Patrick Lonergan

Patrick Lonergan is the Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies at the School of English, Media and Creative Arts, University of Galway. He is a member of the Royal Irish Academy, an Executive Committee member of the International Federation for Theatre Research, and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Galway International Arts Festival.

At present, he is carrying out a CHANSE/HERA transnational research project called "CoastARTS: Coastlines as Zones of Ecocultural Crisis – Shaping Resilience through Transnational Performance-based Arts", together will collaborators in the UK, Spain, Portugal and Norway. https://chanse.org/coastarts/

He has written six monographs: Theatre and Globalization: Irish Drama in the Celtic Tiger Era (winner of the 2008 Theatre Book Prize), The Theatre and Films of Martin McDonagh (Methuen Drama, 2012), Theatre and Social Media (2015 ; revised second edition 2024), Irish Drama and Theatre Since 1950 (Bloomsbury, 2019), Theatre Revivals for the Anthropocene (Cambridge, 2023), and Druid Theatre: Fifty Years, which was published by Lilliput Press in November 2025.

Recent journal articles and chapters include work on Ella Hickson's Oil, Anais Mitchell's Hadestown, Jez Butterworth's The Ferryman, and plays by Caryl Churchill, Dion Boucicault, Samuel Beckett, and Enda Walsh. He has also edited five essay collections and five anthologies about Irish theatre, including books about Rough Magic, the Gate Theatre, and Dublin Theatre Festival.

A graduate of University College Dublin, he has lectured widely on Irish writing internationally, including in Princeton, San Jose, Florence, Florianopolis (Brazil), Wroclaw, and Tokyo. He was the 2019 Burns Visiting Fellow for Irish Studies at Boston College.

Irish theatre, theatre history, and theatre and the environment. I have also published on contemporary British drama, Shakespearean performance, theatre and social media, and Irish literature.

I primarily teach on Drama and Theatre Studies programmes, but also contribute to teaching in English and Music. Recent courses include Theatre Histories, Musical Theatre, Performing and Screening Ireland, Creative Arts Ideas Lab, and Drama and Theatre Studies.