The Megalithic Monuments of Ireland and Their Folklore: A Photodocumentary Project.

A photojournalism project is described in this paper that integrated the disciplines of photography, archaeology, and ethnology in an examination of prehistoric megalithic monuments in Ireland and their folklore. Following an introduction tracing the history of the monuments and pointing to the maintenance in Ireland of a body of oral tradition concerning many of them, the paper describes the methodology used in the project, which included (1) preliminary research and selection of monuments to be studied, (2) the study of archival folklore material, (3) the collecting of taped folklore interviews, and (4) the photographing of the people who served as folklore sources and of the monuments. Finally, the paper lists the types of monuments often associated with traditional beliefs and reports the most prevalent types of beliefs concerning the monuments, which involve beliefs about fairies, witches, gods, heroes, and kings, as well as fanciful "scientific" speculations about the creation and function of the monuments. Appendixes provide a list of instructions for folklore collectors, excerpts of transcripts from folkloric material collected for the project, and a bibliography of selected relevant publications. (GT)