dwelt at length on how oral history can
be used for research purposes. This was particularly relevant to PhD students who attended the
conference not only from Ireland but from England, Wales and Europe. We met a lovely niece of Sr.
Nora Marrinan’s there, Bridget Conneally who is working in oral archives in Bath.
The most engaging part of Professor Thomson’s talk was his recounting his own unique collaboration
with four ordinary women who were British migrants to Australia.
His relationship with them was over a period of ten years. They recorded in intimate detail aspects of
everyday life and women’s experience that are often lost to history. The women were extraordinary
letter writers, family photographers and memoirists. The story of the four women is in book
form: Moving Stories, An Intimate History of Four Women across Two Countries by Alistair
Thomson and it is published by Manchester University Press. The book reveals the experience of
lived migration in the 1930’s illuminating the physical, emotional and mental journeys endured by
these women. They look back over their lives and the dramatic transformations of self, family and
society since the 1930’s.
We had many interesting talks from different speakers and at break-times we had the opportunity of
meeting with other participants, some of whom were students, librarians and some with interest in oral
history. The conference was quite intensive for the two days and unfortunately time did not allow us to
savour the delights of Kilkenny city!
Eucharia Ryan RSM & Mary Minogue RSM