STORYTELLER FROM IRISH COUNTRYSIDE
Irishman by choice regales audience despite German accent
The least important thing about him is that he isn’t Irish.
Aside from his German accent, Harald Juengst is green from head to toe.
As the seanachie (Irish for storyteller) spoke to a eyes-wide-open, sing-along audience Wednesday night in the Buffalo Irish Center on Abbott Road, imaginations were whisked away to the Irish countryside — not one marked by old folklore, but of ATM machine catastrophes, a man traveling with his fridge and the annoyances of snoring.
Tall with more-salt-than-pepper hair, Juengst spoke of his travels to Ireland during the 1970s, and his beloved County Donegal, where he has lived in a cottage since 1981. Immersing himself in the Irish community, his interpretation of the bighearted character of the Irish people shone through.
Brown, faded-leather shoes (almost yellow) mark his travels from Germany. He tells not stories of war, politics and history, or of great happenings, but the most simple tales through which the lessons of Irish generosity and character are conveyed.
Asked what he enjoyed so much about Ireland, Juengst spoke of the new home he built for himself as he traveled Europe in a 1955 Volkswagen Beetle.
“In Ireland, I experienced for the first time a living tradition,” of song, dance, food and spirit, Juengst said. “In Germany, the only tradition was debt. Debt from the war.”
Hidden away in County Donegal, where he is affectionately known as “Moore,” this storyteller took his audience to a simple place of simple happenings, which, he noted, “was not and is not a touristic thing.”
Juengst accompanied musician Jerry Shea, of the local band The Leftovers, on traditional Irish songs spaced throughout his stories. The audience sang with him after stories that revealed the true implications of “out of order” and the importance of being “diplomatic” in Ireland.
In fact, the only part of Juengst stories short on diplomacy was the tale of a Doberman “not very diplomatic” for barking at a cat and her kittens.
The cat retaliated by barking back, sending the Doberman packing, leaving the kittens to ask, “Mom — That was amazing. How did you learn to bark like a dog?”
“Children,” the mother cat replied, “haven’t I always told you how important it is to speak a different language?”
The audience feasted on Juengst’s good spirit.
“There’s no green blood in my veins,” he told the audience, “but I have a green heart and a green heartbeat.”
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