Writing, Film, Radio, Dance History, Curation, ACADEMIA, & More…
Deirdre Mulrooney
1943 – A Dance Odyssey at Dublin Festival of History on September 23rd đ
I'm delighted to see that my film "1943 - A Dance Odyssey", featuring 5 fabulous former pupils of Irish-German Modern Dance pioneer Erina Brady: Ann Fryer-Walsh; Margaret Becker; Ann Danaher/McGuire; Romy Hogan; and Barbara Sweetman-Fitzgerald, as well as rare 1943...
 Deirdre is author of Irish Moves, an illustrated history of dance and physical theatre in Ireland (The LIffey Press), and Orientalism, Orientation, and The Nomadic Work of Pina Bausch (Peter Lang Gmbh). Committed to re-inscribing the body into Irish cultural history, Deirdre’s influential BAI-funded feature radio documentary, short dance film ‘Lucia Joyce: Full Capacity’, and her Joyce Studies Annual essay ‘Fail Better: Lucia Joyce and the Abbey Theatre Ballets’, change the accepted ‘mad girl’ narrative, and invite consideration of Lucia Joyce as a significant artist in her own right. Her booklet “Lucia Joyce: Full Capacity” (Grand Canal Publishing, reviewed in Village Magazine) is available at Shakespeare and Co, Paris; and in Dublin at various outlets including James Joyce Centre, The Library Project, Books Upstairs, The Winding Stair Bookshop, and Connolly Books, as well as at Limerick’s Quay Bookstore. Marking the 40th anniversary of Lucia Joyce’s death, in 2022 Deirdre presented an immersive interdisciplinary Saint Lucia’s Day event celebrating Joyce’s overlooked creativity at Dublin’s James Joyce Centre, called ‘Come and See Me, I’m a Crossword Puzzle’.  In tandem with this, Deirdre curated an associated exhibition featuring her own original research, which ran until June 2024.  Deirdre directed Michael Hastings’ play ‘Calico’ for Bloomsday Festival 2021, as research for her own play ‘Brancusi Bird’, supported by an Arts Council Agility Award and ‘Burn Bright. Scene readings were presented in Ranelagh Arts Festival 2023, and as part of a Bloomsday Festival talk on Berenice Abbott in 2024.  Deirdre has presented many talks on Lucia Joyce, from Trieste Joyce Summer School, to National Library of Ireland, to Princeton University FĂS, and more, as well as hosting Dance Ireland’s 30th Anniversary podcasts. On Bloomsday 2025 Deirdre presented a reading from her work at Ranelagh Arts Centre, and an illustrated talk entitled “Lucia Joyce in Paris” at Dublin’s Alliance Française, inspired by her residency at Centre Culturel Irlandais.Â
Deirdre produces and directs theatre, and her own creative film documentaries including âDamhsa na hĂigeandĂĄla’ (TG4), and â1943 â A Dance Odysseyâ (RTE), about Irish-German modern dance pioneer Erina Brady; ‘TRUE NORTH’ about her parents’ time teaching on First Nations Reservations in remote north Ontario; and many more BAI-funded, commissioned, and Indie projects with her own production company âOut There Productionsâ. Deirdre has contributed over ten essays to RTE Sunday Miscellany;Â several chapters to books on theatre and dance; and her Arts journalism has appeared in top publications. On top of her original academic work, teaching, broadcasting, and making original feature radio documentaries (RTE Lyric FM & Newstalk 106 – 108fm), Deirdre curates exhibitions too.Â
 Deirdre contributed about her own family’s unique adventures to Photo Album of the Irish: Canada, and most recently about her late Limerick father to Fifty Irish Lives in Canada. She is developing a new documentary entitled ‘Turtle Island Family Album’ with her Ojibway school friends in Cat Lake, North Ontario. During the pandemic, Deirdre undertook Ardteist Gaeilge ArdleibhĂ©al, and was delighted to get a H2! In 2022 Deirdre directed a TG4 FinnĂ© episode on one of her Gaeilge gurus, ‘Limerick’s own Billy Elliot’, Roy Galvin. Her experimental short Goodbye Marian Avenue premiered in Irish Artist Film Index’s ‘2 Films, 3 Clues’ screening at Visual Artist Ireland HQ, the Curve in March 2025. In 2022 Deirdre was an invited participant in Global Irish Studies’ ‘Ulysses and the World’ symposium at Georgetown University, Washington DC, and enjoyed being on the founding steering committee of #Ulysses80 virtual bookclub. After featuring in Bloomsday Film Festival 2022 at the IFI, Lucia Joyce: FULL CAPACITY was selected in 2024 for the James Joyce Centre permanent collection, and continues to screen widely in various exciting contexts. After her 2024 Artist’s Residency at Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris, Deirdre was awarded a place on the Irish Writers Centre National Mentoring programme for a work in progress. Deirdre’s 2004 interview with the late, great SinĂ©ad O’Connor, about her love for her children, features in a recent book, “SinĂ©ad O’Connor: The Last Interview”.
Deirdre serves on the advisory board of Northern Attitudes Dance Company, and of the Yeats International Summer School. Â
Out There Productions: Film
Deirdre has been awarded many accolades for her films and documentaries, including “Lucia Joyce: Full Capacity” (for which Evanna Lynch was nominated for Best Actor in a Female Role at RHIFF 2019); â1943 â A Dance Odysseyâ first broadcast on RTĂ One; âDamhsa na hĂigeandĂĄlaâ (TG4 Splanc!) which premiered at Galway Film Fleadh and âTRUE NORTH: Paud Mulrooneyâs Irish-Canadian Adventures in Super 8â (nominated for best documentary at RHIFF, 2019).
 Writing
Deirdre is author of âIrish Moves â an illustrated history of Dance and Physical Theatre in Irelandâ and âOrientalism, Orientation, and the Nomadic Work of Pina Bauschâ (her PhD). Deirdre’s latest chapter is ‘Erina Brady: Mary Wigman’s Disciple to Ireland?’ in ‘Dance and Modernism in Irish and German Literature and Culture”, published by Lexington Press .
 Curator
Deirdre has curated many events, exhibitions, and directed many theatre shows, including “Come and See Me, I’m a Crossword Puzzle” at Dublin’s James Joyce Centre (Dec 13th, ’22 – June ’24); âMother Tongueâ at Kilkeeâs Culturlann Sweeney (Nov 23 â Dec 21st, 2018), and at Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin, for Culture Night, 2018.
Out There Productions: Radio
Deirdre’s BAI-funded radio documentaries include “Lucia, Sweet Dancer”, âCoosheenâs Forgotten Seanchai and Sonâ, âSurrender on Grand Canal Streetâ and âGeorgieâs Visionâ, the first ever documentary about the fascinating but little-known Mrs. WB Yeats.
âŠOur Deirdre O’Connell would surely be pleased with the fabulous work on Lucia by another Deirdre – Deirdre Mulrooney – which you may have heard on Sunday Miscellany
-president Michael D Higgins,
Bloomsday address, 2020
we are singing the praises of this new ebook
Arnd Weseman, TANZ MAGAZINE
” groundbreaking and provocative
– Joe Jackson, Hot Press
“that was really good”
‘ Daniel Day Lewis, of Deirdre’s performance in ‘In the Name of the Father’
-Seona Mac Reamoinn,
Magill Magazine
COMPOSTING THE ARCHIVE
Deirdre’s Recycle (and Evolve) Store of Yore.





