Colette Allen worked in Local Studies at the County Library in Tallaght. She retired early and completed a research M.Litt. in NUI Galway entitled ‘The Landscapes of Buí: the Cailleach Bhéarra’. This was part of the Gaelic Landscapes section of the school of Archaeology.
She had observed that the place-name Buí is found on the boundaries of early medieval territories and at assembly places and made a comparative study between places named for Buí and those named for the Cailleach Bhéarra.
Colette’s mother was Kathleen Joe Vallig, raised in Kilmichael, Dursey although Colette’s early childhood summers were spent with her grandmother in Garnish.