The Higher Diploma in Folklore gives you the opportunity to study everyday life in Ireland, in all of its rich diversity and its vast range of cultural expressions. Folklore, like its synonym popular culture, makes a study of everyday life, both past and present. Quite simply, it studies life by looking at how people lived their day-to-day lives: their houses, technologies, stories, rituals, beliefs, religion and cosmological understandings.

Folklore has a special place in the formation of Irish consciousness, in literature, and is one of the most important hallmarks of Irish culture. The Department of Folklore at UCC is ideally placed to offer unique insights into Irish life, popular culture and traditions. It is one of only two such departments in Ireland.

The study of ordinary life is at the heart of the Higher Diploma in Folklore. Years of experience in teaching and conducting original research into Irish life, traditions and folklore make the Department of Folklore and Ethnology the ideal place to study these aspects of Irish life and make participating in the Higher Diploma in Folklore a rich and rewarding experience.

By studying for a Higher Diploma in Folklore, you will cover key topics including:


oral literature (e.g. narrative, story, and song)
popular religion (e.g. belief, healing, festivals)
popular material culture (e.g. vernacular housing, and technologies past and present).
This course will give you the skills to:

trace the development of the discipline of Irish and European folklore
engage with various aspects of traditional and contemporary Irish culture
identify key genres in narrative, and recount the social and cultural context for storytelling
evaluate the ethnographic value of archival documents
be able to research an ethnographic project through archival sources
design an ethnographic fieldwork project
use recording technology to conduct an ethnographic interview.

Skills and Careers Information
In addition to developing archival and analytical skills, you will develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of Irish popular culture, both past and present, in studying the stories, rituals, beliefs, traditions, religion and cosmological understandings of the people.

Graduates of our department have gone on to careers in:


journalism
television and radio
teaching
the heritage sector (museums, folk parks, etc.
community-based folklore and arts projects management
academia.