All stories are in the children’s original handwriting as were the original stories of 1937/38. We have been granted permission from UCD to publish the stories and this is the first time that UCD have given permission to publish the stories in the children’s original handwriting.
In 1937 the Irish Folklore Commission, in collaboration with the Department of Education and the Irish National Teachers' Organisation, initiated a revolutionary scheme in which schoolchildren were encouraged to collect and document folklore and local history.

Over a period of eighteen months some 100,000 children in 5,000 primary schools in the twenty-six counties of the Irish Free State were encouraged to collect folklore material in their home districts. The topics about which the children were instructed to research and write included local history and monuments, folktales and legends, riddles and proverbs, songs, customs and beliefs, games and pastimes, traditional work practices and crafts, etc. The children collected this material mainly from their parents and grandparents and other older members of the local community or school district.

The local schools which were involved in the 1937/38 stories are: Swinford National School, Brackloon National School, Cashel National School and Kinaffe National School.

These stories (stories that were told around the fireplace) help keep our tradition alive for generations to come and the book is a universal book which can be enjoyed by everyone both at home and by the wider Irish Communities abroad.