asked the Minister for Education if he will state what steps he has taken for the preservation of Beal-Oideachais (folklore), and if he has impressed on primary teachers the desirability of bringing their pupils to view the historical monuments in their respective areas, narrating their histories and urging them to study local antiquities, history and toponomy, and, at the same time, giving them suitable instruction, relative to the flora of the district, and telling them the Gaelic names of the flowers, shrubs, plants, and even the noxious weeds which they see every day.
Ceisteanna.—Questions. Oral Answers. - Folklore and Nature Study in Primary Schools.
A commission (the Irish Folklore Commission) has been appointed by the Ard Chomhairle for the collection, collation, cataloguing, editing and publication of oral and written folklore. This commission is acting in close co-operation with the Folklore Society of Ireland, which has been engaged in this work since 1930. A Grant-in-Aid, not exceeding £3,250 per annum, in connection with the work of the commission, has been made available from public funds for a period of five years.
With regard to the national schools, a brochure which dealt fully with the question of the collection and preservation of folklore was prepared by my Department and issued to all national schools in 1934. An appeal was made at the same time to the teachers to assist in the work of collecting and preserving the folklore of the nation— special note-books being supplied in which the teachers could record their collections. Subsequently local committees of teachers were established by the teaching body to collect the folklore of their districts—the completed collections to be forwarded to the Folklore Institute. I understand that at least 135 such committees were established.
A special questionnaire was also issued later by my Department to national schools, seeking information in regard to holy wells, their location, and to the traditions and customs associated with them. It is intended to have a complete survey made of these wells in due course from the information thus collected as well as from information available from other sources.
In the official programme for national schools and in the Notes on the Teaching of History for the guidance of teachers the importance of local history, including the aspects mentioned by the Deputy, is stressed, and teachers are recommended to bring their pupils occasionally to places of historical interest in the neighbourhood. The regulations for national schools provide for the inclusion in the minimum time constituting an attendance at school of time spent by pupils during visits, limited in number in any one year, to places of interest.
In the Notes on the Teaching of Irish for the use of teachers, the general scheme for oral work includes the vocabulary of the details of local environment—the names of villages, rivers, mountains, animals, birds, trees, wild plants, etc.