I am a folklorist and anthropologist interested primarily in Ireland. Author of _Storytelling on the Northern Irish Border: Characters and Community_ and _Packy Jim: Folklore and Worldview on the Irish Border_, I have written articles on a range of topics: outlaws in Irish folklore and literature, wakes and funerals, pilgrimage and holy wells, folk drama and Christmas mumming, material culture and historic preservation, landscape and place-making, storytelling and vernacular historiography, the hungry grass and Famine memory, and how concepts such as nationalism, nostalgia, community, and tradition resonate and are enacted in Ireland. I am currently researching changes and continuities in observations surrounding death in Ireland through historical research and interviews with undertakers, grave diggers, monument carvers, coffin makers, and clergy and other celebrants throughout Ireland.