Two Bears Buttering Bread Rolls & a Baby on Mum's Back

'Sharing our Rhymes' Project is Looking for Nursery Rhymes from You!

Children's rhymes exist wherever there are children. Some of them talk of animals in a surprising way, like the one from Flanders / Belgium "Twee Beren" in which two bears are observed buttering bread rolls - "I saw them, I really did!".  Some of them are about baking a cake, like "Patty Cake" or the German "Backe Backe Kuchen, der Bäcker hat gerufen" (Bake bake a cake, the baker has called). Others are about mothers and their children, like the Yoruba verse from Nigeria which reminds the child that there won't ever be anyone like mammy, who carried you inside for nine months, and then for another three years on her back!

Four women from three countries have now come together to form the "Sharing our Rhymes" project.  They want to collect such rhymes from people who are now living in Skerries, but hail from all over the world (including Ireland!).  At a first count, they have arrived at some twenty nationalities, from Japan and China to Canada and the USA, from Kenya and Nigeria to Latvia and Lithuania, from France and Italy to Ukraine and Poland…

There will be fliers looking for contributions, workshops, readings, and in the end, they hope to publish an illustrated book with a selection of the rhymes in their original language, with translations into English and Irish by Marie Bashford Synnott. Just imagine what wonderful verses we will be able to read in that book, about bears and horsies, baking cakes, rain and sunshine, monkeys and mothers!

Look out for the fliers around Skerries in February, and make sure you contribute to this very interesting undertaking!

If you want to get in touch with the "Sharing our Rhymes" project, you can ring Sabine on 849 4004

To download the Flyer/Entry Form just click here.