In The Ould Ago - Illustrated Irish Folklore: FolkloreBook.com

By Johnny McKeagney

‘In The Ould Ago’, meaning a long time ago, is a book of Illustrated Irish Folklore book by Johnny McKeagney. Comprising of two hundred intricately hand-drawn illustrated pages of Irish traditions, crafts, history, emigration, countryside, farming ways, wildlife, myths and customs it is all sewn together in a case-bound hardback A3 size cover. A self-taught historian and artist, his prefaces are written by some heavy-hitting academics and historians. For forty years Johnny collected Irish folklore by pen and tape recorder. He details stories and events then sketches all the salient points with a fine nib so that readers of any age can easily visualize the topics.

‘In The Ould Ago’ has been selected to be displayed in top North American university libraries including Harvard, Notre Dame, Library of Congress in Washington, UCLA, Boston College and New York Public Libraries. Johnny's illustrated and written collection is now in the Fermanagh museum while his recorded material is being digitised by the UCD Folklore Department for the National Irish Archive. This special coffee table publication won a Judges Special Award in the International Rubery Book Awards and an Honorable Mention in the History section of the San Francisco Book Festivals Awards. Sadly Johnny passed away on the 1st of December 2010, just 5 weeks after his book was published.

Seeing 40 years of collecting and sketching published in ‘In The Ould Ago’ gave him tremendous happiness. FolkloreBook.com gives a sense of the author and his work.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nicholson & Bass
• Release date: Dec 11, 2021
• ISBN: 9780956697608

Book preview

Séamus MacAnnaidh

ed Irish Folklore

Historian & Author

In The Ould Ago

Johnny McKeagney travelled all the old roads, Illustrated Irish Folklore

found the gaps in the hedges and stood on the deserted hearths. He spoke to neighbours and friends, to people who travelled these roads in bygone days and céilidhed in these fallen houses.

Then he took up his pen and drew, not just what his he Ould Ago - Illustrat

eyes saw but also what he had been told and how In T

he saw it all in his mind. A photograph may capture an instant, Johnny’s drawings cover centuries.

When we open the pages of this great book we will venture up old lanes that we have passed by many times and finally discover what lies at the end of them.

We may enter old houses and be made welcome at the hearth. We can learn the old crafts that sustained our people for generations.

We will hear the people’s stories and come to know them in a new and special way.

And as we turn the pages and travel the roads, our eyes will be opened to the wildlife and the landscape and we will begin to see ancient rocks lying in the heather and signs of tillage high on mountain sides and appreciate that people lived between the now fallen gables.

You could not have a better companion than Johnny McKeagney as you travel along the old roads.

Johnny McKeagney

In The Ould Ago

ed Irish Folklore

Illustrated Irish Folklore

Johnny McKeagney

he Ould Ago - IllustratIn T

Dedication

I dedicate this book to my wife Teresa on our 45th Wedding anniversary, 28th September 2010

and to our children John, Gabriel, Ruairí, Aileen, Dónal and Paul for all their love and support and to our grandchildren.

© Copyright Johnny McKeagney 2010

ISBN 978-0-9566976-0-8

www.folklorebook.com

Email: [e-mail]

First Published in 2010 by Johnny McKeagney.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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Foreword

David Shaw-Smith

Críostóir Mac Cárthaigh

ed Irish Folklore

Litt.D. (h.c.) Aos.

Archivist, National Folklore Collection, UCD

Irish people have always had a great interest in, and respect for, The business of recording folklore and folk life is an activity that is not their heritage and a fascination with their history –none more so confined to customary working hours. In truth, for that rare breed of skilled than the folklorist and artist, Johnny McKeagney, of Tempo, Co.

practitioner such as Johnny McKeagney, it is a vocation in thrall to neither Fermanagh. Johnny is a self-effacing man, yet a man with fire in the time of day or the season. It arises from an instinctive sense of curiosity his belly! Consumed by a passion for recording historical fact and and ever-expanding engagement with people, artefacts and environment.

local history from within his beloved County, and further a field.

Johnny McKeagney’s extraordinary breadth of knowledge and devotion to One might find him on the street, deep in conversation with an old person, documenting the cultural heritage of his native Fermanagh was instantly or examining the construction of a ruined dwelling in a remote and lonely apparent to me when I was introduced to him by my colleague Prof. Séamas he Ould Ago - Illustrat place. Perhaps crawling under gorse bushes searching for hidden megalithic Ó Catháin, a Tyrone man similarly dedicated to the pursuit of folklore.

remains; on an Island in Lough Erne examining a round tower or simply In T

sitting in a graveyard anywhere in Fermanagh or the adjoining counties For many years Johnny has generously shared his expertise and time not only transcribing the inscriptions on the older tombstones; but making with students from the Department of Irish Folklore at University College detailed drawings of the surrounding ecclesiastical buildings as well.

Dublin and other institutions, carefully explaining the form and function Beautifully executed work presented in an enchanting self-taught style.

of the many artefacts in his remarkable collection, and leading field trips to explore features of the cultural landscape which were on the point of Over the years Johnny has taken a series of remarkable colour disappearing for good. He has ranged ever further from his native Tempo to photographs of the older generation in