This article introduces the idea of 'gender' to the study of storytelling in Irish tradition. The primary example is the female narrator from Ring, County Waterford, Nora Ni Chinneide ('Nano'). One of her narratives, collected more to study the Irish language than to open up a vista in the social and cultural world of the community and people of the area, is explored to speculate whether the story was, in fact, a personal one rather than yet another piece of objectified shared 'folklore'. The narrator, it is argued here, actually creates her own story through the persona of the protagonist in the narrative. She is able to mould and shape the story craftily and within male criteria. The article reflects also in a general way on the assumptions made in the twentieth century about stories and their worth.