It's a long way from swapping stories around the camp fires to last weekend's 'Tales on the Rails', writes Jennifer Neill, but the revival in storytelling is being encouraged widely

Travelling can be a tedious affair, a passage from A to B, unless you happen to have someone with you who can tell a good story and shorten the journey. Some Dublin commuters by train, Dart or Luas last Saturday heard something like this: "In a high clear voice the beautiful woman on the top of the mountain answered him, 'the truth . . . is a flower'.

"When he heard that, he was absolutely furious. 'The truth is a flower! Did you ever hear such nonsense in all your life, the truth is a flower! I have climbed up to the top of this mountain, spent all my money, spent my life searching for this and you tell me it's a flower, I'm disgusted!'

"And down he went, furious, raging, when from the distance he heard her clear voice call out, 'You mean . . . it's not a flower?'!"

That was an excerpt from a story charismatically told by Nuala Hayes on the Dart from Bray. Hayes and more than 50 storytellers from all over Ireland took to the rails en route to Collins Barracks for the launching of the first Irish Storytellers Handbook.

At Collins Barracks they captivated listeners with an extraordinary wealth of stories and individual styles. At times a pin dropping would have been deafening.

In the Irish Country Furniture's gallery, John Collins, a member of the Travelling community, recounted his tale against the backdrop of ancient wooden presses, stools and chairs from bygone days. John learnt his stories around Travellers' camp fires 50 years ago, committed them to memory and swore to remain true "to the old traditions".

Liz Weir, chairwoman of the Storytellers of Ireland, enthuses about a revival. Through an impressive range of community and educational work, they aim to harness the potential of storytelling to engage, inspire and ultimately foster skills and imagination and to promote it as an art form in itself.

Joe Brennan from Donegal, who regaled commuters on the Luas last Saturday, says storytelling is about the speaker listening, too, not just with the ear, but also to listeners' non-verbal cues which guide the story in an ever-changing direction.

For information or a copy of the Irish Storytelling Handbook, visit www.verbalartscentre.co.uk. Forthcoming storytelling festivals include: Cape Clear International Storytelling Festival, tel Christine Sawyer (028) 29116; Courtmacsharry Storytelling Festival, Bob Jennings (021) 546861