About Snáithe
Snáithe means “thread”. This is a record of Irish life, and of the customs that held it together, for people at home and the millions abroad.
Why this exists
I started Snáithe in Galway because Ireland is changing quickly, as every country does, and the ordinary things are the easiest to lose: how people greeted each other on the road, what was said at a funeral, what was cooked on a Sunday, what the field behind the house was called. The great national collections keep the old manuscripts and recordings safe. This is a place for the everyday, told plainly, and passed on.
Ireland has always kept its knowledge by passing it on: carved in ogham, copied in scriptoria, carried by heart by the seanchaí. Snáithe continues those traditions in its own way. The stories are here to be read, and the Scriptorium makes them available to anyone building something new.
How it works
Every entry is sourced and labelled. Fact is documented history. Tradition is handed down and varies by place. Memory is one person’s recollection.
We stop five years short of the present. Narrative entries currently run up to 2021. History needs a little distance, and the window moves forward each January.
We stay out of politics. Hard chapters of history are told through how they touched ordinary lives, with facts rather than commentary.
We credit what came in as well as what went out. Ireland’s story is one thread in a much larger weave.
It’s open. Our own writing is shared under CC BY 4.0, so schools, families and other projects can reuse it with credit.
Picture credits
Our photographs come from Wikimedia Commons and are public domain or openly licensed. Each is credited where it appears.
- Connemara, Co. Galway. Photo: M. P. Whyte, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Stone walls on Inis Mór, Aran Islands. Photo: JoachimKohler-HB, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Contribute
Recipes, recordings, photos, customs and family emigration stories will all be welcome. The contribution form opens soon.