Professor Eugene O'Brien

BEd (MIC); MA (UCC); PhD (UL)
Head of Department

Phone: +353 61 204989
Email: Eugene.OBrien@mic.ul.ie
Location: G65

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 Literatur e 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: Creating Irelands of the Mind (Second enlarged and revised edition, first published 2002), Dublin: Liffey Press, 2007

Seamus Heaney: Searches for Answers, London: Pluto Press, 2004

Seamus Heaney and the Place of Writing, Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2003

Examining Irish Nationalism in the Context of Literature, Culture and Religion: A Study of the Epistemological Structure of Nationalism, New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 2002

Seamus Heaney: Creating Irelands of the Mind, Dublin: Liffey Press, 2002

The Question of Irish Identity in the Writings of W. B. Yeats and James Joyce, New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 1998

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

Irish Studies Review: Special Issue on Crisis and Commemoration in Modern Ireland, volume 30, number 4, edited by Eoin Flannery and Eugene O'Brien, 2022

Contemporary Irish Poetry and the Climate Crisis, edited by Andrew J. Auge and Eugene O’Brien, London and New York: Routledge, 2021

Reimagining Irish Studies for the Twenty-First Century, edited by Eamon Maher and Eugene O’Brien Oxford: Peter Lang, 2021

Recalling the Celtic Tiger, edited by Brian Lucy, Eamon Maher and Eugene O’Brien, Oxford: Peter Lang, 2019

Patrimoine/Cultural Heritage in France and Ireland, edited by Eamon Maher and Eugene O’Brien, Oxford: Peter Lang, 2019

Representations of Loss in Irish Literature, edited by Deirdre Flynn and Eugene O’Brien, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Tracing the Cultural Legacy of Irish Catholicism: From Galway to Cloyne, and Beyond (paperback 2nd edition), edited by Eamon Maher and Eugene O’Brien, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2018

The Soul Exceeds its Circumstances: The Later Poetry of Seamus Heaney, edited by Eugene O’Brien, Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2016

From Prosperity to Austerity: A Socio-Cultural Critique of the Celtic Tiger and its Aftermath, edited by Eamon Maher and Eugene O’Brien, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2014

Breaking the Mould: Literary Representations of Irish Catholicism and Ireland, edited by Eamon Maher and Eugene O’Brien, Oxford: Peter Lang, 2011

War of the Words: Literary Rebellion in France and Ireland, edited by Eamon Maher and Eugene O’Brien, Tir: Publication du CRBC Rennes 2, Université Européenne de Bretagne, 2010

Issues of Globalisation and Secularisation in France and Ireland, edited by Yann Bévant, Grace Neville, Eamon Maher and Eugene O’Brien, Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2009