Patricia Lysaght

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Patricia Lysaght (born 1948) is an Irish folklorist. She is Professor Emerita of European Ethnology, University College Dublin, Ireland.

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Education

Lysaght was born in County Clare. [1] Lysaght's academic background was firstly in Law, before qualifications in Irish Language and Literature, and Irish and European Folklore and Ethnology. She completed her PhD at the National University of Ireland in 1982. [2]

Career

Published in 1985, Lysaght's book The banshee: a study in beliefs and legends about the Irish supernatural death-messenger was based on her PhD thesis. It was hailed by one reviewer "as an outstanding achievement in Irish and international folklore studies". [3]

Over her career, Lysaght has authored and edited ten books and over one hundred research articles. [4] Her research has focused around the supernatural folklore of Ireland and on food and foodways. She is the current Chair of the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore's Working Group on Food Research. [5]

Lysaght has also served as Editor of both Folklore (Journal of the Folklore Society, London) and Béaloideas (Journal of The Folklore of Ireland Society, Dublin). [1]

Recognition

Lysaght has been awarded scholarships and guest professorships at a number of international universities and institutes, such as Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster, and the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow. [1]

Lysaght was elected to the Royal Irish Academy in 2006. [2] She is also an elected member of the Royal Gustavus Adolphus Academy for Swedish Folk Culture, who, In 2013, awarded her the Torsten Janckes minnesfond prize for her "outstanding contribution to folkloristic and ethnological scholarship". [4] In 2013 Lysaght was also awarded the Coote Lake Medal of the Folklore Society, "for outstanding research and scholarship". [6]

Lysaght served as President of the Folklore Society from 2017 to 2020. [7] Her Presidential Lectures were on topics relating to the collection of Irish folklore: the contribution of Robin Flower, [7] a comparison of the Folklore of Ireland Society and the Irish Folklore Commission [8] and the work of the artist Simon Colman for the Irish Folklore Commission. [9]

Select publications

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "Dr. Patricia Lysaght". askaboutireland.ie. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
  2. 1 2 "Patricia Lysaght". Royal Irish Academy. 19 October 2015. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
  3. O'Connor, Anne (1986). Lysaght, Patricia (ed.). "The Banshee". Béaloideas. 54/55: 276–280. doi:10.2307/20522292. ISSN   0332-270X. JSTOR   20522292.
  4. 1 2 "UCD Professor honoured for contribution to folklore scholarship". www.ucd.ie. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
  5. "Food Research". www.siefhome.org. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
  6. "The Coote Lake Medal". The Folklore Society. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
  7. 1 2 Lysaght, Patricia (3 July 2017). "From the British Museum to the Great Blasket: Robin Flower and the Western Island". Folklore. 128 (3): 219–243. doi:10.1080/0015587X.2017.1336002. ISSN   0015-587X. S2CID   164699923.
  8. Lysaght, Patricia (2 January 2019). "From 'Collect the Fragments …' to 'Memory of the World'—Collecting the Folklore of Ireland 1927–70: Aims, Achievement, Legacy". Folklore. 130 (1): 1–30. doi:10.1080/0015587X.2018.1553333. ISSN   0015-587X. S2CID   167150114.
  9. Lysaght, Patricia (2 January 2020). "An Artist on Inis Oírr and Inis Meáin: Simon Coleman's Visit to the Aran Islands in 1959 on Behalf of the Irish Folklore Commission". Folklore. 131 (1): 1–33. doi:10.1080/0015587X.2019.1658380. ISSN   0015-587X. S2CID   216541378.