Dr Maurice Fitzpatrick
Maurice Fitzpatrick’s research focuses on contemporary Irish writing, cultural politics, and the role of writers and intellectuals in shaping political change, with particular emphasis on the Northern Ireland conflict and its aftermath. His work combines literary scholarship, intellectual history, and practice-based research through film, and has resulted in monographs, edited collections with leading university presses, and internationally broadcast research-led documentaries. He has held senior academic appointments alongside competitive international fellowships, notably a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship, in Europe and the United States.
He has written five books, three as author and two as editor or co-editor. His most recent publications include Early Deane with Cambridge University Press and Discourses of Unity in Ireland and Europe with Syracuse University Press. His book-in-progress, forthcoming with Cork University Press in 2027, is a cultural and political history of a 1950s generation of writers and thinkers — Seamus Heaney, Brian Friel, Seamus Deane and John Hume — who decisively shaped the political and cultural trajectory of Northern Ireland and the island as a whole. He frames this cohort, educated at St Columb’s College, Derry, as a ‘generation of 1914’, by analogy with other transformative intellectual generations, in recognition of its impact on the cultural and political development of modern Ireland.
His work investigates the formation, influence and enduring legacy of these writers, combining literary analysis, historical scholarship and documentary filmmaking to explore how writing reshapes political culture and collective memory. His most recent articles examine the role of writers and filmmakers in forming imaginaries of a New Ireland.
Select publications
Selected Books:
- Early Deane: Essays on Irish Literature, Culture and Politics (ed.), Cambridge University Press, 2026.
- Discourses of Unity in Ireland and Europe: Philosophy, Politics and Literature (co-ed. with Christoph Reinfandt and Raphael Zähringer), Syracuse University Press.
- Point-Counterpoint: Irish Essays, 2012–2025. The Liffey Press, 2026.
- John Hume in America: From Derry to DC. Irish Academic Press / University of Notre Dame Press, 2017; 2nd ed. 2019. Named Outstanding Academic Title by Choice, American Library Association (2020).
- The Boys of St. Columb’s. The Liffey Press / University of Notre Dame Press, 2010; 2nd ed. 2020
- Cultural and Political Regeneration in Derry. Under contract, Cork University Press
Films:
- Beyond Walls and Barricades: John Hume in Europe (2026) – Screen Ireland/Coimisiún na Meán/S481/Dept. of Foreign Affairs
- John Hume in America (2017) – Irish Film Board/RTÉ/S481/Dept. of Foreign Affairs
Select awards
- Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship, European Commission (2024–2026)
- 2nd Prize, Hubert Butler Essay Prize: Remembering for the Future (2024)
- John Hume in America named Outstanding Academic Title, Choice (American Library Association), 2020
- Fiosraigh Doctoral Scholarship, Technological University Dublin (2019–2022)
Further links
John Hume in America (book) and John Hume in America (film) have been discussed in over 50 media outlets, 20 academic journals, and cited in parliamentary and policy debates in Ireland and Northern Ireland, across international press, academic journals, podcasts, interviews, and political discussions. Selected highlights and full archive are available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1806ifyjlk6zGihaFSbgmD3ckdXVVTEJg/view
Example highlights:
• Feature by former Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, Seamus Mallon, in The Guardian, November 2017
• Filmed discussion, “The Making of Political Biopics”, with Ramesh Sharma at the Times Literature Festival, New Delhi, December 2019
• Screening of John Hume in America with US Congressmen at the United States Capitol, September 2017
• Filmed discussion with former US Special Envoys to Northern Ireland at the Council on Foreign Relations, New York, September 2017
• Filmed discussion with former US Senators at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, Boston, September 2017
