October Storytelling Workshop Weekend

October 24th to 27th 2025

( Bank Holiday weekend ) Whiddy Island

We are delighted to be running the October Storytelling Workshop again in Whiddy Island this year from 24-27 October and excited to welcome Michael Harvey from Wales, as facilitator.

Open to all but limited to c. 16. Chuck and Nell Kruger started hosting this retreat in their own home in Cape Clear, it’s popularity has endured for 31 years.
It attracts an eclectic mix of interesting people with fabulous stories. Even when we think we have no stories, Your Secret Storytelling Skills with Michael Harvey will help us find them.

About the Workshop – Your secret storytelling skills
Many of the core skills we need to tell stories effectively are used with great skill and aplomb every time we tell and listen to stories socially. Noticing and acknowledging how this happens allows us to trust our skills as storytelling beings and be bolder and more effective in our telling as a result. These social storytelling skills include both listeners and tellers, they can inform how we gain rapport with our audiences as well as how we tell our stories. Whether derived from traditional, orally derived material, or our own experiences, these stories can be put in to a performance context.

Come and join our unique Storytelling Workshop in Whiddy Island with the wonderful and diverse Michael Harvey to learn these skills
“Michael was brilliant, fun, motivating and got the best out of everyone.”
“Great workshop! Inspiring, warm, fun. Michael’s enthusiasm was wonderful and a great cohesive group. Going away feeling confident and happy.”

Weekend Arrangements

Meet Friday 24th October, in Bantry 5pm. Evening meal 5.30pm. Private ferry leaves pontoon at 7pm to take the whole group over to the Island, time is needed to get luggage and walk to ferry terminal.
The Workshop starts promptly at 10am on Saturday 25th Oct, and runs throughout the bank holiday weekend including Monday morning,
We will be working and staying together in the Schoolhouse Hostel, a clean modern building attached to the renovated old Schoolhouse.
Ferry fare, Tuition, Breakfast, Lunch, and shared Accommodation for the 3 days are included in the total Workshop price. Its a bargain. There will be tea/coffee, fruit, biscuit breaks.
Evening meals (own expense) are in Whiddy Island’s Bank House restaurant. The short walk is easygoing.
Full information available after registration.

Workshop tuition, accommodation, ferry fare, continental breakfasts and buffet lunches, for the 3 days, all in one great package of €350 (including deposit €100)

For registration, enquiries and full info, please contact Conor: finnegas2@gmail.com 087 7469756 OR Vincent: vincentkielystoryteller@gmail.com 086 1742408

Meet in Bantry town at 5 pm on Friday 24th October, 5.30pm, early dinner together (at own expense), then all travel together at 7pm, the short distance to the Island on a specially chartered ferry. Miss dinner if you must, but do not miss the Ferry 7pm
FERRY 7pm FRIDAY : WORKSHOP 10am SATURDAY til 1pm MONDAY : up to 15 hours tuition. FERRY 2pm MONDAY

Biography of

Michael Harvey

master storyteller

Michael tells stories from the world’s oral traditions to all ages. His repertoire is based in Wales and the other Celtic countries but as he says, “ I can’t resist a good story, wherever it’s from ”.

Passing on his knowledge and skills is another of Michael’s gifts. In the workshop setting he is a master, bringing people on the journey to discovering their own voice, skills and stories.

With him people find their unique styles and have fun discovering.

Working in community settings, in schools, in theatres, festivals, he loves the immediacy of storytelling and the recognition by people of all ages and backgrounds that these stories are for them and about them, no matter how strange or magical they may seem.

Michael is committed to pushing what storytelling can do on stage and has been commissioned to create pieces for a number of leading festivals and theatres. Winning a Major Creative Wales Award in 2011 led him on to a series of storytelling adventures.

One of these adventures will be in Whiddy Island in the beautiful Bantry Bay, in October. We will work together in the Schoolhouse in Whiddy Island which is steeped in its own fascinating history that whispers in the wind.