Bridging Cultures

Artists

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  Gerry Clancy MCs
  

  Gerry Clancy

  MCs

  Gerry Clancy is a member of Storytellers of Ireland, and the Dublin based storytelling group “Story-O”. A regular contributor to Cork and Dublin Yarn Spinners. He was featured on the Dublin Yarnspinners CD “15 Years of Dublin Yarnspinners” which was released in 2011. Gerry is a visual artist and professional consultant for the arts industry.

  As an artist his work has featured in a number of exhibitions both nationally and internationally. Gerry has also been a Co-Director Cape Clear International Storytelling Festival from 2012 to 2016.

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  Tom Muir Storyteller
  

  Tom Muir

  Storyteller

  Tom Muir tells traditional stories from his native Orkney Islands. He has a great love for both folk tales and local traditions, and his humorous delight in the humanity of the stories is infectious. He tells tales of sea monsters, trows/fairies, mermaids, fin folk and selkie folk, as well as stories about witches, shipwrecks, ghosts and humorous goings on.

  Tom was born on a small farm by the sea in Tankerness in the east of the Orkney Mainland in 1963, but his parents originally came from the North Isles of Westray and Sanday. As they were middle aged when he was born (the youngest of six), folklore and customs were still remembered in family stories, as were some folk tales. His love of traditional folk tales led him to republish the stories collected by Walter Traill Dennison (1825-94) in Sanday and the works of folklorist and local historian George Marwick (1836-1912) from Yesnaby on the west coast of the Orkney Mainland. He has also written a book containing as many supernatural folk tales from Orkney as he could find, ‘The Mermaid Bride and other Orkney Folk Tales’, first published in 1998 and later translated into Japanese and Icelandic. In 2014 The History Press published his book ‘Orkney Folk Tales’ as part of their county folk tale series. Tom has also published many other books on aspects of Orkney’s history, Nordic folk tales and the Icelandic Sagas.

  Tom’s storytelling skill has seen him perform in many countries, from Newfoundland and Greenland in the north to Slovenia and Hong Kong in the south, as well as all over Scotland, Scandinavia and Europe. He has even been storyteller in residence at the Storholmen Viking Village in Sweden for several years. His proudest achievement is having restored Orkney’s folk tales to a place of prominence and to see them used in schools, while the Scottish Government website, ‘Scotland’s Stories’, which Tom wrote and told stories for, is now used to promote traditional tales in Scotland’s schools. Tom’s Orkney folk tales are now featured in English language books in secondary schools in both Germany and France. He is also a founder member and president of the Orcadian Story Trust, which runs the annual Orkney Storytelling Festival.

  This will be Tom’s first time telling at the Cape Clear Festival and what a treat is in store!

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  Zahra Afsah Storyteller
  

  Zahra Afsah

  Storyteller

  Born and raised in Tehran, Zahra is a storyteller who crafts the ancient Persian stories she tells with precision and passion.

  She studied Persian Painting and Transcultural Visuality, examining the links between oral storytelling and Persian miniature painting exploring the direct influences of the oral tradition.

  Zahra has run workshops, performed and told stories in schools, museums, festivals, exhibitions as well as informal settings