Irish folklore

Irish folklore (béaloideas) refers to the folktales, balladry, music, dance, and so forth, ultimately, all of folk culture. Irish folklore, when mentioned to many people, conjures up images of banshees, fairies, leprechauns and people gathering around, sharing stories. Many tales and legends were passed from generation to generation, so were the dances and song in the observing of important occasions such as weddings, wakes, birthdays and holidays or, handcraft traditions. All of the above can be considered as a part of folklore, as it is the study and appreciation of how people lived. What constitutes Irish folklore may be rather fuzzy to those unfamiliar with Irish literature. Diarmuid Ó Giolláin, for one, declared that folklore was elusive to define clearly. Bo Almqvist (c. 1977) gave an all-encompassing definition that folklore covered "the totality of folk culture, spiritual and material", and included anything mentioned in Seán Ó Súilleabháin's A Handbook of Irish Folklore (1942). It was not until 1846 that the word "folklore" was coined, by English writer William Thoms, to designate "the manners, customs, observances, superstitions, ballads, proverbs, &c of the olden time". The term was first translated into Irish as béaloideas (lit. 'oral instruction') in 1927. Tales have been traditionally recounted in fireside gatherings, such social gatherings, in which traditional Irish music and dance are also performed, are labeled by some as the cèilidh, though this is a term borrowed from Scottish Gaelic. The story-telling, songs and dance were also part of how special occasions were commemorated, on such days as Christmas, Halloween (Oíche Shamhna, eve of Samhain), Beltane, held on the first day of May, or St. Patrick's Day. Irish folklore is closely tied with the pipe and fiddle, the traditional Irish music and folk dance. The keening Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire composed by Eileen Dubh Ní Chonaill in her husband's wake is a piece of poetry passed down by folk tradition.