Tracking the History of the Irish American J.J. Lyons

Nineteenth-Century Proto-Folklorist and Charm Collector

Nicholas Wolf

A Charm against the Evil Eye

An Gaodhal

July 1890

Douglas Hyde

"Mr. Lyons has laid all the Irish scholars of the world under debt and obligation to him for the songs and poems and other things which he has written down..."

Abhráin Diadha Chúige Connacht (1906)

Micheál Ó Lócháin

"Mr. Lyons deserves great credit for his unceasing exertions in preserving the old songs and literature of his native land."

An Gaodhal

July 1889

Rev. Daniel Murphy

(1858-1935)

J. J. Lyons Significance

1. Wide sweep of informants in terms of geographic origins (at least 10 Irish counties represented)

2. Wide interests: poems and songs, but also charms and prayers

3. Identifies informants by name and often with birth origin location

4. Reliance on submissions to newspapers

Thomas Crofton Croker (1798-1854)

Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland (1825)

Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland (1825)

Jeremiah Curtin (1835-1906)

Lyons Informants

"...from the dictation of Daniel Connolly..."