C'mere til I tell you: The power of the Irish storyteller

Everyone loves a good, well-woven yarn and us Irish are some of the best storytellers in the world with centuries of seanchaí to show for it. We’re also credited for having invented Samhain or Halloween, a time of year rooted in the storytelling calendar when darker evenings brought people together to hear tales, writes Orla Neligan

Rooted in the Celtic festival of Samhain, Halloween, in particular, holds a key place in the storytelling calendar.

There’s a story I was told as a child by a wonderful man called Paddy, a roguishly handsome Kerry fisherman with hazelnut tan and blue twinkly eyes who stitched tales together with great lyricism.

“C’mere til I tell you” he’d say, perched on his stool, cigarette dangling from his lips, which he moved from side to side with his mouth as he spoke, replacing it regularly from a pack tucked into his rolled-up shirt sleeves.