This is a cultural question, shall we say. I remember hearing a Belgian (Wallon) storyteller when she got to the end of certain parts in her story crying out 'tic!' to which her audience all shouted back 'tac!' It was a way of keeping them engaged with her. I believe in Jamaica and elsewhere in the English-speaking Caribean, a storyteller shouts out 'crick!' to get the answer 'crack!' in the same way. The question I have is this - do Irish (ie Irish-language) storytellers use a similar device, when they get to strategic points in their story? I don't think Eddie Lenihan does it, he uses other techniques.

I've never been to a storytelling session in Ireland, but an informant (who is in his mid-eighties and hasn't heard any storytelling since he was a young man) tells me that everybody is free to ask questions and discuss points in the story, while the story is being told. So, a story that would take 15 minutes to tell (without any pauses), ends up taking a few hours because of the welcome participation of the audience. I don't think storytelling is very common anymore; most people watch t.v., listen to the radio, and surf the internet – so, storytelling has mostly fallen by the wayside because of our new electronic toys.

It's off-topic but I never heard about that in Brittany (and before tonight I never heard about that at all ), although I heard several traditional storytellers.

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

My mother remembers a few traditional storytellers travelling from town to town in the 60s. She said they always seemed to be from Cork. It was more of a conversation than a sit down and listen to the performer kind of thing (just as WeeFalorieMan's informant remembers). Nowadays they call that heckling.

I'll ask her if she remembers any more about them.

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Táim ag foghlaim fós. Fáilte roimh gach aon cheartúchán.

I'm sure you'll be delighted to know that storytelling in Irish as well as in Irish English is still there. I suggest that you have a look at the website of http://www.storytellersofireland.org (Aos Scéal Éireann) where you'll find seanchaithe such as Éamonn Ó Conghaile, Seosamh Ó Maolalaí, Máirín Mhic Lochlainn, Aideen McBride and there are references to various storytelling events held through the year - Cultra, Scéalt Shamnha, Cape Clear srl. There are also several interesting 'in memoriam' notices to well-known figures such as Cáit Bab Feiritéar (though apparently Ó Bhéal an Bhab is no longer available from Litríocht). Among the documents, there's this small anecdote I'd like to quote to you, taken from 'Dáithí Ó hÓgáin on Storytelling' -

'I come from County Limerick and there's a town there, Ballyneety (Baile an Fhaoitigh).
Whitestown, it means actually, and there was a beggarman passing through there one day (and you couldn't get more local than this, I suppose) and a dog ran out, a savage dog and he bent down to pick up a stone to keep the dog away from him, naturally. But the stone was stuck to the ground and so the dog went and tore the arse out of the poor man. And all he could say was - he made a little verse: 'Is olc an baile, Baile an Fhaoitigh, go bhfuil clocha ceangailte ann agus madraí scaoilte.'

There is one thing I've noticed however and that is (in the story I'm still working on - Féidlim Tonn Rí 's Castle) that there are certain phrases or parts of the story that keep coming back, that are repeated. Obviously this is a technique for memorising the story and it also becomes part of its structure, but I also wonder whether it isn't a kind of a chorus that everyone joins in.