Commissioned by the Clare Arts Office and supported by Creative Ireland as part of their Creative Communities programme, Dial A Seanchaí is a unique audio experience celebrating Irish folklore, storytelling, and song, which can be accessed over the phone. The project is curated and produced by Clare artist John Lillis.

Dial A Seanchaí is a phone service that will allow members of the public to listen to curated Irish folklore stories and songs from six contemporary voices. Callers will be invited to choose from the list of short recordings by well-known Irish artists and performers. Each artist was invited to draw from the well of Irish mythology and folklore and present a piece that resonated with them personally in our current age. There will be cures and curses, epic battles and fairy hurling matches, dances with the dead, and a cow with an unlimited supply of milk. Each story and song has been interpreted and crafted by the selected artists to capture the imagination and reawaken our relationship to myth.

Featuring pieces by Manchán Magan, Ruth Marshall, Edwina Guckian, Junior Brother, Rónán Ó Snodaigh and Branwen Kavanagh.

Curation and Recording : John Lillis
Photography and video : Anthony O'Connor
Technician: Keith Phelan
Design : Ian Malone

My Writeup on the Project

Storytelling is more than just the story. I was lucky enough to ride shotgun with John Lilis while he travelled up and down the country catching tales like a deft and gentle butterfly collector. Often we’d have an idea, or even a rough recording of the story before we arrived. But the difference between that and the performances themselves was immeasurable. Watching the seanchaithe embody their tales in their own homes was, to use an overused phrase, magical. It placed these stories in time, in body, and in place. They are imperfect, impermanent things but that is a big reason why we might relate to them so strongly.
It was a little strange to be photographing something which is by nature so auditory and temporary, and so I focused on the bodies and homes of the storytellers. And because there was also a lot of joy to be had in the tales and telling I also tried to capture some of that. I hope you enjoy these images, and I hope you’re enjoying a Samhain month with these extraordinary, ephemeral stories.