Part of the Schools Collection, the new material comprises stories collected from 70 Co Laois schools under a project run across the 26 counties of the Irish Free State in 1937–39. The pupils collected stories – topics included folk legends, weather lore, local history, proverbs, pastimes, trades and crafts – from their local communities, and recorded the names of their informants, often grandparents or older members of their family or neighbours. See the Schools Collection manuscripts for Laois.
The Schools Collection digitisation project is approaching the half-way stage with stories from 12 counties now available to view.
