`The real authors of this book are many": this is the modest claim of its two editors. The great bulk of the material, arranged under such headings as "Love and Marriage", "The Supernatural", "The Sea and Sailors", "Birth and Death", comes from the archives of the Irish Folklore Department in University College Dublin. And, indeed, the "real authors" include the full-time collectors of the Irish Folklore Commission as well as the national teachers of Ireland - "the unsung mainstay of Irish cultural activity in the arid thirties" - and the young army of their pupils. These, with the help of parents, grandparents, family and friends, provided the folklore archive with over a thousand volumes.
The present volume is in the main a gleaning from this great harvest, but Dr O Muirithe - whose work in another related field is well known to Irish Times readers - is personally responsible for some of the material. As well as the text of a 19th century mumming play, he includes four of the celebrated Wexford carols from his own collection: these items were taken down from his friends, the Devereux family of Kilmore Quay, hereditary guardians of the carols.
On the multicoloured map of Irish culture Wexford is a special case, and to those of us who owe some allegiance to the county, a very special place. As well as its rich Gaelic substructure (as evident from most of its place-names), it has the distinction, in two of its baronies (Forth and Bargy), of a unique dialect of English - the Yola - on which again Dr O Muirithe is a recognised authority.
But this volume of Wexford lore is also a microcosm of our common history and culture. It's all there: St Patrick, Cromwell, '98, O'Connell; the hedge schools, the evictions; the banshee (known here as the "bow" or badhbh), the puca, the evil eye; the lacemaking, nail-making, poitin making; farming and fishing; faction-fights and hurling - all with that special Wexford accent. A true glad-bag.
Sean Mac Reamoinn is a writer and broad- caster on cultural and religious affairs