Michael Casey, one of our outstanding Irish teachers, recently completed his PhD through Ulster University. His PhD thesis was on the role that the Irish oral tradition has played in influencing the literary prose writings of Séamus Ó Grianna, an Irish language writer from the Donegal Gaeltacht. He was subsequently awarded his Doctorate to become Dr. Michael Casey. This is an amazing achievement in every sense and we are delighted to celebrate his achievement. Upon learning that he had been awarded his Doctorate, Yvonne O’Toole, Principal at The Institute, presented Dr. Michael with a beautiful engraved gold presentation pen. We spoke to Michael and asked him to give us just a short bit of information about his PhD research. Here is what he said:
In 2020 I completed my doctoral research at Ulster University, Derry. While researching for my PhD, I analysed the role that the Irish oral tradition has played in influencing the literary prose writings of Séamus Ó Grianna, an Irish language writer from the Donegal Gaeltacht. I examined the short stories of Séamus by comparing them with the oral narrative style of his sister, Annie Bhán Nic Grianna; one of Ireland’s great 20th century oral storytellers. In order to contrast these narrative styles, I used a theoretical framework from a Danish folklorist by the name of Axel Olrik. I then decided to examine how sentence structure and complex clauses were constructed and manipulated depending on the medium of delivery. A PhD is about finding a gap in our knowledge and aiming to fill that gap in for future students. While the PhD was written through Irish, the thesis provides a starting point for students interested in comparing our rich literary and oral tradition on the Island. I would like to thank the Institute of Education for allowing me to balance my teaching hours during the final year of my research. Go raibh míle maith agaibh.
Once again, this is a fantastic achievement and we are delighted to be able to celebrate such amazing work by one of our outstanding teachers.