Harriet Hjorth Wetterström (1908-1977) : IRLANDSKUST – A Swedish Book About Coastal Life in 1940s Ireland

Harriet Hjort by Anna Riwkin (1908-1970) © Anna Riwkin/Moderna Museet, FM 1981 032 2518

Scholarship links between Ireland and Scandinavia in the field of folklore are too numerous to mention, but suffice it to say that in 1921, undergraduate Séamus Ó Duilearga met Norwegian Reidar Christiansen by chance in a Dublin book shop, and this serendipitous meeting culminated in two staff of the Irish Folklore Commission going to Sweden in 1935 to train in their long-established folklore classification systems. Indeed, when Ó Duilearga retired, he was replaced by a Swedish folklorist, Dr. Bo Almqvist.

Ireland made the societal shift from an agrarian, traditional society to an industrialised, secular one much later than many of the wealthier European countries. As industrialisation and urbanisation advanced, the pace of change was so rapid that many traditional practices had virtually disappeared before ethnologists and folklorists had a chance to fully document them – albeit they had by this time acquired more advanced recording and photographic equipment. This had the effect of shining a spotlight on relatively unchanged regions in Europe, the last bastions of traditional culture which scholars could still visit – including parts of Ireland.

The booklet for the exhibition ‘Through a Swedish Lens’ which was printed in three languages

In 2010, the National Folklore Collection held a photographic exhibition called ‘Through a Swedish Lens’ to celebrate photographs taken in Ireland during the 1930s and 1940s by four Swedes who recorded their visits with sympathy, professionalism (and good cameras), towards the end of an era that is now irrevocably lost. They are: Carl Wilhelm von Sydow, Åke Campbell, Albert Eskeröd and the subject of this blogpost, Harriet Hjorth Wetterström. She was born Harriet Albihn in Stockholm in 1908. (Her first husband was Bo Hjorth and her second was Carl-Gustaf Wetterström). Some of her education was at the Sorbonne in Paris, and she was the first Swedish journalist to interview the iconic feminist Simone de Beauvoir there, in 1945. She was very well-read, good at languages, and very disciplined, beginning work at 6am each morning. Hjorth wrote many novels, poetry collections and plays, as well as depictions of country life and ethnology. Her 1945 book Utö, about life on an island where she had spent many childhood holidays, was very well-received, and in 1947 her book about the West coast of Ireland “Irlandskust” was published.

Cover of “Irlandskust” (1947)

To prepare for her research, Harriet began corresponding with Seamus O Duillearga in 1945, and came to visit him in the Irish Folklore Commission in 1946. Ó Duilearga helped her to plan her itinerary and gave her contact names of collectors and local guides. They corresponded regularly as she travelled around by train, bus, bicycle and on foot. Albert Eskeröd loaned her a camera for her visit, and Hjorth made excellent use of it. Heinrich Wagner, referred to as ‘the Swiss’ in her book, was in Kerry at the time of her visit, and brought her to meet Peig Sayers. Peig was reportedly very fond of Carl von Sydow. Here is a photograph that Harriet took of Peig outside her house in Dunquin, Co. Kerry, doing some handiwork:

Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD. The Photographic Collection, M001.18.00682

Another of Hjorth’s photographs, this time Seán Ó hEochaidh, with a basket for long line (spiller):

Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD. The Photographic Collection, M011.29.00015

Harriet travelled around the west coast to visit many rural outposts, and featured Kerry, Donegal, Connemara and Mayo in her book. She also included a bit of historical perspective and a brief orientation on Ireland’s political situation. To keep track of her travels, she kept a workbook, with details of places, people and things that she recorded and even some drawings of artefacts, from butter churns to fishing boats. Here is a sketch from her workbook of a variety of thatched roofs: 

From a page in a copy of Hjorth’s 1946 workbook, held in the National Folklore Collection, UCD 

And here is another section, which even includes a template for a súgan chair arm-rest, cut from newsprint:

From a page in a copy of Hjorth’s 1946 workbook, held in the National Folklore Collection, UCD

Later on, Seán Ó Suilleabháin reviewed chapters of the book as it was progressing (they corresponded in Swedish). The special quality of Harriet’s writing style is that it’s not purely ethnological – her genuine love for people, coasts, landscape, animals and islands shines through with emotional and linguistic sensibility. Ó Duilearga later told her that how she captured the people and places that she visited made it one of the best books about Ireland by a foreigner that he had ever read. The 1969 reprint has the following foreword in English, written by Ó Duillearga:

“January, 1970.

I am grateful that in writing Irlandskust you have given us a chronicle of an older world now swiftly passing away. Ireland is a mediterranean enclave in the Atlantic, an island on the frontier between two worlds, the old and the new. You and I have seen the old.

I shall always cherish the thought that long ago I helped you in some measure when you ventured on your voyage to the ultimate shore of an older world, so well depicted (later) in your remarkable book – the best work of its kind on Ireland that I know.

I wish Irlandskust the success it so richly deserves. I feel sure that many people in Sweden will find in its pages a passport into a peaceful world – that same will come to breathe a freer air. They will be welcome, as you were welcome long ago.”

– Seamus Delargy 

In 1965, twenty years after their first contact, Harriet wrote to Ó Duillearga again, asking if he would write her a letter of recommendation to her publishers. Irlandskust had become very difficult to find and she wanted to propose a reprint. A new edition was duly approved, and Harriet revisited Ireland in November 1969. As Ó Duilearga had warned her, Ireland had changed a lot in the intervening years. It’s very fortunate that we have such wonderful records, collections and books such as Hjorth’s to inform our studies and interests today.

Hjorth presented a number of items to the NFC relating to her Irish visits – 

• A photocopy of ‘The Work-book Ireland West 1946’
• A collection of black and white photographs of people, landscapes, architecture, crafts and so on, some of which are available to see on the Dúchas.ie website
• A photocopy of her 1965 journal ‘The Irish trip for the new edition of “Irish Coast” at Proprius’, dedicated to Ó Duilearga.

We also have – 

• Correspondence files covering both of her trips
• A  folder put together by Bo Almqvist ‘Peig Collectors – Hjorth’ which includes a list of details corresponding to her photograph collection
• A copy of her book Irlandskust (1947). 

In her 1972 book ‘Mitt liv med naturen’ (My Life With Nature), Hjorth includes pieces on Kerry and Connemara. Irlandskust was well received, and the Nordic Museum commissioned Hjorth to write a similar book featuring folklore from Normandy and Brittany (Keltisk kust, 1954). Her series on flower walks Blomstervandringar initiated in 1953, weaves together local flower and plant history with cultural history. This series became her foremost sales success, with tens of thousands of copies published. In 2021, Irlandskust was reprinted again in Swedish. Apparently Hjorth was in negotiations with an American publisher about getting the book translated into English, but unfortunately that doesn’t appear to have happened. Fingers crossed it will be translated some day. Hjorth lived the latter part of her life between Brittany in France and Sigtuna, Sweden’s oldest town, where she died in 1977.

Harriet Hjort by Anna Riwkin (1908-1970) © Anna Riwkin/Moderna Museet, FM 1981 032 2515

This post was researched and written by Brenda Ryan, Cúntóir Leabharlainne | Library Assistant, Cnuasach Bhéaloideas Éireann | National Folklore Collection

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Sources:

1. The Harriet Hjorth files and collections in the National Folklore Collection, UCD.
2. Harriet Hjorth, Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon (article by Fred Blomberg), retrieved 2025-07-10. https://skbl.se/en/article/HarrietHjorth
3. Moderna Museet, Sweden – https://sis.modernamuseet.se/objects/48513/harriet-hjort and https://sis.modernamuseet.se/objects/48517/harriet-hjort?ctx=e133ae436bf24ca8bc495c37c1b4c6549e73c32f&idx=0
4. Goodreads.com https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/213408023-irlandskust?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=cOnmFkfHJ0&rank=1

People mentioned:

Ake Campbell (1891-1957) Swedish folklore scholar

Albert Eskerod, aka Albert Nilsson (1891-1957) Swedish folklore scholar

Bo Almqvist (1931-2013) Swedish academic and folklorist, former director of the Irish Folklore Archive, later the National Folklore Collection (Coimisiún Béaloideasa Éireann)

Carl Wilhelm von Sydow (1878-1952) Swedish folklore scholar

Heinrich Wagner (1923-1988) Swiss linguistic scholar

Peig Sayers (1873–1958), storyteller

Reidar Christiansen (1886-1971) Norwegian folklore scholar

Séamus Ó Duilearga James Hamilton Delargy (1899-1980) the first Honorary Director of the Irish Folklore Commission

Seán Ó hEochaidh (1913–2002), folklore collector

Seán Ó Súilleabháin (1903–96) folklorist with the Irish Folklore Commission