Irish Folklore : Seanachai

 In the days before books and printing, there were  people called seanachai or storytellers. These folklorists made their living by traveling from village to village and telling stories. Sometimes their  tales would be  from the great volume of folklore that makes up the mythology of Ireland and other times they’d just use local gossip and stories from neighbouring townslands.  They were always entertaining and well received by the locals
 The wonderful part is that centuries later, when Gaelic was being systematically suppressed, people calling themselves seanachai would travel from town to town seemingly for the sole purpose of carrying on the ancient tradition of telling stories. At night they would loiter in the pubs and tell their stories but during the day  they would gather the children, lead them off into the countryside to teach them the Irish language and culture in secret. These were called "hedge schools" because the class was held under the cover of the hedges




http://theirishinstories.com/826how-to-tell-a-story-the-seanachai-eamon-Kelly

Take the time to watch this clip of Eamonn Kelly renowned seanachai and his colourful Kerry accent

Eamon Kelly (1914–2001) was an actor and seanchaí* from the south-west of Ireland