Patricia Lysaght

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

Education

Lysaght was born in County Clare. 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.

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".

Over her career, Lysaght has authored and edited ten books and over one hundred research articles. 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.

Lysaght has also served as Editor of both ''Folklore'' (Journal of the Folklore Society, London) and ''Béaloidea''s (Journal of The Folklore of Ireland Society, Dublin).

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.

Lysaght was elected to the Royal Irish Academy in 2006. 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". In 2013 Lysaght was also awarded the Coote Lake Medal of the Folklore Society, "for outstanding research and scholarship".

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

Select publications

* Lysaght, Patricia (1985). ''The banshee: a study in beliefs and legends about the Irish supernatural death-messenger''. Dun Laoghaire: Glendale. . OCLC \469534540.
* Lysaght, Patricia (editor) (1994). ''Milk and milk products from medieval to modern times: proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Ethnological Food Research, Ireland, 1992''. Edinburgh: Published by Canongate Academic in association with the Dept. of Irish Folklore, University College Dublin and the European Ethnological Research Centre, Edinburgh. . OCLC1157750852.
* Lysaght, Patricia (1995). "Traditional Beliefs and Narratives of a Contemporary Irish Tradition Bearer" in ''Folk belief today''. Mare Kõiva, Kai Vassiljeva (editors), . Tartu: Estonian Academy of Sciences, Institute of the Estonian Language & Estonian Museum of Literature. 1995. . OCLC 34287090.
* Lysaght, Patricia; Ó Catháin, Séamas; Ó hÓgáin, Dáithí (editors). (1999). ''Islanders and water-dwellers: proceedings of the Celtic-Nordic-Baltic Folklore Symposium held at University College Dublin, 16–19 June 1996''. Dublin: DBA Publications Ltd. . OCLC 43395588.
* Lysaght, Patricia (1997-01-01). "Caoineadh os Cionn Coirp: The Lament for the Dead in Ireland". ''Folklore''. 108 (1–2): 65–82. doi:10.1080/0015587X.1997.9715938. ISSN 0015-587X.
* Lysaght, Patricia (1998). "Seán Ó Súilleabháin (1903-1996) and the Irish Folklore Commission". ''Western Folklore''. 57 (2/3): 137–151. doi:10.2307/1500217. ISSN 0043-373X.
* Lysaght, Patricia (1998). ''A pocket book of the banshee''. Dublin; Boulder, Colo.: O'Brien Press ; Irish American Book Co. . OCLC 39451498.
* Lysaght, Patricia (2003). "Hospitality at wakes and funerals in Ireland from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century: Some evidence from the written record". ''Folklore''. 114 (3): 403–426. doi:10.1080/0015587032000145405. ISSN 0015-587X.
* Lysaght, Patricia (2017-07-03). "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.
* Lysaght, Patricia (2019-01-02). "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.
* Lysaght, Patricia (2020-01-02). "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.
*Lysaght, Patricia (2021-01-02). "Collecting the Folklore of Ireland: The Schoolchildren's Contribution". ''Folklore''. 132 (1): 1–33. doi:10.1080/0015587X.2020.1841461. ISSN 0015-587X.

References

External links

Supernatural Death Messenger
Patricia Lysaght being interviewed by Gay Byrne on RTE's '' Late Late Show'', explaining concepts of the Banshee.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lysaght, Patricia
Irish folklorists
Academics of University College Dublin
Alumni of the University of Galway
21st-century Irish women writers
20th-century Irish women writers
Irish women non-fiction writers
Food writers
1948 births
Living people
Presidents of the Folklore Society
Members of the Royal Irish Academy