While Green Grass Grows by Brí­d Mahon

ISBN: 1856352064
As the subtitle says this book is mainly concerned with the life of Bríd Mahon while she worked for the Irish Folklore Commission. In it Mahon lists many of the tales that the commission collected, as well as the lives of the people who collected the stories, customs and songs.

It is a very readable book, I finished it in one sitting on a three hour train journey, and while never spectacular it is very enjoyable for anyone who might have an interest in folklore. In this book Mahon covers almost every topic from Raftery the poet to the Famine, from the oldest folktale in the world to Georgian Dublin. In the years she spent at the Folklore Commission she met with many famous names; Kavanagh, Tolkien and Disney for example.

Sean O’Suilleabhain and the Folklore Commission | UCD’s folklore dept. | Amazon’s list of books by Mahon