Researcher Details |

Eugene McNulty

Prof

Eugene McNulty is Professor in English with special interests in Irish literature and theatre history, postcolonial writing, and the intersections between law and cultural production. He is a graduate of the University of Kent (Canterbury), where he was awarded his MA and PhD by the Centre for Colonial and Postcolonial Research. Before the formation of DCU's School of English he was a member of the English Department in St Patrick's College (2008-2016), and prior to moving back to Ireland he was a member of the School of Social, Historical and Literary Studies at the University of Portsmouth (2003-2008). In addition to his role in the School of English, he has been the Associate Dean for Research in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (2016-20), and the Chair of the Irish Humanities Alliance (2019-20). Currently he is the co-Chair of the Irish Humanities Alliance's Working Group on the Legal Humanities, and the co-Chair of the Irish Network for the Legal Humanities.

Book

	Year	Publication
	2008	Eugene McNulty (2008) The Ulster Literary Theatre and the Northern Revival. Cork: Cork University Press.

Edited Book

	Year	Publication
	2022	Adam Hanna;Eugene McNulty (Ed.). (2022) Law and Literature: The Irish Case. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press,
	2017	Eugene McNulty;Roisin Ni Ghairbhi (Ed.). (2017) Patrick Pearse and the theatre. Dublin: Four Courts Press,
	2015	Eugene McNulty;Ciaran MacMurchaidh (Ed.). (2015) Hearing Heaney. Dublin: Four Courts Press,
	2015	Eugene McNulty;Tom Maguire (Ed.). (2015) The Theatre of Marie Jones. Dublin: Carysfort Press,
	2013	Eugene McNulty;Roisin Ni Ghairbhi (Ed.). (2013) Patrick Pearse: Collected Plays. Dublin: Irish Academic Press,
	2011	Eugene McNulty;Bran Nicol;Patricia Pulham (Ed.). (2011) Crime Cultures: Figuring Criminality in Fiction and Film. London: Continuum,

Book Chapter

	Year	Publication
	2025	Eugene McNulty (2025) 'Nationalism' In: Sean O'Casey in Context. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
	2025	Eugene McNulty (2025) 'Haunted by Justice: the politics of law in Eoin MacNamee’s Blue Trilogy' In: Expressions of Intersectional Justice in Modern and Contemporary Literature, Film and Theatre. Oxford : Peter Lang.
	2024	Eugene McNulty; Ellen Howley (2024) 'Ireland' In: Europe in British Literature and Culture. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
	2024	Eugene McNulty (2024) 'Law and Literature: Five Key Concepts' In: Law and Literature: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach. Macerata : The University of Macerata Press.
	2023	Eugene McNulty (2023) 'Before the Law(s): Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman and the passages of' In: Death and the King's Horseman: A Norton Critical Edition. New York : W.W. Norton.
	2022	McNulty, E. (2022) 'Intimate borders: Brexit and Ireland' In: Brexit and the Migrant Voice: EU Citizens in post-Brexit Literature and Culture. [Link]
	2022	Eugene McNulty (2022) 'Moral Legibility: Dion Boucicault and the Melodramatic Legal Scene' In: Law and Literature: The Irish Case. Liverpool : Liverpool University Press.
	2018	Eugene McNulty (2018) 'Once more with feeling: restaging history in the work of Gerald MacNamara' In: Irreverence in Irish Culture. Bern : Peter Lang.
	2018	Eugene McNulty (2018) 'Law in contemporary Anglophone Literature' In: Law and Literature. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
	2017	Eugene McNulty (2017) 'Legal Containment: Ireland as Crime Scene in Gerald Griffin's The Collegians' In: Ruling Words: Perspectives in Law and Literature. Dublin : Raglan Books.
	2016	Eugene McNulty (2016) ''Exceptional Bodies: Pearse's Drama and the search for the Law beyond the law'' In: Patrick Pearse and the Theatre. Dublin : Four Courts Press.
	2016	Eugene McNulty (2016) ''Marie Jones and Charabanc: Popular Theatre in / for Northern Ireland'' In: Contemporary Irish Theatre and Performance Studies Reader. Dublin : Carysfort Press.
	2015	Eugene McNulty (2015) ''Words into action: re-hearing Antigone’s claim in The Burial at Thebes'' In: Hearing Heaney. Dublin : Four Courts Press.
	2010	Eugene McNulty (2010) ''Incommensurate Histories: the Remaindered Irish Bodies of the Great War'' In: Conflict, Nationhood and Corporeality in Modern Literature: Bodies at War. London : Continuum.
	2008	Eugene McNulty (2008) ''Parody, Metatheatre, and the Postmodern Turn: A Secret history of Irish Drama'' In: Drama and the Postmodern. Amherst : Cambria Press.
	2005	Eugene McNulty (2005) ''''Draw it not too rigidly: Ulad and the cultural partition debate'' In: Representing Ireland: Past, Present and Future. Sunderland : University of Sunderland Press.
	2000	Eugene McNulty (2000) '‘Myth, Self and Nation: The case of James Clarence Mangan and Samuel Ferguson’' In: New Voices in Irish Criticism. Dublin : Four Courts Press.

Peer Reviewed Journal

	Year	Publication
	2025	Eugene McNulty (2025) 'The / An Octoroon and the Law'. Contemporary Theatre Review, .
	2019	Eugene McNulty (2019) 'Original Intent: The Limits of Legal Imagination in Colm Tóibín’s The Heather Blazing'. Law and Literature, . https://doi.org/10.1080/1535685X.2019.1636542
	2016	Eugene McNulty (2016) 'Resurrections and re-burials: the Colleen Bawn murder, from crime-scene to law-scene'. New Hibernia Review, 20 (2).
	2011	Eugene McNulty (2011) 'Before the Law(s): Wole Soyinka's Death and the King's Horseman and the passages of bare life'. Postcolonial Text, 6 (3).
	2010	Eugene McNulty (2010) 'Breaking the Law: Patrick Pearse, cultural revival, and the site of sovereignty'. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 46 (5).
	2009	Eugene McNulty (2009) 'Partition's Fantastical Progress: Gerald MacNamara's No Surrender! and the performance of Northern Irish satire'. The Irish Review, 40-41 .
	2008	Eugene McNulty (2008) 'The place of memory: Alice Milligan, Ardrigh, and the 1898 Centenary'. Irish University Review, 38 (2).
	2007	Eugene McNulty (2007) 'Revival's limit, or a post-revival space? Gerald MacNamara's 'Christmas Laughter'. Irish Studies Review, 15 (2).
	2004	Eugene McNulty (2004) 'From The Wild Irish Girl to A Royal Democrat: Remembering the Future in the 1890s'. Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, 30 (1).

Professional Associations

Association	Function	From / To
Studia Hibernica	Editorial Board Member	-
Irish Humanities Alliance	Board Member	-
Irish Association for the Study of Irish Literatures	Member	-

Committees

	Committee	Function	From / To
	Faculty Research Committee		-
	University Standards Committee		-
	University Research Committee		-
	Graduate Research Studies Board		-

Employment

Employer	Position	From / To
St Patrick's College	Senior / Principal Lecturer	01/12/2008 - 03/10/2016
University of Portsmouth	Senior Lecturer	01/09/2003 - 30/11/2008
University of Kent (Canterbury)	Outreach programme coordinator	02/09/2002 - 31/08/2003

Education

	Start date	Institution	Qualification	Subject
		University of Kent (Canterbury)	PhD
		University of Kent (Canterbury)	MA

Research Interests

As well as being central to my teaching, the areas of theatre studies, Irish writing, postcolonial literatures, and the intersections of law and cultural production also form the core of my research interests. I currently supervise PhD projects in the areas of Irish cultural history, European Theatre traditions, and postcolonial transnationalism – and welcome further proposals for doctoral work in topics related to my research interests.

I am working on two major research projects currently:

the conceptualisation of the Law in twentieth-century Irish literature
the impact / presence of partition on / in the Irish literary imagination