Síle de Cléir has been researching, writing and lecturing in Irish folklore and ethnology for some years, combining this with a career in public libraries until 2008. She studied folklore and ethnology in University College, Cork, and attended the Folklore Fellows' Summer School in Turku in 1993. Her research MA (UCC, 1992) was centred on Irish cloth and dress traditions and complemented an earlier period spent studying fashion design in LSAD and working for three years in the fashion/ clothing sector. Her MLIS (UCD, 1999) included a study of popular religious reading in early twentieth-century Ireland, and her PhD (UCC, 2011) was a study of popular religious culture in Limerick city during the same period. Publications on dress include Creativity in the margins: identity and locality in Ireland's fashion journey' in Fashion Theory, Vol 15, Issue 2, June 2011 and on popular religion, Ritual and the city context', Béascna 6 (2010). A book on this same topic, entitled Popular Catholicism in Ireland: locality, identity and culture was published in 2017. She has also researched the heroic storytelling tradition in twentieth-century Ireland, and an article based on this research Gaisce, greann agus grá: Conall Gulban agus féidearthachtaí na scéalaíochta gaisciúla', (Heroism, humour and love: Conall Gulban and the scope of heroic storytelling') has been published in Béaloideas, 82 (2014). She is currently lecturing in Irish in the School of English, Irish and Communication, University of Limerick. Bhí an taighde, an scríobh agus an léachtóireacht sa Bhéaloideas agus san Eitneolaíocht á meascadh ag Síle de Cléir le slí bheatha sna leabharlanna poiblí go dtí 2008. Fuair sí céim BA ó Choláiste na hOllscoile, Corcaigh i 1989, agus MA sa Léann Dúchais ón gcoláiste céanna i 1992. Bhain an taighde MA aici leis an dtraidisiún éadaigh / feistis, ag tógáil ar thréimhse níos luaithe dá saol, nuair a dhein sí staidéar ar dhearadh an fhaisin sa Scoil Ealaíne agus Deartha i Luimneach, agus ag obair in earnáil an fhaisin/ an fheistis ina dhiaidh sin. Bhain sí céim MLIS amach ó Choláiste Ollscoile, Baile Átha Cliath i 1999, ag déanamh taighde ar léitheoireacht reiligiúnda na ndaoine in Éirinn go luath sa 20ú haois mar chuid den gcéim sin; bhain a céim dhochtúireachta (Colaiste na hOllscoile, Corcaigh, 2012) le cultúr an reiligiúin chomónta i gcathair Luimnigh sa 20ú haois. Foilsíodh leabhar ar an ábhar seo darb ainm Popular Catholicism in Ireland: locality, identity and culture (Bloomsbury Academic, London, 2017). I measc na bhfoilseachán aici ar fheisteas, tá Creativity in the margins: identity and locality in Ireland's fashion journey' Fashion Theory, Vol 15, Issue 2, June 2011, agus ar an reiligún, Ritual and the city context', Béascna 6 (2010). Tá sí ag léachtóireacht sa Ghaeilge i Scoil na Gaeilge, an Bhéarla agus na Cumarsáide, Ollscoil Luimnigh.
Research Interests
Irish cloth and dress traditions and their interactions with fashion
Popular Catholicism in twentieth-century Ireland and its connections to identity
Oral narrative in Ireland; the heroic tradition and the wonder-tale
Síle de Cléir (2014) Gaisce, greann agus grá: Conall Gulban agus féidearthachtaí na scéalaíochta gaisciúla', (Heroism, humour and love: Conall Gulban and the scope of heroic storytelling').
Béaloideas: The journal of the Folklore Society of Ireland :1-23
de Cleir, S (2011) Creativity in the Margins: Identity and Locality in Ireland's Fashion Journey.
Fashion Theory-The Journal Of Dress Body & Culture :201-224
Síle de Cléir (2002) .... bhí bród as sin i gcónaí ...': Cruthaitheacht agus cultúr na mban i dtraidisiún fheisteas Oileáin Árann..
Béascna: The UCC journal of folklore and ethnology :85-99
Síle de Cléir (2012) Léann an Fheistis: ábhar machnaimh' (Notes on the study of dress') .
Cork : Cork University Press Léann an Dúchais: aistí in omós do Ghearóid Ó Crualaoich,
