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Irish Studies

Find out how to access theses submitted to NUI Galway (both hardcopy and online) and also how to locate details of theses submitted in other Universities.

If you have any queries please contact us at specialcollections@nuigalway.ie

Queries relating to the submission of taught course theses should, in the first instance, be addressed to the academic programme director or supervisor.

General Information About our Theses Collection

The Library holds a copy of most theses completed in NUI Galway (after 1997) and University College Galway (the University's title before 1997).

  • Theses are held in bound hardcopy, online, or online-only format.
  • Bound hardcopy theses may not be borrowed and can only be read in the Library. Users of others libraries can access theses through our Inter-Library Loans service.
  • Online and open access theses can be viewed from any location. NUI Galway's online content copyright terms and conditions apply, see Copyright statement for the NUI Galway Web site.
  • Online-only taught theses can only be accessed by Staff or Students of NUI Galway.
  • Note that some researchers have requested that their theses are not made available for consultation immediately or, in rarer cases, at all. The catalogue record will usually indicate if this is the case.

Research Theses

PhD Theses, after 2011, can be accessed online using the Library Catalogue or using the University’s institutional repository, ARAN at http://aran.library.nuigalway.ie.

Taught Theses

Most taught theses can be found using the Library Catalogue search. Theses are either held by the Library in bound hardcopy (before Jan 2014) or online (after Jan 2014).

Not all taught courses are required to submit theses to the Library for publishing. Submission is on an opt-in basis.

After 2014 (Online Taught Theses)

Taught Course Theses can only be submitted online using https://student.intranet.nuigalway.ie and accessed/searched for using the Library Catalogue.

Search for online Taught Course Theses only

  • In the 'Search' box, enter 'taught theses' and add the name of the course, or part of, eg 'management' (for example 'taught theses management')
  • This example retrieves taught theses completed within courses which have the term 'management' in the course name
  • Results may be refined by selecting options on the left hand side of the screen

Search for Theses

After 1990

Most theses are recorded on the Library Catalogue. You can search using the following basic search option:

  • In the 'Search' box, enter 'galway theses' and add the name of, or part of the name of, the discipline, course, or keyword, eg 'history' (for example 'galway theses history')
  • This example retrieves theses completed within the discipline of History
  • Results may be refined by selecting options on the left hand side of the screen

Before 1990

Theses have records on the Library Catalogue, but some are recorded only in a card catalogue which is located in the Library basement. Please ask Library staff at the  Library & IT Service Desk  for assistance with any queries.

Theses from other universities

You can also locate details of theses submitted in other Universities:

Details of theses in the collections of other Irish universities can be found by searching for the relevant library's name in our Library Catalogue. e.g University College Dublin Library. Alternatively, click on this link for a list of other library catalogues.

Inter-Library Loans

The Inter-Library Loans Service provides postgraduate research students, researchers and academic staff with access to information resources not held by our Library.  More information about the Inter-Library Loans service can be found here.