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Programmes

Below are some programmes we deliver for various occasions.
We have others that come to mind as needs be.
So, if you want a selection of stories for a large gathering or an intimate group we can draw some tales together that will surely suit the moment.
Call us and we'll chat.
Brendan is garda-vetted for contact with children, young adults, and vulnerable adults.

Gathering Tales
Gathering stories go back to the old days of Comeallyes. Such songs, stories and poems begin with the line Come all ye…
It was the storyteller’s call to come listen to a tale of strange happenings; true or fanciful it made no difference.
For Gathering Ireland Brendan Nolan compiled programmes to suit every occasion where listeners gather.

Brendan recalls stories of
A woman that was found guilty of not having a licence for a dead dog
The first sighting of the Headless Cortina of Chapelizod
How a son with a stammer was recognised by his mother when he wrote home from America
The woman in the summer frock who swore Rock Hudson kissed her in Hollywood
The Wexford tailor who tried to bury his argumentative wife alive in a row over geese
How a dead Elvis rang a CD seller late one night to talk about favourite books
How a Wicklow man found his lost brother in a snowstorm by looking down a chimney.
and enough comeallyes to keep you entertained for one year and a day and beyond
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How the Prince found his Cinderella
and other stories for children of all ages

Telling Grimm stories

The year 2012 was the 200th anniversary of the publication of the collected folk tales of the Grimm Brothers.
Universal in popularity, the settings are simple and natural.
In the secret wood lies the hungry wolf seeking living flesh to consume.
And in the forest toils the woodsman ever ready to assist when needs must.

Cinderella, The Frog Prince, Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin and Snow White are among the best-known stories that date back through the centuries.
All are among the stories collected by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in Europe 200 years ago.
Folk tales have been passed down through families from parent-to-child for generations.
We still tell these stories.
For a good story, well told, leaves warm memories.
We live them once more to emerge on the other side of the story with our eyes opened wide.
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WolfStory
The ordinary made extraordinary is well remembered.
We see what we are conditioned to see.
But sometimes one can also be another.

Riding Hood
Many journeys offer alternative choices affecting our future.
Sometimes, we set out a plan and follow it to conclusion.
Sometimes we meet a force beyond ourselves.
There are several versions of the red riding hood story.
Many see the girl eaten.
In another, she drowns the wolf in a trough when he follows the scent of cooked meat she sets for him.
All are about impetuosity and resolution.

Snow White
The wicked step-mother changes her story many times to lure Snow White into a coma.
She cannot awaken except by the power of a passing prince.
But seven little men stay by the sleeping girl's side.

Cinderella
A story of riches to rags to riches once more showing that persistence is everything in life.

Thumbling
is a brace of stories about a boy grown to manhood who is no larger than an adult's thumb and what happens him in his adventures

The Hungry Fox
is about a fox that eats so much he becomes stuck in a tree and cannot free himself.

There are more than 200 stories in the Grimm's collection any one of which can be told to a modern audience, the above are just some of them.
More can be selected. We offer selected programmes of these stories for a young or an adult audience
sample story video

It is possible there is not even one sane person alive on the planet at this time?
How would we know? Brendan Nolan recalls the stories of ordinary people everywhere who struggle to make sense of any of it.
Brendan's well-told modern stories mainly reflect the dilemma of ordinary people living through some extraordinary occurrences.
His contention is that true idiosyncrasy is not the preserve of one people, one country or one person, but is common opportunity for all.

Mad people and other friends of ours

Brendan tells the stories of
the man that chased echoes to see how far they travel:
how newly-weds fought with hatchets on the first day of a honeymoon;
how a man who swam naked in a river was thought to be a devil when he ran for home when his clothes were stolen;
how a bride-to-be became a hen party of one on a headless coach;
how a dead man terrified single women in the heart of Dublin in times past.
Brendan reveals how some people try to catch leprechauns as a business; and wonders at the man that swapped a cow on the way to market for an empty bottle and a promise.
In food stories, he recalls the restaurant owner who sought payment for the smell of his soup and reveals the secret of Mrs McLoughlin the bad cook.
Brendan wraps up this presentation with the story of the blue beads of false love or how every man in the village went bald over the same woman.
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Catching the sun in a sieve

Brendan recalls the stories of:
the wife who told police that her husband fed a unicorn in the back garden;
the man that sold fake relics of a near-saint to believers;
the true reason the queen brought no cigarettes with her to Ireland;
the man whose garage was too small for his new car and what he did about it,
the banker who became a performing poet at Phoenix Park;
the woman that saw too many geese in her garden and fell out with her stubborn husband as a result
and how a Wexford boy escaped the clutches of the devil at a cock-fight
the woman that tried to carry sunshine into her house in a sieve.
He remembers the country woman that swore once at her husband and had her child taken away by the good people.
He concludes with the story of the four wise brothers that could not count one another in a fit.
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Brendan Nolan, as an accomplished storyteller, Heritage Ireland heritage expert, author of eight books, and member of Storytellers of Ireland, tells humorous stories from his native Dublin, all of Ireland, this world and the parallel one and from a street near you.
His well-told stories mainly reflect the dilemma of ordinary people living through some extraordinary occurrences.

Children's stories

Brendan tells stories of how a greedy frog ate all the colours in the world;
how a rooster fooled a wolf;
how a bone girl became a person once more;
how an Irish giant won a running race;
why the rabbit has a short tale;
how a hungry person made soup from a stone;
how the tortoise won the race against a hare;
how the crow saved his friend the cat from dogs;
and what happened when a boy saw footsteps in the sand where nobody had been;
and other stories in which he encourages children to participate.
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Teen times

Brendan recalls the stories of the girl who dates a boy in his new second hand car only to discover that water comes in through the floor in a flood onto her new shoes.
He tells how a young man finds his lost brother in a snowstorm by gazing down a chimney.
Brendan reveals how a girl that ate too much becomes stuck in a tree and could not free herself.
He recalls how a lost boy with no story to tell escapes from three strange people who stand beside an empty coffin in a graveyard.
Brendan recalls how a dead woman haunts a young ballplayer when she dies, as she promised when he annoyed her.
Included in this presentation is the Grimm's story of a boy that found a giant in a bottle in a forest and opened the bottle... with unforeseen consequences.
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Scary storytelling for Hallowe'en
don't be left out alone

Stories told to thrill and terrify all ages told by a master storyteller include
Blood Field
Hallowe'en haunted sheet
The lost boy with no name
The headless walker
Bob Martin and the ghostly horseman
Killer cat
Stormy vision at sea
Hallowe'en trickery
Pooka calls
Haunted ballplayer
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Twelve Tales of Christmas

A man minding a turkey is unwillingly helped across the road by a good Samaritan;
a pair of cheap ear-rings falls asunder at an unfortunate moment;
three people selling Christmas wreaths face doorstep issues;
four children almost disintegrate in a Santa stagecoach when atmospheric birdsong grows demented;
a bride-to-be believes she is kidnapped on a driverless coach hung with mistletoe;
a man who smells a goose for free appears in court for unpaid sniffing of another's goods;
the Christmas cortina of Chapelizod makes its first appearance;
eight Christmas cooks can find only seven of their number;
on the ninth day a man recycling trees realizes the secret engagement ring is missing;
ten bottles of cheer are consumed by burglars before an angry mother comes home to wreak retribution;
a man steals a ring and gains the tune Fáinne an Óir after an altercation with the good people;
a busker plays an imaginary drum outside a pantomime theatre, with strange results.
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Christmas Storybag
for children

Brendan tells the stories of the first Christmas;
how Claus made the first toy;
the first Christmas tree;
the first Santa Claus;
what happened on Christmas Eve;
the night before Christmas;
the first Christmas present;
when Santa got stuck in the chimney;
how Rudolph got his first job;
and why the Good Witch La Befana visits children.
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Brendan participates in readings at events, seminars, weekends and summer schools. Call us and chat. We have a story to tell.

contact us:
tel: 00 353 (01) 628 11 25
email
138 Esker Lawns, Lucan Co Dublin, Ireland

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