Staff Profiles

Ian R. Walsh was appointed to Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Studies at NUI Galway in September 2014. He previously worked as a Lecturer in Drama at University College Dublin from 2010 and was Doctoral Scholar at the Drama Studies Centre, UCD in 2006. He was promoted to Lecturer above the bar in 2017. 

Ian was awarded a PhD from University College Dublin in 2010 where he was previously awarded an MA in Anglo-Irish Literature (2003) and a BA Mode 1 English (2001). His PhD was one of the first projects in Ireland to include a practice-as-research component. He has a Certificate in Directing Theatre from NUI Maynooth and has worked as a freelance director of both theatre and opera. He studied Anne Bogart's viewpoints at The Abbey School of Acting and has participated in workshops on Epic theatre, Commedia Dell'Arte, Jacques LeCoq and Shakespearian Verse with a range of international theatre practitioners.

He has published widely on Irish theatre and has been invited to give talks in Ireland, Germany, Brazil and the United States and was elected as an Executive Member of The Irish Society for Theatre Research in 2015 and elected as Executive Member of the International association for the Study of Irish Literature in 2016. His monograph Experimental Irish Theatre, After W.B Yeats was published in 2012 by Palgrave Macmillan. Edited collections include The Theatre of Enda Walsh (Peter Lang/Carysfort Press 2015) co-edited with Mary Caulfield and Cultural Convergence: The Dublin Gate Theatre, 1928-1960 (Palgrave 2021) co-edited with Ondrej Pilny and Ruud van den Beuken. With Siobhán O'Gorman and Elaine Sisson he is editing an issue of The Review of Irish Studies in Europe (4.1 April 2021) entitled The Gate Theatre: Staging Europe in Ireland. He is also currently co-writing Contemporary Irish Theatre and Performance with Charlotte McIvor which will be published by Palgrave Macmillan  

Ian was appointed as External examiner for the English, Media and Cultural Studies Degree in IADT Dun Laoghaire in 2018-2021 and External Examiner for BA (Hons) Drama and Performance at Dundalk Institute of Technology. 

He is currently supervising two doctoral research projects on the theatre of W.B Yeats and D'Annunzio as well as a Practice as research project on rituals of loss. Previous successful Phd supervised projects were on the neglected theatre of Ireland in the 1980s, scenography at the Abbey Theatre, and a practice-as-research project on directing the plays of G.B Shaw.  

In 2019 Ian began collaborating with Galway Community Circus on two European funded projects. 
He is a partner in the Erasmus+ three year funded project Circus++. This project that includes five circus schools from Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, France and Ireland and three universities (University of Tampere, Finland, University College of Dance Stockholm and NUI Galway), has been allocated a grant of €360,000 to devise a curriculum for the first ever BA degree in Youth and Social Circus, in the world. This project will produce two Intellectual Outputs by 2022.

He is also the Principal Academic Evaluator of Practice for the Creative Europe funded project: Wires Crossed: Head, Heart, Balance (October 2019-September 2022.). This is a shared project with Galway Community Circus, The Serious Road Trip (Romania), Ecole de Cirque de Bruxelles, and the Université Libre de Bruxelles. This tightwire project will see 400 people cross the River Corrib in August 2020 to highlight positive mental health. The event will then be repeated as part of the Capital of Culture 2021 in Timisoara, Romania. 

Ian is a board member of Galway Community Circus since 2020. 

He directed Sophie Treadwell's Machinal as the inaugural production of the new O'Donoghue Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance with NUI Galway Theatre Studies students in 2017 and  musical theatre showcase for President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins on the launch of the venue. He later directed An Accidental Death of Anarchist by Dario Fo with NUI Galway Drama and Theatre studies students in 2019. His professional Directing credits include Purple Path to the Poppy Field ( Hora Prima, 2006) and The Magic Flute (2011), Orfeo Ed Eurydice (2010), Riders to the Sea and The Wandering Scholar (2009) all for DLR Glasthule Opera. Speak Truth to Power (2015) International Summer School for Human Rights. Waking the Feminist West New Playwriting Series (2016) as part of The Galway Theatre Festival. Two Stars (2017) for Thoor Ballylee Society and Autumn Gathering Festival. When studying as an undergraduate Ian was elected auditor of Dramsoc UCD 1999/2000. Significant acting credits include The Hour Glass at the Peacock Theatre in 1993 and The Family for BBC/RTE in 1994. Credit as Dramaturg: Portia Coughlan ( Blue Patch Productions, 2008)

He has worked as a Theatre Reviewer for Irish Theatre Magazine and was the General Manager of that publication in 2008. He has also worked as a theatre reviewer and researcher for RTE Radio 1's The Arts Show and Arena as well as a book reviewer for Adare Productions Seoige and O"Shea television programme.