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Professor Ruth Barton
Professor, Film Studies

Biography

Dr Ruth Barton is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin (BA Mod) and of University College Dublin (MA, Film Studies). She holds a PhD from the NUI (Thesis title: 'From History to Heritage: Representations of History and the Past in Contemporary Irish Cinema'). She is the author of several books on Irish cinema and has co-edited a volume of essays on Irish Cinema and Television as well as being the author of many articles on Irish and British cinema. Her interests include Irish cinema, stardom and diaspora studies. She is editor of a collection of essays on Irish-American film and television and on the Irish in Britain. She has also written a critical biography of the film star, Hedy Lamarr, and of the Irish silent director, Rex Ingram. She appears regularly on radio as a film historian and film critic. She joined the staff of TCD in September 2007.

Publications and Further Research Outputs

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Ruth Barton, Brian Desmond Hurst (author), Caitlin Smith and Stephen Wyatt (eds), Allan Esler Smith (Foreword), Hurst on Film 1928"1970; Lance Pettitt, The Last Bohemian: Brian Desmond Hurst, Irish Film, British Cinema, Journal of British Cinema and Television, 21, (1), 2024, p95 - 100 Journal Article, 2024 URL

Ruth Barton, Bad Sisters " space, class and the reimagining of Dublin, Transnational Screens, 2024 Journal Article, 2024 URL

Ruth Barton, Denis Murphy, Steven Hadley, Covid-19, cultural policy and the Irish arts sector: continuum or conjuncture?, Irish Studies Review, Irish Studies Review, 31, (2), 2023, p193 - 210 Journal Article, 2023 URL

Ruth Barton, Memories of Home: The Belfast Films of Mark Cousins and Kenneth Branagh, Journal of British Cinema and Television, 20, (3), 2023, p329 - 344 Journal Article, 2023 URL

Ruth Barton and Denis Murphy, Prominent careers and Irish screen policy, Irish Journal of Arts Management and Cultural Policy, 9, 2022, p4 - 42 Journal Article, 2022 TARA - Full Text URL

Barton, Ruth, Trauma, Motive and the Post-Troubles Psychopath in The Fall, Television & New Media, 22, (1), 2021, p32 - 46 Journal Article, 2021 DOI TARA - Full Text

Hedy Lamarr, Jennifer Sartori, The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women, online, Jewish Women's Archive, 2021, [Ruth Barton] Item in dictionary or encyclopaedia, etc, 2021 URL

O'Hagan, John; Murphy, Denis; Barton, Ruth, Do state funding, geographic location, and networks matter? The case of prominent Irish actors, directors and writers, Cultural Trends, 29, (2), 2020, p77 - 95 Journal Article, 2020 URL

Ruth Barton, The end of time: Bullet in the Brain, Short Film Studies, 10, (2), 2020, p207 - 210 Journal Article, 2020

Avenging the Famine: Lance Daly's Black '47, Genre and History in, editor(s)Terrazas Gallego, Melania , Trauma and Identity in Contemporary Irish Culture, Oxford, Bern, Berlin etc, Peter Lang, 2020, pp59 - 79, [Barton, Ruth] Book Chapter, 2020 URL

Barton, Ruth; , The Cinematic Informer, New Hibernia Review, 24, (2), 2020, p33 - 70 Journal Article, 2020 TARA - Full Text URL

Irish Cinema and the Gendering of Space: Motherhood, domesticity and the homeplace in, editor(s)Liddy, Susan , Women in the Irish film industry, Cork, Cork University Press, 2020, pp233 - 248, [Ruth Barton] Book Chapter, 2020

Screening Irish-America in, editor(s)Hill, John , A Companion to British and Irish Cinema, Hoboken, NJ, Wiley Blackwell, 2019, pp532 - 544, [Barton, Ruth] Book Chapter, 2019

Cinema and the Celtic Tiger in, editor(s)Lucey, Brian Maher, Eamon O'Brien, Eugene , Recalling the Celtic Tiger, Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, New York, Wien, Peter Lang, 2019, pp65 - 67, [Barton, Ruth] Book Chapter, 2019

Barton, Ruth, Irish cinema in the twenty-first century, Manchester and New York, Manchester University Press, 2019, 1 - 248pp Book, 2019

Francis Hitchcock's War: Stand To, A Diary of the Trenches and its legacy in, editor(s)Byrne, Michael , Offaly and the Great War, Tullamore, Esker Press, 2018, pp175 - 182, [Ruth Barton] Book Chapter, 2018

The Force Meets the Kittiwake: shooting Star Wars on Skellig Michael in, editor(s)Lundberg, Christine Ziakas, Vassilios , The Routledge Handbook of Popular Culture and Tourism, London and New York, Routledge, 2018, pp300-310 , [Ruth Barton] Book Chapter, 2018 TARA - Full Text

Behind Closed Doors: Middle-Class Suburbia and Contemporary Irish Cinema in, editor(s)Smith, Eoghan, Workman, Simon , Imagining Irish Suburbia in Literature and Culture, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, pp191-208 , [Ruth Barton] Book Chapter, 2018

Barton, Ruth Trezise, Simon, Music and Sound in Silent Film, From the Nickelodeon to The Artist, London and New York, Routledge, 2018 Book, 2018

Irish Cinema and Theatre: Adapting to Change in, editor(s)Jordan, Eamonn Weitz, Eric , The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Irish Theatre and Performance, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, pp315-329 , [Ruth Barton] Book Chapter, 2018

Barton, Ruth, A Female Voice in Irish Cinema: Women Filmmakers and the Creative Documentary, New Hibernia Review, 21, (2), 2017, p17 - 32 Journal Article, 2017 TARA - Full Text

Ruth Barton, Narrating Clerical Sexual Abuse, The Journal of English Language & Literature, 63, (4), 2017, p641 - 658 Journal Article, 2017

Ruth Barton, Mary R. Desjardins, Recycled Stars: Female Film Stardom in the Age of Television and Video, Journal of American Studies, 50, (1), 2016, pE15 - E15 Review Article, 2016 URL

Ruth Barton, Jimmy's Hall, Irish Cinema and the Telling of History, Review of Irish Studies in Europe, one, (one), 2016, p93 - 106 Journal Article, 2016

The Ironic Gaze: Roots Tourism and Irish Heritage Cinema in, editor(s)Paul Cooke Rob Stone , Screening European Heritage, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, pp163 - 179, [Ruth Barton] Book Chapter, 2016

Old Mother Riley Goes to the Pictures: Screening the Irish in Britain in, editor(s)Scott Brewster and Werner Huber , Ireland: Arrivals and Departures, Trier, WVT Wissenschaftlicher Verlag, 2015, pp13 - 24, [Ruth Barton] Book Chapter, 2015

Ruth Barton, Haunted memories: Rex Ingram, Francis Hitchcock and World War One, Offaly Heritage, 8, 2015, p139 - 144 Journal Article, 2015

Ruth Barton, Rex Ingram, Irish pacifist film director and his brother Frank, diarist and war hero, St Luke's Symposium Heritage Centre Lectures, Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, 13 October , 2015, Royal College of Physicians of Ireland Invited Talk, 2015

Estudios Irlandeses, Spain, AEDEI, [editor review section Irish Media publications], 2015 Editorial Board, 2015

Ruth Barton, Review of the year in Irish cinema, Christmas 'Review of the Year' , The Institute of International and European Affairs, 9 December, 2015, IIEA Young Professionals' Network Invited Talk, 2015

"More Sax, Less Clannad": The Road to God Knows Where in, editor(s)Lance Pettitt Beatriz Kopschitz Bastos , Alan Gilsenan: The Road to God knows Where, Florianopolis, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, 2015, pp145 - 164, [Ruth Barton] Book Chapter, 2015

Ruth Barton, Every Plot Has a Story, Estudios Irlandeses, (10), 2015, p197 - 197 Journal Article, 2015

Irish cinema, Catherine Marshall Peter Murray, Art and Architecture of Ireland (AAI), Vol.V. Twentieth-Century Art and Artists, New Haven, London, Yale University Press, Royal Irish Academy, 2014, [Ruth Barton] Item in dictionary or encyclopaedia, etc, 2014

Barton, Ruth, Into What Future?, Short Film Studies, 4, (2), 2014, p153 - 156 Journal Article, 2014

Barton, Ruth, Rex Ingram, Visionary Director of the Silent Screen, Lexington, Kentucky, University Press of Kentucky, 2014, ix - 262pp Book, 2014

Loss of Innocents: the Irish child and cinema in, editor(s)Luddy, Maria Smith, James M. , Children, Childhood and Irish Society, Dublin and Portland Or.,, Four CourtsPress, 2014, pp378 - 388, [Barton, Ruth] Book Chapter, 2014

From Symbol to Symptom - Changing Representations of Fatherhood in Recent Irish Cinema in, editor(s)Holohan, Conn Tracy, Tony , Masculinity and Irish Popular Culture, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, pp183 - 194, [Barton, Ruth] Book Chapter, 2014

Between Modernity and Marginality: Celtic Tiger cinema in, editor(s)Maher, Eamon O'Brien, Eugene , From Prosperity to Austerity, Manchester and New York, Manchester University Press, 2014, pp218 - 229, [Ruth Barton] Book Chapter, 2014

Ruth Barton, Cultural Baggage - Pirjo Hokkanen's Matka, Short Film Studies, 4, (1), 2013, p35 - 38 Journal Article, 2013

Drinking with McNulty: Irish American Identity and Spaces in The Wire in, editor(s)Kennedy, Liam Shapiro, Stephen , The Wire: Race, Class, and Genre, Ann Arbor, The University of Michigan Press, 2012, pp215 - 238, [Ruth Barton] Book Chapter, 2012

Ruth Barton, Silent Ritual: Marcell Ivany's Wind, Short Film Studies, 2, (2), 2012, p193 - 196 Journal Article, 2012

Ruth Barton, The O'Kalem Collection on DVD: Implications for future research, New Hibernia Review, 16, (2), 2012, p137 - 142 Review Article, 2012

Ruth Barton, Tuning in to Sunday, Short Film Studies, 1, (2), 2011, p311 - 314 Journal Article, 2011

Neil Jordan: Superstition and Religion in, editor(s)Werner Huber Seån Crosson , Contemporary Irish Film, Vienna, Braumuller, 2011, pp105 - 114, [Ruth Barton] Book Chapter, 2011

Rocket Scientist! The Posthumous Celebrity of Hedy Lamarr in, editor(s)Su Holmes Diane Negra , In the Limelight and Under the Microscope, New York, London, Continuum, 2011, pp82 - 102, [Ruth Barton] Book Chapter, 2011

Irish Studies Review, 19, 1, (2011), Ruth Barton, [eds.], special issue Journal, 2011

The Ghost of the Celtic Tiger in, editor(s)Marisol Morales Ladron Juan F Elices Agudo , Glocal Ireland, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011, pp26 - 39, [Ruth Barton] Book Chapter, 2011

Ruth Barton, Hedy Lamarr: The Most Beautiful Woman in FIlm, 1st, Lexington, University of Kentucky Press, 2010, 1 - 281pp Book, 2010

The Voice of Pierce Brosnan in, editor(s)James P. Byrne, Padraig Kirwan, Michael O'Sullivan , Affecting Irishness, Oxford, Bern,Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Wien, Peter Lang, 2009, pp259 - 274, [Ruth Barton] Book Chapter, 2009

Ruth Barton (ed.), Screening Irish-America, Dublin and Portland, Or., Irish Academic Press, 2009 Book, 2009

Before She was Mary Kate: Maureen O'Hara's Contradictory Career in, editor(s)Seån Crosson and Rod Stoneman , The Quiet Man ... And Beyond, Dublin, The Liffey Press, 2009, pp214 - 223, [Ruth Barton] Book Chapter, 2009

The Bums on The Seats: Irish Films and The Overseas Market in, editor(s)Isabelle le Corff and Estelle Epinoux , Cinemas of Ireland, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009, pp66 - 85, [Ruth Barton] Book Chapter, 2009

When the Chickens Came Home to Roost: British Thrillers of the 1970s in, editor(s)Robert Shail , Seventies British Cinema, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, pp46 - 55, [Ruth Barton] Book Chapter, 2008

The Ireland they dream of" - Eireville, Coolockland and the appropriation of Science Fiction and Fantasy narratives in short Irish filmmaking in, editor(s)Brian McIlroy , Irish Cinema: Genre and Transnationalism, London, New York, Routledge, 2007, pp151 - 162, [Ruth Barton] Book Chapter, 2007

Changing Direction: Irish cinema revisits its borders in, editor(s)Marjorie Salvodon & Sandra Barriales , Zoom in, Zoom out: Crossing Borders in Contemporary European Cinema, Cambridge, Cambridge Scholars' Press, 2007, pp170 - 185, [Ruth Barton] Book Chapter, 2007

Ruth Barton, Maureen O'Hara: Pirate Queen, Feminist Icon?, Éire-Ireland, 41, (1/2), 2006, p142 - 168 Journal Article, 2006

Ruth Barton, Acting Irish in Hollywood: From Fitzgerald to Farrell, pbk; hbk, USA and Ireland, Irish Academic Press, 2006 Book, 2006

Jim Sheridan in, editor(s)Anthony Roche , The UCD Aesthetic, Dublin, New Island, 2005, pp190 - 198, [Ruth Barton] Book Chapter, 2005

The Potency of Cheap Music: Exile, Ballads and Performance in Irish Cinema in, editor(s)Liam Harte, Yvonne Whelan and Patrick Crotty , Ireland: Space, Text, Time, Dublin, The Liffey Press, 2005, pp199 - 208, [Ruth Barton] Book Chapter, 2005

Ruth Barton, "The Ireland they dream of" - Eireville, Coolockland and the appropriation of Science Fiction and Fantasy narratives in short Irish filmmaking, Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, 29, (2), 2004, p41 - 45 Journal Article, 2004

Ruth Barton, Harvey O'Brien, Keeping it Real: Irish Film and Television, pbk, New York and London, Wallflower Press, 2004 Book, 2004

Ruth Barton, Irish National Cinema, pbk; hbk, New York, London, Routledge, 2004 Book, 2004

Ruth Barton, Jim Sheridan: Framing the Nation, pbk, Dublin, The Liffey Press, 2002, xi-175pp Book, 2002 TARA - Full Text URL

Ruth Barton, Kitsch as authenticity, Irish Studies Review, 9, (2), 2001, p193 - 202 Journal Article, 2001

Ruth Barton, The Ballykissangelisation of Ireland, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 20, (3), 2000, p413 - 426 Journal Article, 2000

Ruth Barton, Feisty Colleens and Faithful Sons, Gender in Irish Cinema, Cineaste, xxiv, (2/3), 1999, p40 - 45 Journal Article, 1999

Ruth Barton, Irish Cinema - From History to Heritage, The Irish Review, 21, 1997, p41 - 56 Journal Article, 1997

Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications

Ruth Barton, Why are so many Irish films and filmmakers nominated for Oscars?, 2023, 461 - 469 Miscellaneous, 2023 URL

Ruth Barton, The War on Film, Irish Times, (25 May), 2021, p12 - 13 Journal Article, 2021

Ruth Barton, Is Chariots of Fire still the best Olympics' film ever?, 2021, - Miscellaneous, 2021 URL

Ruth Barton, Contemporary Irish Cinema, NEI Digital Roundtable, online, 29 June 2021, edited by Beatriz Kopschitz Bastos , 2021 Conference Paper, 2021

Barton, Ruth; Murphy, Denis, Ecologies of Cultural Production, Dublin, February , 2020, p1 - 99 Report, 2020 URL

Ruth Barton, 'Come Live With Me', Hedy Lamar - Fremder Star, Berlin Zeughaus Kino, 17 August, 2019, Deutsches Historisches Museum Invited Talk, 2019

Barton, Ruth, New Dublin on screen - a place of freedom and choice, The Conversation, 2019 Journal Article, 2019 URL

Ruth Barton, Women in Irish Cinema, San Patricio 2019 | La mujer en la cultura irlandesa, Universidad de La Rioja , 13 March, 2019, Melania Terrazas Gallego Invited Talk, 2019

Ruth Barton, A Liminal Genre: Defining the Contemporary Irish Horror Film, Protean Spaces in Irish Literature, Theatre and Film, USFC, Florianopolis, 7 November , 2017, Nucleo de estudios irlandeses da UFSC Invited Talk, 2017

Ruth Barton, "Ireland and Irishness as a Post-Traumatic Discursive Space: the Case of Cinema", Rethinking Cultural Rethinking Cultural Trauma from Transnational Perspectives, Sao Paulo, 22-25 August , 2017, SPECTRESS Invited Talk, 2017

Ruth Barton, Screening 1916, 2017, - 14-15 Miscellaneous, 2017

Ruth Barton, "'Ireland of the Horrors': genre cinema and the boundaries of the national", THE CIRCULATION OF POPULAR CULTURE BETWEEN IRELAND AND THE USA (18TH-21ST CENTURIES), Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, June 16-17-18, 2016 Invited Talk, 2016

Ruth Barton, Jimmy's Hall, Whose Story is it?, SOFEIR, Paris, March, 2015 Conference Paper, 2015

Ruth Barton, Rethinking heritage cinema: how tourism has inflected the national visual imaginary., AEDEI 2015, Granada, Spain, May 2015, 2015 Conference Paper, 2015

Ruth Barton, Rex Ingram: The Magician of Nice, ACIS/CAIS, UCD, June , 2014 Conference Paper, 2014

Barton, Ruth, Brothers in arms: the soldier and the director: , Irish Times, (8 November), 2014, p9 - 9 Journal Article, 2014

Ruth Barton, Retrieving Rex Ingram, Irish Cinema, UCC, April, 2013 Invited Talk, 2013

Ruth Barton, City Break Cinema, European Heritage Cinema, University of Leeds, September , 2013 Conference Paper, 2013

Ruth Barton, Screening Irish-America III, 30 March , 2012 Meetings /Conferences Organised, 2012

Ruth Barton, Old Mother Riley Goes to the Pictures, EFACIS, University of Salford, September, 2011 Invited Talk, 2011

Ruth Barton, Repair it - or replace it entirely? Fatherhood and contemporary Irish cinema, Masculinities in Irish Popular Culture, NUI Galway, 2011 Conference Paper, 2011

Barton, Ruth, Guide to 'Psycho' and our love of the thriller, Review of The Moment of Psychosis, by David Thompson , Irish Times, (17 February), 2010 Review, 2010

Barton, Ruth, Spicy tales of Beatty behind the screen, Review of Star, The Life and Wild Times of Warren Beatty , by Beatty, Warren , Irish Times, 2010 Review, 2010

Ruth Barton, Screening the Irish in Britain, 26 September , 2009, Arts Technology Research Laboratory, TCD Meetings /Conferences Organised, 2009

Barton, Ruth, A life caught in pictures, Review of Everything is Cinema: The working life of Jean-Luc Godard, by Richard Brody , Irish Times, (21 June), 2008 Review, 2008

Ruth Barton, Screening Irish-America, April , 2007, University College Dublin Meetings /Conferences Organised, 2007

Barton, Ruth, War waif, screen icon, Review of Enchantment: the life of Audrey Hepburn, by Donald Spoto , Irish Times, (15 July), 2006 Review, 2006

Barton, Ruth, What Katy really did, Review of Kate: the woman who was Katherine Hepburn, by William J Mann , Irish Times, (11 November), 2006 Review, 2006

Barton, Ruth, Not a lot of people know that . . ., Review of Michael Caine: A Class Act, by Christopher Bray , Irish Times, (8 October), 2005 Review, 2005

Barton, Ruth, Master of suspense revisited ; The strange mind that produced masterworks of cinematic daring, Review of Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light, by Patrick McGilligan , Irish Times, (10 January), 2004 Review, 2004

Barton, Ruth, Method man with the blues, Review of Paul Newman, by Daniel O'Brien , Irish Times, (27 November), 2004 Review, 2004

Ruth Barton, Harvey O'Brien, Keeping it Real, April , 2002, University College Dublin Meetings /Conferences Organised, 2002

Research Expertise

Projects

  • Title
    • Ecologies of cultural production
  • Summary
    • The Ecologies of Cultural Production Project has thrown a new light on the career paths of some of Ireland's most successful theatre, television and film actors and directors. It focused on how people entered the fields of filmmaking, television drama and theatre-making and how do they then went on to build and develop their careers, informing public policy on arts funding and how to establish a methodology that might be applied to all sectors of cultural production. Ecologies of Cultural Production was the first survey of its kind in Ireland, taking a ground-breaking approach to analysing the long-term effects of arts policy.
  • Funding Agency
    • The Creative Ireland Programme
  • Date From
    • 1/10/2018
  • Date To
    • 31/12/2019
  • Title
    • Screening Irish-America
  • Summary
    • This is a historical and analytical study of the representation of the Irish in America on film, television the internet and other media.
  • Date From
    • Sept 2005
  • Title
    • Screening the Irish in Britian
  • Summary
    • This projects complements the 'Screening Irish-America' network. Outcomes to date include an international one-day seminar entitled 'Screening the Irish in Britain' held at TCD in September 2009.
  • Funding Agency
    • TCD Long Room Hub
  • Date From
    • 2009
  • Title
    • Women's Film and Television History Network - UK/Ireland
  • Summary
    • WFTHN focuses on British and Irish women working in the UK/Ireland or abroad and on overseas women working here. It is affiliated to Women & Film History International and encourages British and Irish contributions to international initiatives such as the Women Film Pioneers Database, the biennial international Women and Silent Screen conferences and the women's television conference, Consoling Passions.
  • Funding Agency
    • AHRC
  • Date From
    • 2009
  • Date To
    • 2011

Keywords

Cinema/Video; Film Studies; Theatre/Film Criticism

Recognition

Representations

External examiner, DKIT, 2015-2018 2015-18

Awards and Honours

Fellow of Trinity College 2018

Elected Member of Royal Irish Academy 2021

IRCHSS Postdoctoral Fellow 2000

IRCHSS Doctoral Fellow 1999

Memberships

Member of Board of Long Room Hub, Trinity's Arts and Humanities Institute 2019

Member of board of Irish Humanities Alliance 2019