Professor Eugene O'Brien
Research interests
The poetry, prose and thought of Seamus Heaney, W. B. Yeats and James Joyce; 21st century Irish Writing; Contemporary Irish Culture; Literary and Cultural Theory
Click here for CV
Click here for full text of research articles on MIRR (Mary Immaculate College Research Repository)
Editor of the Literary and Critical Theory module in Oxford University Press's Oxford Bibliographies Online Series.
Editor of the Routledge Studies in Irish Literature series. Currently working on:
Reading Paul Howard: The Art of Ross O’Carroll Kelly, Routledge, 2023
'The Frontier of Writing’: A Study of Seamus Heaney's Prose, with Ian Hickey, Routledge, 2023
Études Irlandaises – The French Journal of Irish Studies: Special Issue on Memory and Contemporary Irish Culture, volume 48, number 2, with Eóin Flannery, 2024
The Routledge Companion to 21st Century Irish Writing, with Anne Fogarty, Routledge, 2024
Reading Micheal O’Siadhail: The Gift of Tongues, Routledge, 2025
More information
Eugene O’Brien is Professor of English Literature and Theory, and Head of the Department of English Language and Literature in Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, Ireland,
and is also the director of the Mary Immaculate Institute for Irish Studies. He is the editor of:
The Oxford Online Bibliographies: Literary and Cultural Theory Module
The Routledge Studies in Irish Literature Series
He has published a number of books on Seamus Heaney and on contemporary Irish writing and culture.
Books as Single Author
Reading Micheal O’Siadhail: The Gift of Tongues, London and New York: Routledge, 2025
Reading Paul Howard: The Art of Ross O’Carroll Kelly, London and New York: Routledge 2023
Seamus Heaney as Aesthetic Thinker: A Study of the Prose, New York: Syracuse University Press, 2016
‘Kicking Bishop Brennan Up the Arse’: Interlacing Texts and Contexts, New York: Peter Lang, 2009
Seamus Heaney: Searches for Answers, London: Pluto Press, 2004
Seamus Heaney and the Place of Writing, Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2003
Seamus Heaney: Creating Irelands of the Mind, Dublin: Liffey Press, 2002
Books as Editor
The Routledge Companion to 21st Century Irish Writing, edited by Anne Fogarty and Eugene O'Brien, London: Routledge, 2024
'The Frontier of Writing’: A Study of Seamus Heaney's Prose, edited by Ian Hickey and Eugene O'Brien, London: Routledge, 2023
Études Irlandaises – The French Journal of Irish Studies: Special Issue on Memory and Contemporary Irish Culture, volume 48, number 2, with Eóin Flannery, 2024