TRIBUTES WERE paid at the weekend to a prominent folklore collector who recorded the heritage of the midlands.
James “Jim” Delaney spent more than 30 years gathering tales of the life, lore and traditions of the people of Offaly, Westmeath, Roscommon and Longford, work which is now housed at the National Folklore Collection in UCD.
On the 10th anniversary of his death, his work was acknowledged as his son Eoin and daughter Jeanne unveiled a plaque erected by the heritage society in Kiltoom, Athlone, Co Roscommon, where he lived and worked.
“His work was of particular importance because he documented the richness of tradition in the midlands, that great storehouse that very often goes completely unrecognised,” said Dr Bairbre Ní Fhloinn, lecturer at UCD, one of almost a hundred people to attend the gathering.
Jim Delaney had “a tremendous understanding of the sophistication of people. Even though they might have left school at 12, that didn’t mean they weren’t sophisticated. Formal education can be limiting and Jim knew that,” she said.
A fluent Irish speaker, he also spoke French and Italian, and had an international outlook that allowed him to see the universal in the parochial. Unusually for the time, he also had a masters degree in English.
Eoin Delaney said he was privileged to see the warmth develop between his father and his sources. As a child he watched his father record close friend Bill Egan near Clonmacnoise in Offaly as he made baskets and cattle feeders from reeds, items that are now in the national collection.
Tom Harney, chairman of Kiltoom Heritage Society, said it was important to recognise locally “an outstanding collector, a man of national importance who loved his job”.