A new phone service will allow members of the public to listen to recordings of songs and stories from Irish folklore performed by contemporary Irish artists throughout the month of November. 

Dial A Seanchaí, a project commissioned by the Clare Arts Office, is an answering machine service that allows the public to choose between six short recordings of songs and stories from Irish folklore. 

The service, which was first launched in 2021, will run until November 30 and features stories about epic battles, fairy hurling matches, dances with the dead, and a cow with an unlimited supply of milk. 

Each story and song has been interpreted and crafted by the selected artists to capture the imagination and reawaken our relationship with myth.

The answering machine service allows the public to listen to Manchán Magan tell the story of An Glas Gaibhneach - a story about a legendary cow that yields an unlimited quantity of milk - and Ruth Marshall tell stories of Inchiquin Lake - a lake in County Clare steeped in myth and folklore. 

Meanwhile, Junior Brother recites the story of Refereeing A Fairy Hurling Match, while Branwen Kavanagh sings "Ancient Cures For Modern Ailments". 

Edwina Guckia tells the story of An Oíche Dheireanach (The Last Night) - a Leitrim legend about a young girl who is enticed to dance with fairies - while Rónán Ó Snodaigh sings his rendition of "Follow Me Up to Carlow". 

Clare artist John Lillis, who curated the Dial A Seanchaí project, said the service was a reminder of the "wealth of wisdom contained in our ancient stories and a salute to those who today still continue to share magic through the voice". 

"Every culture has stories. Stories allow us to pass teachings and wisdom onto new generations, and connect us to those that came before us.  Stories stir the unconscious, sparking questions and sculpting answers inside all of us. They can re-awaken our relationship to landscape and language, and allow the words of our ancestors to live anew," Lillis said in a statement. 

For more information, contact [email protected] or visit their Twitter and Instagram profiles. 

To access the Dial A Seanchaí phoneline from Ireland, please dial (065) 672 3466

To access the Dial A Seanchaí phoneline from the UK, please dial 020 8079 1720

To access the Dial A Seanchaí phoneline from the US, please dial (833) 611-2230 (Toll-Free)