Tom O’Rahilly, Director of the National Leprechaun Museum, Ireland. Photography © Ros Kavanagh

1.What is your museum about and what is your work there?

The National Leprechaun Museum helps visitors explore the folklore and mythology of Ireland. With a storyteller as your guide we take people into a world of wonder and imagination in a engaging space.

Almost all the information is communicated through spoken word and storytelling. My job is to help the staff grow and learn and develop great storytellers!   

2.How is your museum dealing with the coronavirus crisis?

The museum was closed to the public until June 29th, following guidelines from the Irish government. During this time our storytellers have been travelling the country (virtually) for the last forty days telling stories about different places in landscape. This is a vaialable o our podcast “Where the story begins”.

These stories are  linked to the Dúchas Schools Collection and the Places Names Database so people can find the names and stories from their local area. 

3.What is the impact on your digital activity? Do you have tips to share with your colleagues?

We have tried to keep our staff and audience engaged by telling stories online. As people can’t travel about freely we thought we could at least share some stories about places in Ireland.

We hope people who hear the stories could make plans to vist the places in the podcasts when they can. We’ve reached out to people and organisations to collaborate on some new initiatives too!

4.Are you already preparing yourself for the reopening? Tell us in what way.

We have already reopened with a limited tour capacity and we have changed the way we manage people in the space. Some of the spaces in the museum have to change and this It also gives us a chance to imagine how we can do things even better. We have also produced a handbook for our staff and visitors to help them have a nice experience.

The National Leprechaun Museum located in Dublin, Ireland opened in 2010. The museum takes people into to the world of Irish myth and foklore.

Using the landscape of Ireland and the world famous character of the Leprechaun we have welcomed over 800,000 visitors into a world of imagination and wonder. Our storytellers engage our visitors with the amazing tales of Ireland.

Interview by Fabio Pariante, journalist

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Tom O’Rahilly is the founder and director of the National Leprechaun Museum in Dublin.

Opened in 2010, it is dedicated to Irish mythology and especially to Leprechaun, the famous known elf of Irish mythology. These elves are dressed in green and come from a world far away, probably from the sea, and chose Ireland as their home.

The museum is 16,000 square meters large on one level, divided into 12 rooms: it is a real world between fantasy and folklore.