Lest They Perish

An eight-part series celebrating the work of An Coimisiún Béaloideas Éireann, The Irish Folklore Commission, which was set up in 1935 to collect, classify and study aspects of Irish folk tradition. The workers of the Commission set out to gather the fragments of traditional Irish culture 'lest they perish'.

These programmes focus on the work undertaken by the full-time and part-time collectors appointed to collect the folklore of the areas they knew best.  The small staff in the Commission's headquarters undertook the scholarly work of classifying and archiving the original manuscripts and sound recordings as they were returned from the field. The collection of the Irish Folklore Commission now forms the richest folklore archive in Europe. Lest They Perish gathers together the memories of many of those involved in the nationwide trawl for oral traditions and those who shared their knowledge with them.

(First broadcast in July 1985)

Programme Archive