About

Fiona Dowling is an French-Irish storyteller and visual artist. She is living and working in Dublin.

Fiona started her storytelling apprenticeship in 2001 by attending the annual Storytelling Masterclass on Cape Clear Island each year where she learned from some of the best Irish tellers (Liz Weir, Pat Speight, Diarmuid O’Drisceoil, Kate Corkery, Clare Murphy) and from some of their colleagues from overseas. She told extensively in storytelling clubs such as the Cork and Dublin Yarnspinners before growing her own storytelling wings in 2007 when she started telling professionally.

Fiona has since been a featured teller at the Cape Clear Storytelling Festival 2016 and 2013 (Emerging Tellers), Yarn Storytelling Festival, Bray, 2013, The Spirit of Folk Festival 2013 and 2014, ESOF Science Week, Collins Barracks, Dublin and UCC Cork 2012, Ballymun Intercultural Day 2012, Paris Centre Culturel Irlandais 2011, Clonmel Junction Festival 2011, Irish Film Institute 2011, Dublin Patrick’s Day Festival 2011, Family Day Airfield House, 2011, Brigid’s Day Collins Barracks 2011, The Five Lamps Festival 2009 to 2013, Mohill Storytelling Festival 2010, Learning Festival, Drogheda 2010 and Killruddery Enchanted Gardens Family Festival in 2008.

Fiona was Storyteller-in-Residence for Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County in 2016 (more details on her blog http://storytellerinresidence.blogspot.ie)

Past projects feature facilitating storytelling workshops for the Ark’s ‘Story Spark’ season in 2010, and co-curating a storytelling café (Story House)for the Clonmel Junction Festival in 2011. Fiona has also been a Storyteller in Residence for Helium Arts and Health in Children’s Hospitals since 2010. She is a founding member of the Dublin Storytelling ensemble ‘Story-O’, and was a short-listed finalist for the Listowel Storytelling Competition in 2011. Other projects include  ‘The Three Colours of Love’ a storytelling show for adults developed and performed with saxophonist and composer Bernard Burns in 2013, ‘Storydress’ – a technology and storytelling project for hospitalized children developed with Helium Arts and Health in 2012- 2013, and ‘Tother’ a storytelling and music show for under 5’s devised and performed in Dublin libraries with community musician Eamon Sweeney in 2011.

More recently, Fiona performed ‘ Tales on Wheels’ a travelling show of Kamishibai Tales and ‘Wisdom Fair’ an interactive celebration of Wisdom Stories (2016)

Fiona is currently working on developing bilingual tales (in French and English) and on painting more Kamishibai stories.