Happy New Year and hope you all had a lovely Christmas.
I wanted to again say a massive THANK YOU to the Deaf community for being interested in and supporting my PhD thesis. It has been very important to me, from Day 1, that my research was shared with the community - as it is your history far more than mine - and since 2012, when I registered with TCD, I have tried to be open in terms of my process as well as the major findings, through ISL presentations in Dublin, Belfast, and elsewhere, as well as through my webpage and Facebook page.
Without the Deaf community and ISL, I wouldn't have a subject to research. I wouldn't have a career as an interpreter. I wouldn't have met my fiancée (who is an interpreter) either! Again, a massive thank you to Dr John Bosco Conama and Dr Patrick Geoghegan for their wonderful supervision over the years.
Like I said in my earlier update: on 15 Dec I had my Viva interview with Dr Breda Carty and Dr Ciarán O'Neill, and I have to say I really enjoyed it! It wasn't as difficult as I was expecting! I passed with 'minor corrections' which means I now am Dr Cormac Leonard, but I still need to make some small amendments to the thesis before I submit it to Trinity College library in February some time - and after that it becomes public.
So what happens after this? Well, it's possible that I might start writing a few small papers and articles for historical journals and magazines, about some of the aspects of the thesis in more detail. It might have to wait until after my wedding and honeymoon, which will keep me busy until at least September 2023!
A lot of people have been asking me about publishing the thesis as a book. It's a bit too early really to talk about that, but I think if I did publish a book, I would want it to be slightly different than the thesis itself. But it's still a long way off before anything happens there. I realise that even if I publish, that it will still be inaccessible to many Deaf people as it's written in academic English - so I will keep thinking of ways in which I could make it more accessible. I will keep you posted on this.
Just to say that my Facebook page will still be active. I will change the name to "On This Day in Irish Deaf History" and I will continue to put up stories and vlogs from my research. I really have gathered a huge amount over the last 9 years and I do want to keep sharing it with the Irish Deaf community. I really hope it will encourage people to being research themselves and find new stories and new histories.
That's all for now. Thanks very much.
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