The Last Who Remember

Traditional Ireland in the Words of its People

Brian Kaller

• Publisher: Academica Press
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN: 9781680535662
• eBook ISBN: 9781680535679
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Irish History
• Index: Social Sciences

For nearly two decades, Brian Kaller has immersed himself in the communal world of rural Ireland and fumbled toward a more traditional way of life for himself while raising a daughter in the countryside. Kaller's prodigious work with communal elders, archives, oral histories, and memoirs has assembled a portrait of 20 th century Ireland that can tell us a great deal about traditional cultures everywhere. The Last Who Remember invites the reader on a tour through rural life and shows how self-reliance and close communities keep the human spirit alive in times of desperate poverty and political turmoil. In each chapter, Kaller examines a different aspect of traditional life: childhood, schooling, eating, socialising, courting, and dying. He describes ancient crafts still practiced, from scything to smithing – and learned many of these crafts himself. The Last Who Remember asks why people in modern societies report less happiness than previous generations, even with the convenience of technology. By demonstrating the social bonds and common rituals of Ireland's traditional society, Kaller questions what we lack in the modern world. By exploring a traditional culture, this book invites the reader to reexamine our assumptions about our own past and reevaluate where our society is heading.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Chapter One: Growing Up
• Chapter Two: Keeping Animals
• Chapter Three: Foraging
• Chapter Four: Farming
• Chapter Five: Crafting
• Chapter Six: Schooling
• Chapter Seven: Visiting
• Chapter Eight: Storytelling
• Chapter Nine: Trading
• Chapter Ten: Dying
• Chapter Eleven: Modern Ireland
• Chapter Twelve: Conclusion
• Sources