Biography
Ailbhe Nic Giolla Chomhaill has worked at the University of Limerick since January 2018. She was appointed Lecturer in Irish in September 2018. She teaches courses on Irish language and literature at UL, including 20th Century literature from the Donegal Gaeltacht, Celtic civilisation, dialectology, and sociolinguistics.Ailbhe studied Irish and French at the National University of Ireland, Galway, and graduated with a BA International degree in 2012. She completed her PhD thesis, which was funded by the Irish Research Council, under the supervision of Dr. Lillis Ó Laoire, NUIG, in 2017. She is particularly interested in the folklore and storytelling tradition of the Joyce Country and has presented her research on this topic at national and international conferences in recent years. Her first book to date, An Chaora Ghlas agus Scéalta Eile as Seanadh Farracháin, is a study of the international folktales collected in Seanadh Farracháin (Finny) National School in 1937-38. It was published by Leabhar Breac in 2016 and was awarded the Phelan Conan Prize, NUIG, in 2017. Ailbhe is also interested in the representation of female storytellers in the National Folklore Collection and she hopes to develop this interest into a new research project in the upcoming year.
Research Interests
Irish language folklore and storytelling; International folktales; the dynamics of folklore collection in Ireland; the representation of women in Irish folktales; the contribution of women to the National Folklore Collection
Teaching Interests
Teanga na Nua-Ghaeilge; Irish language folklore, literature, and culture; Sociolinguistics of Irish & the Celtic languages