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a Biddy Early story

Sound recording, story; a Biddy Early legend, of Irish origin, told by Eddie Lenihan, as part of the programme Rambling House, in the Ceilidh Tent at the Beyond the Border Festival, St Donats Art Centre, Llantwit Major, South Glamorgan, Wales, 3rd July 1999.

Story told by Eddie Lenihan, about Biddy Early, who people would go to find out whether someone had put a bad-luck curse on them. A couple suspect they had been cursed. The wife is an expert butter maker, but her butter will not churn. She sends her husband to Biddy Early, who causes the women who had set the curse on them to come running to their house in pain, and wet herself on their doorstep.

audience:- adult
    recording quality
condition:- good
completeness:- complete
duration:- 0 hours, 8 minutes, 15 seconds

Performing in the Rambling House programme were Nick Hennessey, Michael Harvey, Sheila Stewart and Eddie Lenihan.

Beyond the Border Festival was founded in 1993 by Ben Haggarty, Artistic Director of the Crick Crack Club, and David Ambrose, the then Director of St Donats Arts Centre, Wales. The Festival was founded as The Beyond the Border International Festival of Storytelling and Epic Singing, but became known simply as Beyond the Border. The festival ran from 1993 to 2006 co-directed by the two founders: with Ben Haggarty programming storytellers and David Ambrose programming musicians. Since 2007 the festival has been directed by David Ambrose. The festival is a weekend event running on the first weekend of July annually; attracting around 2,500 people from across Britain and from overseas. The festival is sited at St Donats Arts Centre and in the grounds of St Donats Castle in the Vale of Glamorgan on the South Coast of Wales. Beyond the Border was initiated as part of the UK Year of Literature in 1995. The successful bid submitted by Academi Wales, prominently featured a storytelling festival. The original Director of the UK Year of Literature was Maura Dooley, who had been at the South Bank Centre in London when Ben Haggarty ran the Third International Storytelling Festival there in 1989. Maura Dooley supported the proposal brought to her by Ben Haggarty and David Ambrose to hold an International festival and series of summer schools at St Donats Castle and to begin Beyond the Border in 1993 in order to build an audience and a core of Wales-based artists for the Year of Literature in 1995. However before the plan could be implemented Maura Dooley resigned from her post (the position was later taken by Sean Dorran). Despite this, St Donats Arts Centre was committed to the festival and Beyond the Border was launched in July 1993. The 1993, 1994 and 1995 festivals were accompanied by summer schools, which produced a number of storytellers including Megan Lloyd, Francis Maxey, Richard Berry and Michael Harvey.

storytelling:- storyteller: Eddie Lenihan
male / Irish

origin:- Ireland


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festival programme

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associated:- storyteller: Michael Harvey


associated:- storyteller; singer; musician: Nick Hennessey


associated:- storyteller; ballad singer; singer: Sheila Stewart


programming:- Festival Co-Director: Ben Haggarty
Festival Co-Director: David Ambrose


administration:- administrator: St Donats Arts Centre


storytelling:- St Donats, Llantwit Major, South Glamorgan, Wales: St Donats Art Centre: Ceilidh Tent
03 Jul 1999
festival: Beyond the Border Festival
Rambling House


gift from:- St Donats Arts Centre


©  The London Centre for International Storytelling: 2007
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