Past Projects

Recently:

• What’s the Scéal? Storytelling Festival and Mini-Symposium with the National Museum of Country Life.   December 2022. I took part in the Mini-Symposium, one of a panel chaired by poet Theo Dorgan, with fellow storytellers Liz Weir, Nuala Hayes, Jack Lynch, and Oein DeBhairduin. The symposium is available as a podcast on the National Museum of Ireland’s Museum of Country Life webpage.

• Schools Tour. Storytelling performances and creative writing workshops for the International School of Belgium (Antwerp), International School of Paris, (Middle School and Primary School) Kew House School (London) Ecole Jeannine Manuel (Lille), Kings Park Primary School (Portadown), Aston Village Educate Together National School (Drogheda), Burrow National School (Sutton, Dublin), Castle Park School (Dalkey), Bracken Educate Together National School (Balbriggan), St. James CofE Primary School (Bermondsey, London), International School of Bologna, International School of Genoa, International School of Florence, Mestre Scuola Media (Centro Internazionale Studi), St Genevieve High School (Belfast), Ashgrove Primary School (Glengormley), St Thomas Senior National School (Jobstown, Tallaght, Dublin)

• Bologna Children’s Book Fair March 2023.  Representing IBBY Ireland, I took part in various talks, panel discussions, and storytelling presentations. (Funded by Culture Ireland)

• Tall Tales of April Fools, Giant Rascals, and Bold Birls and Boys. Traditional folk and fairy tales from around the world. Cabinteely Library, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Libraries

• Tall Tales of April Fools, Giant Rascals, and Bold Birls and Boys. Traditional folk and fairy tales from around the world.   Donegal County Libraries (zoom storytelling session for national schools the length and breadth of the county)

• Shakespeare Tales: Stories at Chichester Library for National Shakespeare Week, sponsored by the Armstrong Storytelling Trust

• What’s the Scéal? Storytelling Festival and Mini-Symposium with the National Museum of Country Life.   22-26 November 2021. I acted as an advisor and helped develop the programme, both the school and public events and the symposium, and also provided online storytelling to students during the festival.
• BFI (British Film Institute) Animated Fairy Tales Project. A resource package for primary schools that looks at three animated fairy-tales: Snow White & Rose Red, Little Tom Thumb and The Children of Wax. In an interview I introduced the films and discuss the importance of folk and fairy tales.
• The Lion’s part Theatre Company: A reprise of stories for the online presentations of  “October Plenty” and “Twelfth Night”
• Warm Tales for Cold Days (9 December, 3.30 pm)  and More Warm Tales for Cold Days (16 December, 3.30), Family Storytelling Sessions for Dún Laoghaire and Rathmines County Library Services. Online, live-streamed story hours for all ages.
• Good Books-Good Companions: a virtual book-group. Literature Project funded by the Arts Council. This staff-engagement project with librarians and library assistants from County Sligo Library Services, County Clare Library Services, and Cork City Library services explored children’s books and discussed how they might be used in story times and other library activities. I curated the reading lists and facilitated meetings. The project finished in October 2021, feedback has been fantastic, and a report on the proceedings comes out in November.
• Branching Out. A Loughborough University Storytelling Academy action research project using storytelling in community action with citizen scientists in response to the climate crisis
• FEST, Vilnius Lithuania, June 2022. Annual Federation for European Storytelling conference; presented ‘Listen Up! An exploration of educational storytelling practices in Ireland’

• The 22^nd European Conference on Literacy (Dublin), Federation of European Literacy Associations. Joint presentation with Donna Schatt: ‘A wish for story time:  How higher order language abilities are favoured by experiencing regular story listening’

• IBBY Congress–Moscow, 2021 (online): “Telling and Listening: how they are related through reader-response theory” (conference paper)
• Folklore Society Conference on Folklore and Learning, June 2021: “‘Every teacher should be an excellent storyteller’:a ‘wholesome revival of the ancient art’ in Progressive Education” (conference paper)
• ELSA Teacher Training Day, 2021 (online):  Workshops for the English Language Schools Assocation, Paris Teacher Training Day,
• Stories Told By Heart, a YouTube channel of stories told with librarian-storytellers from University of Chicago Laboratory Schools