[05:34:45:12 - 05:34:49:03] Collin Capurso I should probably get this off first. [05:34:52:17 - 05:34:55:02] Collin Capurso That interferes with the sound quality sometimes. [05:34:59:18 - 05:36:30:15] Collin Capurso This is an interview with Katherine Cooper conducted by Colin Gopurso on August 21, 2025 on behalf of the Cobblestone Museum. Katherine Cooper serves as the Orleans County historian, a role that crowns a lifetime devoted to community education, historical literacy, and the preservation of local heritage. A native of Ireland and a longtime resident in Medina, New York, she gave more than three decades of service to the Lee Weeden Memorial Library, retiring as its director in 2020. In that same year, she was appointed county historian, assuming the charge of collecting, safeguarding, and interpreting the stories that shaped the life of this region. Her work is marked by a deep respect for public history and by an uncommon attention to detail. She has labor not only to bring order to archival collections, but also to bring them to life for the community. Through her weekly column, Illuminating Orleans, she has lifted from the quiet margins of history the people, places, and moments long obscured by the sweep of grander narratives. In so doing, she has forged a living connection between the county's past and its present, ensuring that memory does not remain static, but speaks with clarity to new generations. Her passion lies most deeply in public engagement, whether at bicentennial commemorations, community talks, or in the ordinary act of conversation. She brings warmth, curiosity, and precision to the telling of history. In her stewardship, the past is not a relic, but a resource, a means by which the people of Orleans County may better understand themselves in the place they call home. Thank you for joining us today, Catherine. [05:36:30:15 - 05:36:32:19] Catherine Cooper Thank you for inviting me. [05:36:32:19 - 05:36:34:01] Collin Capurso It's an honor. [05:36:35:08 - 05:36:36:03] Catherine Cooper It's an honor for me. [05:36:37:19 - 05:36:57:05] Collin Capurso So kind of looking at your personal background and the journey towards getting involved in history, you originally grew up in Ireland and then eventually moved here in 1980. When you look back across that distance, geographical and temporal, what stands out to you most about your childhood? Are there any impressions, sounds, or images that still linger with you today? [05:36:57:05 - 05:37:01:23] Catherine Cooper Oh my gosh, impressions, sounds, and images are plenty. [05:37:04:01 - 05:37:06:19] Catherine Cooper But looking back geographically and temporally, [05:37:08:07 - 05:37:14:03] Catherine Cooper growing up in Ireland in the 60s and 70s, it was a whole different world. [05:37:16:20 - 05:37:29:23] Catherine Cooper There's no way that in this interview that I could convey the difference that there was. It was a distinct time, and it was a time that's gone. It's passed. It's totally changed now. [05:37:34:00 - 05:37:58:07] Catherine Cooper My parents were dairy farmers, and the thing that distinguished them was that they were originally from the west of Kerry. So I grew up in—I was born and raised in a town called Treli, which is the county seat of a county called Kerry, which is on the southwest coast. [05:37:59:13 - 05:38:06:03] Catherine Cooper Part of that area is called the Gerta. It was the area where the Irish language still persisted. [05:38:08:07 - 05:38:18:05] Catherine Cooper They grew up in that area, but when they got married, there was no land for sale there, so they ended up buying land in Treli, which is about 40 miles away. [05:38:20:05 - 05:38:38:03] Catherine Cooper But that 40 miles was like two different worlds, because the Gerta area continued the language and the traditions and the stories of the past, whereas the rest of the country had gone English. [05:38:42:07 - 05:38:55:19] Catherine Cooper There's a part of me that has a very great affinity with the American Indians because of the attempts to colonize them and change their culture, which was the same that had been done with the Irish. [05:38:56:22 - 05:39:04:02] Catherine Cooper This area on the west coast was sort of a renegade area from the past. [05:39:05:22 - 05:39:13:15] Catherine Cooper Growing up, they still spoke Irish at home, and their hearts were back there. [05:39:14:15 - 05:39:19:14] Catherine Cooper My father in particular was a great storyteller, and he loved language. [05:39:23:00 - 05:39:34:04] Catherine Cooper He appreciated different ways of saying things, like a pithy proverb or just a humorous turn of phrase or an interesting description of a character. [05:39:37:05 - 05:39:38:17] Catherine Cooper I'm sure I absorbed all of that. [05:39:40:14 - 05:40:06:12] Catherine Cooper The other thing is that Ireland has been inhabited for so long. It's an old country. There are souls everywhere. There's history everywhere. You can't go out your door and shake a stick without running into some part of history. Even the place names, the road names, they all hark back to some event or some reason. [05:40:09:04 - 05:40:11:10] Catherine Cooper That was the history and the tradition. [05:40:12:10 - 05:40:17:11] Catherine Cooper My aunt was a teacher. I spent a lot of time with her, and she introduced me to the public library. [05:40:18:18 - 05:40:32:00] Catherine Cooper Well, that was it. I was off to the races because I read everything that I could lay my hands on and everything. [05:40:33:17 - 05:40:35:04] Catherine Cooper Those are the twin. [05:40:37:03 - 05:41:04:04] Catherine Cooper When I was thinking about this, I recognized that those were the twin traits that have propelled me forward, the English, the reading, and the stories from the past. I studied English in history at UCC in college. Then I went on to become a librarian and work in history. Those are the two things that have determined my life, I guess. [05:41:04:04 - 05:41:05:05] Collin Capurso That's incredible. [05:41:06:09 - 05:41:14:13] Collin Capurso With you mentioning the west coast of Ireland and such, it makes me think perhaps in a similar realm. I have a friend from Spain that lives in the Basque country. [05:41:14:13 - 05:41:14:20] Catherine Cooper Oh, yes. [05:41:14:20 - 05:41:17:22] Collin Capurso It's kind of a similar story in some regards. [05:41:17:22 - 05:41:19:05] Catherine Cooper Similar story. [05:41:19:05 - 05:41:27:04] Collin Capurso Helps me contextualize a little bit. That's incredible, though. It's such an old place. One of the oldest languages known today. [05:41:27:04 - 05:41:40:16] Catherine Cooper Particularly back around beyond Dingle, that area, it has a great soulfulness to it. It has become a very popular tourist destination, which is a double-edged sword. [05:41:44:22 - 05:41:56:20] Catherine Cooper When I was growing up, speaking Irish and all of that culture was still a bit looked down on. But that has all changed in the past 30 years. [05:41:58:04 - 05:42:00:01] Catherine Cooper Partly because of the education system. [05:42:02:15 - 05:42:09:21] Catherine Cooper This is a rabbit hole. [05:42:11:03 - 05:42:19:05] Catherine Cooper It had to do with the changing in the education and the formation of what are called all Irish schools. [05:42:21:03 - 05:42:31:06] Catherine Cooper The children who went to those schools just learned Irish from the beginning. Because they grew up with it, it became natural to them. The other thing is, [05:42:34:13 - 05:43:08:21] Catherine Cooper in recent years, when Poland became a member of the EU, a lot of Polish people came to Ireland because they could get jobs there. In recent years, there has been an influx of Ukrainians. Which makes sense. Those groups of people come with their language and their culture. I think the Irish really realized, "Oh, we've got a language and a culture. We can indulge in ours too and promote ours too." Because they understand that the language and the culture define the people. [05:43:08:21 - 05:43:25:11] Collin Capurso It's one of those central aspects to it. It's incredible. Growing up in Ireland, what made it distinct from your life here in Orleans County? Not only in say the customs, but perhaps in a quieter sense of belonging. What it meant to call a place home in that regard. [05:43:27:19 - 05:43:31:22] Catherine Cooper I think it was very similar in some ways to Orleans County of the time. [05:43:31:22 - 05:43:32:20] Collin Capurso Probably the rural [05:43:32:20 - 05:43:37:04] Catherine Cooper aspect in some ways. The ruralness, the quietness, and the conservative. [05:43:39:05 - 05:43:44:12] Catherine Cooper The religion. [05:43:46:04 - 05:43:52:20] Catherine Cooper In this area, there were many different religions. Ours were more confined. [05:43:54:16 - 05:43:59:00] Catherine Cooper It would have been pretty much the same. [05:44:03:04 - 05:44:12:00] Catherine Cooper That the church was very involved in all aspects of life, particularly education. [05:44:12:00 - 05:44:14:04] Collin Capurso Probably more of an umbrella than anything else. [05:44:15:06 - 05:44:33:13] Collin Capurso Kind of thinking, as you had mentioned, with education and perhaps the church being a little pervasive in that regard. What did education in Ireland look like? Not only in its formal sense, but what perhaps awakened into you or something that you learned. How were teachers or books influenced in how you see the world today [05:44:33:13 - 05:44:34:07] Catherine Cooper in that regard? [05:44:35:13 - 05:44:38:00] Catherine Cooper Education was very important. [05:44:39:04 - 05:44:40:08] Catherine Cooper It was run by the church. [05:44:41:09 - 05:44:51:08] Catherine Cooper I went to Catholic school where the nuns taught us in primary school and secondary school. We had nuns all the way through. [05:44:55:16 - 05:45:01:15] Catherine Cooper The curriculum was challenging, but it was not. [05:45:03:03 - 05:45:09:16] Catherine Cooper It was challenging in the amount of material that you had to absorb, but it was all absorption. [05:45:11:02 - 05:45:19:01] Catherine Cooper It wasn't any open-ended presentation of material where you get the material and you think about it and you come to conclusions. [05:45:20:02 - 05:45:21:04] Catherine Cooper The conclusions are. [05:45:21:04 - 05:45:22:13] Collin Capurso It was late there for you. [05:45:22:13 - 05:45:32:15] Catherine Cooper You just had to absorb it and regurgitate it for your exams. That's all you had to do. If you were a test taker, you were fine. If you were an outside-the-box thinker, you were in trouble. [05:45:36:02 - 05:45:52:09] Collin Capurso I'm wondering then, especially with that rigidness, history in and of itself and studying it is very open-ended. Would you say that upbringing and education made it difficult as a historian to navigate these open-ended things and strongest conclusions? [05:45:52:09 - 05:45:58:16] Catherine Cooper We didn't think about open-ended things. We were given the facts and we absorbed them. [05:45:59:18 - 05:46:00:22] Catherine Cooper We didn't really question. [05:46:01:23 - 05:46:02:21] Catherine Cooper That would have come later. [05:46:04:00 - 05:46:07:01] Catherine Cooper Probably more college time. Yes. [05:46:11:10 - 05:46:28:18] Catherine Cooper I was lucky in that I came along at a time when free education had been set up in Ireland. Probably about five years before I got to college age, that had been set up and it was a bonus for all of us. [05:46:28:18 - 05:46:30:10] Collin Capurso I envy you. [05:46:32:19 - 05:46:48:23] Collin Capurso After moving here in 1980, you pursued a master's program at the University of Albany in library science. You mentioned it earlier, but what drew you towards that discipline? Was it perhaps a calling to preserve knowledge, a fascination with how knowledge is organized and made available? [05:46:50:06 - 05:46:52:09] Catherine Cooper No, it was because I just liked libraries. [05:46:54:17 - 05:46:55:18] Catherine Cooper I went to college. [05:46:57:00 - 05:47:13:20] Catherine Cooper Because I have a puzzle of relatives who are teachers, the expectation was that I would become a teacher. I went to college and I did the mandatory years training for teacher teaching. [05:47:15:19 - 05:47:30:03] Catherine Cooper I knew from teacher training that I just didn't like it. It wasn't my thing. I didn't like being at the top of the class and I didn't like trying to keep discipline. I didn't like having to try to be dramatic to promote the material. [05:47:33:12 - 05:47:44:09] Catherine Cooper As luck would have it, shortly after I finished, I applied for and got a job at the Dublin Corporation Public Libraries. [05:47:46:03 - 05:47:49:18] Catherine Cooper I have been working in public libraries ever since. [05:47:52:02 - 05:48:01:03] Catherine Cooper That was where I started. Then I got a job back in Kerry on the library service there. I worked there. I worked in the mobile library for a while. [05:48:04:12 - 05:48:06:11] Catherine Cooper Kerry County Library had two mobile libraries. [05:48:07:22 - 05:48:22:21] Catherine Cooper We would go out each day. There was a driver and library staff person. We would traverse the mountains and the highways and byways of Kerry, these small remote areas. You would stop for 15 minutes. [05:48:24:01 - 05:48:27:06] Catherine Cooper People would come out of the shadows, out of cars. [05:48:28:09 - 05:48:35:02] Catherine Cooper They were waiting for the mobile library. They would come on and pick their books and be checked out. [05:48:36:05 - 05:48:38:00] Catherine Cooper In 15 minutes, we'd be on to the next. [05:48:39:05 - 05:48:41:20] Catherine Cooper It was a great service. It still works, actually. [05:48:43:13 - 05:48:48:08] Catherine Cooper It was a godsend to people out in. [05:48:48:08 - 05:48:56:00] Collin Capurso I know that we have similar services here in the US, but I don't see it as ingrained or accessible in the regard. [05:48:57:04 - 05:49:04:12] Collin Capurso With Albany and such, what made you want to come all the way across the Atlantic Ocean to study here, of all places? [05:49:05:11 - 05:49:05:14] Catherine Cooper Yes. [05:49:06:18 - 05:49:12:07] Catherine Cooper Can we stop for a moment? Yes. [05:49:15:05 - 05:49:16:06] Catherine Cooper I can [05:49:16:06 - 05:49:18:07] Collin Capurso always cut and edit it a little bit. [05:49:18:07 - 05:49:18:23] Catherine Cooper Yes.