Angela Bourke


Angela Bourke is an Irish author, historian and academic who focuses on Irish oral tradition and literature in her books, lectures, and broadcasting.

Biography

Bourke is a Dublin-born writer, oral historian and academic with an interest in the voice of women in folklore. Educated in University College Dublin with an MA in Celtic Studies she travelled to Université de Bretagne Occidentale in 1974. Bourke completed her doctorate in women's religious poetry in Irish folklore, also from University College Dublin. In the 1970s Bourke collected songs in Carna, Conemara. She was the first holder of Princess Grace Irish Library bursary for academic writers, Autumn 2002. She has travelled widely to other universities in Japan, Europe and the US as a guest and visiting professor, including Harvard University from 1992-93. She is Professor of Irish-Language Studies and Head of modern Irish in UCD.
Bourke is a member of the Royal Irish Academy.

Awards

Selected works

Folklore studies and biography

Caoineadh na dTrí Muire: Téama na Páise i bhfílocht bhéil na Gaeilge The Burning of Bridget Cleary: A True Story
  • ''Maeve Brennan of the New Yorker''

Fiction

By Salt Water “Iníon Rí na Cathrach Deirge”
  • ''“Iníon Rí an Oileáin Dhorcha''

Miscellaneous

‘Working and Weeping: Women’s Oral Poetry in Irish and Scottish Gaelic Poetry’, in Women's Studies Working Papers, No. 7 Fish stone water: Holy Wells of Ireland, by Anna Rackard, introduced by Angela Bourke The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, vols iv and v: Irish Women's Writing and Traditions ed.‘Adventures with old things’, in The Dublin Review, 4, pp. 5–13