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Staff Profile

Dr Caoimhe Whelan

Lecturer in Medieval Literature

Background

I joined Newcastle as a lecturer having previously held a post as lecturer in medieval literature at Queen Mary University of London. Prior to that I held teaching and research positions at Trinity College Dublin over a period of ten years. These roles include a two-year Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Trinity Medieval History Research Centre researching and teaching on the corpus of early English writing in medieval Ireland. I am currently finalising a monograph on the earliest English language writing in the medieval English lordship of Ireland.


My doctoral thesis at Trinity College Dublin (Department of History), funded by the Irish Research Council, explored the vernacular historiography of medieval English Ireland. My BA (English and History) and MA in medieval and Renaissance literature were at University College Cork.


I am the secretary of the Irish Historical Society and honorary secretary of the heritage and research group the Friends of Medieval Dublin.

 

Office

  • Percy Building, Room 3.09


Consultation & Feedback Hours

  • Consultation and feedback hours are posted on the SELLL School website, here.


Qualifications

·       BA (English and History) and MA (University College Cork), PhD (Trinity College Dublin)

Research

Research Interests


  • Medieval literature of Britain and Ireland
  • Medieval historiography
  • Manuscript and book history
  • Identity, language, colonial literature


My main research interests lie in the historiography of Britain and Ireland 12th–16th century and late medieval vernacular literary culture and society. I am currently finalising a monograph on Middle English literature in medieval Ireland. My research explores the use of language, the crafting of identities and shared cultural and political connections, and how individuals and communities adapt histories and received narratives. I am interested in the production, reception and translation of middle English literature and am currently exploring the development of the Tristan and Isolde narrative.  


Research and Public Engagement


I am interested in cultural heritage and have been Honorary Secretary of the heritage advocacy and research group the Friends of Medieval Dublin since 2016, and Secretary of the Irish Historical Society since 2021. I recently organised, with the Friends of Medieval Dublin and the Dublin City Libraries and Archive, ‘Tales of Two Cities: Dublin and Bristol’ (25 February, 2022), a hybrid public seminar marking the 850th anniversary of King Henry II’s grant of Dublin to the people of Bristol, 1171–72. Recording available to watch here: https://youtu.be/Vpns5B8ryVA


I am also involved in the ‘From That Small Island’ public history documentary project led by Trinity College Dublin with the University of Notre Dame, and supported by the Irish government, exploring Ireland’s evolving identity, culture and diaspora across the world. From 2019-2021 I was the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Research Fellow and the lead researcher on this project.


I have also recently co-authored a number of open-access resources on the potential for the Arts and Humanities to contribute to civic society.

Teaching

SEL1004: Introduction to Literary Studies 2


SEL2219: Monsters, Misery & Miracles: Heroic Life in Old English Poetry


SEL3442: War Writing: Heroic and Hostile Discourses in Medieval Literature


SEL3417: Dissertation by Digital Edition 

Publications

  • Articles

    • Whelan, C. ‘The Lost Chronicle of John de Courcy (c.1150-1219)’. 2024. Submitted.
    • Whelan C. Dragons, Giants and beautiful women: medieval Dublin in the European imagination. In: Duffy S, ed. Medieval Dublin XVIII. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2021, pp.264-282.
    • Bleier, R, Booker, S, O'Flynn, E, Peters, CN, Wade, C, Whelan, C. 'Writing history in the digital age: the battle of Clontarf goes online'. Medieval Dublin 2016, XVI: The Battle of Clontarf Edition, 307-24.
    • Whelan, C. ‘James Yonge and the Writing of History in Late Medieval Dublin’. Medieval Dublin 2013, XIV, 183-95.

  • Authored Book

    • Whelan, C. Birth of a Tradition: The Origins of English Literature in Ireland. 2024. Submitted.

  • Book Chapters

    • Whelan Caoimhe. The Emergence of the Hiberno-English Literary Tradition. In: Duffy S; Crooks P, ed. Invasion 1169. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2024. In Press.
    • Whelan, C. ‘The Evolution of a Prophetic History’. In: Thompson, J, ed. Textual Afterlives. Brill, 2024. Submitted.
    • Whelan, C. ‘Translating the Expugnatio Hibernica: a vernacular English history in late medieval Ireland’. In: Carrie Griffin and Emer Purcell (eds), ed. Text and Transmission in the European Middle Ages, 1000–1500. Brepols, 2018, pp.139-57.
    • Whelan, C, ed. ‘The Transmission of the Expugnatio Hibernica in Medieval Ireland’. University of Wales Press, 2018.
    • Whelan, C. ‘New readers, old history: Gerald of Wales and the Anglo-Norman Invasion of Ireland’. In: Laura Cleaver and Andrea Worm (eds), ed. Historiography in the Anglo-Norman world c.1066–c.1250: Manuscripts, Makers and Readers. Boydell and Brewer, 2018, pp.213-31.
    • Whelan, C. ‘The Kings Cycle’. In: Siân Echard, Robert Rouse (eds), ed. The Encyclopaedia of British Medieval Literature. Wiley-Blackwell, 2017.
    • Whelan, C. ‘Song of Dermot and the Earl (Geste des Engleis en Yrlande)’. In: Siân Echard, Robert Rouse (eds), ed. The Encyclopaedia of British Medieval Literature. Wiley-Blackwell, 2017.
    • Whelan, C. ‘The Notary’s Tale’. In: Sparky Booker and Cherie Peters (eds), ed. Tales of Medieval Dublin. Four Courts Press, 2014, pp.119-34.

  • Edited Book

    • Whelan, C, Hulsman, G, ed. Occupying Space in Medieval and Early Modern Britain and Ireland. Peter Lang, 2016.

  • Online Publications

  • Reviews