An Irish evening with Batt Burns

On Friday October 14, Batt Burns performed at the Penguin Book store in Sewickley, PA for the book-signing event of his collected short stories, The King with the Horse's ears and Other Irish Folktales. This book can now be purchased at the Penguin Book store.
His other published works, including two CDs where he recounts stories of Ireland, were also available for purchase.
He performed a couple of well-known Irish folktales and sometime with an old Irish accordion played by his beloved wife.
At the end of the performance he chatted with the audience and offered more in-depth information on the spectacular story of Ireland.

The surviving mind

It is no rare fact that Ireland is blessed with great folk tales and writers. On my trip to Ireland, I definitely anticipated on learning more about this creative side of Ireland. Little did I know that the tour guide, himself, was one of the gifted soul of this country.
Batt Burns who grew up in Sneem, a small town in Ireland, discovered the art of storytelling at a young age. His grandfather, Clifford, was a seanachie (storyteller), and Burns will spent relatively long period of time with him listening to the old tales of Ireland, including stories of the wee folks.
Batt Burns in turn became a seanachie, performing all over Ireland and the United States and keeping this old tradition alive. He laments about the gradual disappearance of this art, blaming it on technology because storytelling was a form of entertainment in a time when TVs were nonexistent. Nowadays, it is almost impossible to find a seanachie in Ireland.

Burns wrote an award-winning book, The King with Horse's Hears and Other Irish Folk Tales. As previously mentioned, Burns host tours of Ireland, and has incomparable knowledge of this land. For more information on Burns, please visit his website, http://battburns.com/.