Edmund Lenihan Biography

Introduction

Edmund Lenihan is an Irish storyteller, author, teacher by profession and a broadcaster and among the few remaining lore-keepers in Ireland. The Irish consider him among the greatest storytellers that existed and as a national treasure. Edmund Lenihan was born in 1950 in Kerry, Ireland and married in 1976 to Mary Scanlan with six children namely Keith, Eamonn, Mary, Eoin, Cathal, and Rachel. He graduated from University College Galway in 1973, Higher Diploma in Education in 1974 and a masters of arts in 1978. Edmund Lenihan was a high school English teacher in Limerick city between 1978 and 2001.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Edmund Lenihan lives in Crusheen, County Clare, however, travels has taken him to various places worldwide, and over 40 states in the United States as well as performances and awards from various institutions including a commendation for his significant contribution to the Arts of Philadelphia City (Lynch, n.d.). He is pleased to avail the fruits of his hard work of information collection and researches to whoever is willing and has frequently delivered in UK, Belgium, Germany, France, and many other countries. Lenihan frequently visits various institutions in Ireland such as schools, libraries, and literary festivals. The practices what their forbearers this when giving stories where he gave tales anywhere as long as people were willing to listen and reflect for a while. He also broadcast in both Television and Radio where his series concerning the Irish animal-lore was aired.

When Edmund Lenihan first featured in the Ireland national television in 1986 in a 12-part series, many individuals were seeing him for the first time. Nonetheless, 1n 1988, the Ten Minute Tale opened further opportunities for him. Although at that time, he had already written six books and recorded five audio tapes with several years of folk gathering in native county Kerry and several other regions in Ireland. For about 30 years, Edmund Lenihan was motivated by his love listening to older generations collected stories. After forty-two years of collecting traditional stories in his native County Kerry, he possesses possibly the largest private tape-library in Ireland, which is an exceptional resource with materials that cannot be replaced. He preserves a vital heritage that could otherwise have been lost.

He has shared the traditional tales in his library coupled with his creations through a series of books for both children and adults and recordings and established himself in 1987 and 1988 after featuring in an Irish television station. Edmund Lenihan travels in different parts of the world where he features in festivals, schools, and libraries, essentially, wherever individuals are willing to sit and listen. He often does not focus his story performance as an actor through memorization of lines; he instead progresses in a similar way a jazz musician might randomly compose music.

In appreciation to the excellent storytellers who shared their Irish stories and ancient traditions with Lenihan and actively championed that, the traditional tales should not pass away. Lenihan has tried his best through both his contribution and videos, tapes and CDs to share the good stories of Irish lore. In 1981 when Edmund Lenihan was narrating bedtime stories to his children, he related the stories of an Irish warrior Fionn with his band, which motivated him to start publishing and recording traditional stories for the young market. Through the centuries, the escapades of Lenihan and Fianna, his historic companions has given much entertainment and pleasure to the people of Ireland.

Edmund Lenihan started developing a new style of storytelling, and presently, he has 400, and he is still expanding. Majority of the books are not published with only seven of them already published. When there are children in his audience, Edmund Lenihan plays, although he is more likely to interact more with the adults while paying attention to the subtle responses from the audience. An individual reading the latest three publications will see that Lenihan has no high regards for the government, he advocates that children should learn from other humans, which is vital in their development.

He prefers telling his stories to the adults because they enjoy every single bit compared to the children. For individuals who read carefully, they can see the political commentary in there where he criticizes the political class through his Fionn Mac Cumhail stories. He strives not to preach for children to learn through the stories concerning political thoughts. In his audio The Good People: Authentic Fairy Tales of Ireland, he articulates the traditional Irish stories as if he is talking to a friend.

Lenihan's research on the fairies, the Good People, was an interesting point in 1999, which showed practical results from his effort where his publication about a fairy bush was rescued from road constructors at Latoon, in County Clare (Devereux, 2004). This case made a world appearance when it featured in the New York Times and the CNN. It attracted much publicity and received tremendous support, the authorities responsible decided to redirect the highway, and currently, the bush still exists.

Lenihan still conducts his research on haunted places, fairy paths and holy wells that requires him to walk through landscapes, converse with older adults and hope to see the other world. Much of this is revealed in his work "Meeting the other crowd" that features a collection of testaments from the followers of the fairy faith. Moreover, in his book "In the Track of the West Clare Railway" where he talks about embarking on the groundwork where a railway track was laid that was the most prominent narrow-gauged line in Ireland that was closed in 1961. Ireland fairy stories necessary form a significant part of the collection, however, there are historical stories too that included tales of women, mischievous sprite stories, ogres and accounts of saints including stories of St. Patrick.

Edmund Lenihan tells stories in entirely different scenarios from the regular storytelling settings experienced a few decades ago; however, there is a lively interest to both of them. While telling his stories, Lenihan prefers shocking the parents with his preferred vicious and violent, which are his favorites, away from their usual Walt Disney format. Nonetheless, he prefers to ask his audience what they would like to listen.

Conclusion

Cultural tradition's in Ireland are degrading from influenced experienced from other countries such as the US and Great Britain. Edmund Lenihan embarked on restraining such influences by writing and storytelling mainly focusing on the mythic Irish heroes and much more exciting historical areas. These stories assist people to gain more appreciation about the past and have a chance to celebrate their heritage as well as grow the importance of storytelling in Ireland in the 21st century (Panzer, n.d).

Works Cited

Devereux, Paul. "FAIRY PATHS IN IRELAND & WALES." A Literature and Field Study of Cognised Landscapes in Two Celtic Countries, vol. 51, no. 3-4, 2004, pp. 2-17., icrl.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Fairy-Paths_Devereux-Tech.Rpt_.pdf.

Lynch, Sean. Michele Horrigan Latoon, www.seanlynchinfo.com/documents/MicheleHorriganLatoon.pdf.

Panzer, Dori. Eddie Lenihan: Research Notes. A Storyteller in Modern Ireland, vol. 46(1) Expedition. Retrieved from https://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/46-1/Storyteller.pdf