Having researched how self-published authors approach self-publishing, I have decided to publish my eBooks DBA (doing business as) Seanchaí.
A Seanchaí is a traditional Irish storyteller. Storytelling was one of the main forms of fireside entertainment among ordinary Irish folk and seanchaí were held in high esteem by the ordinary Irish who revered and cultivated story and song as their principal means of artistic expression. Not only do I strive to emulate this tradition, I hope to honor the roots of my nearly pure Irish/Celtic DNA. There have always been storytellers because people enjoy stories. This is true of all races and periods of history. Story-telling was a favorite art and amusement among the Gaelic-speaking people of Ireland and Scotland and much of their repertoire went back to pre-Christian sources. In olden days, there were professional storytellers, divided into well-defined ranks – ollaimh (professors), fi lÌ (poets), baird (bards), seanchaithe (historians, storytellers), whose duty it was to know by heart the tales, poems, and history proper to their rank, which were recited for the entertainment and praise of the chiefs and princes. These learned classes were rewarded by their patrons, but the collapse of the Gaelic order after the battle of Kinsale in 1601-2, and Culloden in Scotland (1746), wiped out the aristocratic classes who maintained the poets and reduced the role of the historian and seanchaí. Storytelling was, of course, one of the main forms of fireside entertainment among the ordinary folk also, and the popular Irish tradition became enriched by the remnants of the learned classes returning to the people. Denied the possibility of enhancing their place in society, and deprived of the means to promote and progress their art, the storyteller was held in high esteem by the ordinary Irish who revered and cultivated story and song as their principal means of artistic expression.