Clíona O’Carroll is a native of Cork city, Ireland, where she lectures in Folklore and Ethnology/Béaloideas in University College, Cork.

She is Research Director (since 2010) with the Cork Folklore Project, a community-based centre for oral testimony that has collected and archived more than 900 ethnographic interviews exploring the everyday and the extraordinary in Cork’s past and present since its inception in 1996. Clíona has co-ordinated collection projects, radio productions, exhibitions and online digital memory-mapping projects with the CFP. Most recently, she has been active in projects foregrounding oral testimony in the stimulation of public conversations on health, infectious disease and sustainability.

Clíona is co-chair of the SIEF Working Group on Archives, and is active in the development and promotion of archives of tradition.

I lecture at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

My teaching focus includes

• folklore fieldwork methods (ethnographic interviewing and archiving; field techniques, ethics, archiving and audio dissemination)
• tradition archives (methodological immersion in the National Folklore Collection and other archives of tradition)
• material culture (vernacular Irish dwellings, boats, display and exhibition, contemporary material culture, theoretical approaches to material culture).

Modules taught include:

• FL1004 Irish Folklore and Culture: An Introduction (co-taught)
• BD1001 Béaloideas: Scéal, Nós is Ealaín (co-taught)
• FL2013 Archives and Folklore in Ireland 
• FL3001 Material Culture and Folklore
• FL3011 The Ethnographic Interview; An Introduction
• FL6011 Doing Irish Folklore: Archival Collection and Dissemination, Past and Present

Rebecca Hall Moran

Kathleen Hurley, Singularity and Defiance in the Archives: A comprehensive examination of the manuscripts of a prolific, female, part-time, folklore collector for the Irish Folklore Commission, and the implications of this collected folklore material for the National Folklore Collection and for the understanding of 20th century Irish women’s life and lore.

Clíona's research interest start with the construction of meaning in everyday life, and the documentation, dissemination, analysis and celebration of the cultural processes around us.

Much of her research is influenced by her role as Research Director with the Cork Folklore Project, and most recently she has been preoccupied by priveleging oral testimony - and audio - in exhibitions and in archival dissemination, and by the use of cultural heritage methods, materials and platforms in examining social challenges and questions and facilitating public-STEM communication. Sadly, the pressing issue of digital preservation eclipses much in its demand for time and resources.

The CFP, established in 1996 as a community-based ethnographic collection and archiving centre, embodies UCC’s 30-year commitment to long-term engaged research and outreach. Since 1996, we have been collecting, safeguarding and disseminating the memories and experiences, ordinary and extra-ordinary, of the people of Cork and beyond through the collection and sharing of oral testimony. Our audio archives of over 1,000 interviews contains material on social and occupational history, sports, urban thrift and infectious disease, and our Community Employment scheme for researchers has trained hundreds of locals in ethnographic techniques.

More at https://www.ucc.ie/en/cacsss/research/researchimpact/researchimpactarchive/corkfolkloreproject/

Since 2010, we have pioneered digital map-based dissemination of our holdings (see https://www.ucc.ie/en/cacsss/research/researchimpact/researchimpactarchive/thecorkfolkloreprojectsmemorymap/), and are recognised internationally as a leader in innovation in tradition archives.

Over recent years, we have developed a research and engagement approach that harnesses cultural heritage methods and platforms to support exchange between STEM colleagues and the public on questions of societal import. Two SFI-funded projects include:

• ‘Catching Stories of Infectious Disease in Ireland; bringing oral testimony and biomedical commentary together in a digital resource and an exhibition still being used in HSE campuses

https://www.ucc.ie/en/cacsss/research/researchimpact/catching-stories/

‘Stark, stylish – and scary! Particular touches like the ventilator which engages the audio story are what guarantee that this exhibition will haunt every visitor. I also appreciated the grounding of the scientific description of diseases.’

‘Powerful exhibition – a reminder of the importance of vaccination.’

‘Thank you for capturing stories which are often forgotten about in medical history.’

• Circular Tales; Urban thrift, Traveller livelihoods and sustainability

‘Superb event. Diversity of voices, artefacts, modes. Was a very inventive form of presentation. Full of fascinating detail. ‘Celebration’ hit the right note.’

‘Inspiration – How I might recycle more and be more inclined to repair.’

‘I’ll take pride in the old-fashioned habits I was thought as a child – we are recycling ideas and habits as much a material goods.’

https://corkfolklore.org/circular-tales-engaging-with-the-past-to-inspire-the-future/

Cultural heritage materials and methods can be a powerful tool to support rehabilitation and wellbeing, as we found in our collaboration with people living with acquired brain injuries who attend Headway Ireland services, who produced the Headway Resilience Map (at https://corkfolklore.org/memory-map/) with our support.

‘It’s therapy without going to a therapist’

‘The confidence I’ve acquired through doing this is through the roof’

‘We have something to show at the end of it that’ll always be there’

‘It’s from Cork and by Cork, it’s part of our recovery but it’s also something that we give Cork. The fact that it’s by people missing some of their faculties is not the main part of it. Everyone has stories, the injury part isn’t to the fore. It’s for the broader community.’