By Susan Doyle Likovich

Cathy Jo Smith is known to many as Caitlin na Si Seanachai, or Katie of the Fairies, Storyteller. She is a seanachai in the best ancient Irish tradition. She travels throughout Ohio to libraries, schools, the Ohio State Fair, and of course, the Irish festival in Dublin, Ohio, which takes place each August. Dressed in costumes which she makes herself, Katie of the Fairies sings and tells Irish folk tales, as well as Irish and Irish-American history.

Dressed in a long green print dress with a wide, laced belt or a dress and apron, Katie of the Fairies sings songs, includes some Irish history, and then tells her tales, nearly always including her signature original tales of "Seamus McSeamus."

Smith has been writing or telling stories her entire life, but the original "Seamus McSeamus" came about when she needed a tale for a third grade class and couldn't find one that met her needs. So she simply wrote her own.

Seamus McSeamus is a wander, a rover, a traveling man. He has adventures with the sort of characters that can be found in traditional Irish stories. The Seamus stories are based on Irish fairy legends. Smith takes standard fairy "characters" and has Seamus interact with them.

Smith says that she does not change the character of the fairy folk. "Leprechauns are loners, for instance, and not sociable. I try to stay as true as possible to the traditions." She says that one of the song lyrics she wrote, "Mickey and the Leprechaun" comes directly from a traditional tale and is set to an Irish tune.

She got her start as a volunteer at her daughter's school. Smith's modest beginnings as a seanachai came when she taught her daughter's first grade class about the Irish origins of Halloween. That was six years ago.

The road from telling tales to a first grade class to her first professional performance at the Dublin (Ohio) Irish Festival two years ago included being a "mystery reader" for her daughter's school and then coming in at St. Patrick's Day to talk about the Irish in America. This was so well received by the the students and teachers alike, that the following year, the popular "Leprechaun Lady" was back, doing stories for Halloween and St. Patrick's Day both.

At the urging of the teachers, she decided to look into becoming a professional storyteller. Smith contacted the coordinator for the Dublin Irish Festival and was hired.

Asked how she felt about her first performance, she replied, "Terrified."

After her first professional performance, she joined the Storytellers of Central Ohio. Smith says, "They are a wonderful supportive group of amateurs and professionals who helped to spur me to develop my skills." She has appeared in their "Fireside Tales" public performances in each of the past two years.

Smith still does some volunteer performances, performing between 50 and 60 shows each year. Her busiest times are St. Patrick's Day and Halloween. As she says, "Halloween is a fine time for tales!"

Smith has a collection of 20 to 30 stories that she performs, but she has a main repertoire of five or six stories and a handful of songs as well. Smith has different stories for different occasions and each performance varies slightly. When she is performing her Irish tales, she is Caitlin na SÍ SeanachaÍ, but when she performs "Tales of Appalachia" at the Ohio State Fair, then she is simply Cathy Jo Smith, Storyteller.

She changes her performance to reflect the stories, people and culture of American hillfolk. "It's not really that far a stretch," she says, "since hill culture is descended from Scot and Irish roots. My grandmother's family, the Conways, were hillfolk as well."

At her first "Caitlin na Si Seanachai" professional performance at the Ohio Irish festival, a great gust of wind came up and blew over a set on top of her. The set, made of tubing and cloth, caught her hard across the shoulders. Fortunately, the material wasn't too heavy but it was large enough to pin her down. Bystanders rushed to help, she recalls.

Not to be undone by a mere gust of wind or crashing sets, Caitín na Si Seanachai stood up, and said to the audience "Now that I've had my first disaster, let's try this again! My name is Caitlin na Si Seanachai.." and she went on with great enthusiasm, if sore shoulders, to complete her performance.

Cathy Jo said that she had the audience attention and sympathy after that. And the performer whose set had crashed on top of her became her mentor for the following year, so it all worked out "well enough," as she says.

Smith says that her best performance to date was at the Fireside Tales. She claims to have been terribly nervous since there were other storytellers in the audience. But then she says, "The tale came alive for me and for the audience and it was eight minutes of magic."

In addition to writing and performing her Irish and hillfolk tales, Smith is studying the Irish language. She is a member of the Gaelic League of Central Ohio and has been studying Irish weekly for a year and half. Once a year the organization has immersion weekends attended by teachers and students from around the Midwest.

The Gaelic League also sponsors a "Wake Tent" at the Dublin Festival to explain an old-fashioned Irish wake. Smith performs some of the mournful, wailing cry know as "keening". She says it is more like a form of poetry and more articulate than people might first think.

Smith chose her Irish stage name,Caitlin na Si Seanachai, because Caitlin is the Irish variant of Cathy and her tales are of the "Good Folk", the sidhe. She says that she likes the idea of being a banshee - a fairy woman. "They aren't really as bad as they are portrayed, you see", she claims. Smith got some feedback from some Irish friends on her accent so that it would sound authentic.

Smith is still involved in school programs and hopes to become part of the Artists in Schools program next year. Her long -term goal is to continue having fun and to someday travel to Ireland. She also hopes to publish her Seamus McSeamus stories.

she agrees that storytelling is "great fun! I get to dress up, share stories, pass on information, sing, get applause." She says that age is an asset in storytelling. "I'm just warming up," she assures us. Her dream is to share her love of history, stories and songs of Ireland and the Irish Americans with others, so that they will be inspired to learn more. "If we let the past die," she says, "we kill ourselves."

To see a performance of Caitlin na Si Seanachai Katie of the Fairies, check the performance schedule of the Dublin Irish Festival at www.dublinirishfestival.org. Smith has her own website at: http://www.irishteller.freeservers.com/. She can be reached via email at: storyteller@dublin.com