Following thirty years teaching in the English Department of University College, Dublin (1971 - 2001) I was recruited to teach in China.Over five semesters at one of China's elite universities, I taught (with my partner, Professor John Blair) a course devised for the BFSU graduate School of English and International Studies called "Western Civilization with Chinese Comparisons"​. Especially devised for this university, the course aims to help Chinese students understand the Western world through systematic comparisons across designated domains, both traditional and modern (such as "Language"​, "Education"​, "Health and Bodies"​,"Governance"​ and "Values and Worldviews". This course is now published -- and going into its third edition -- by Fudan University Press in Shanghai.While in this position, I also helped set up the only Irish Studies Centre in China -- where I subsequently have taught and will be teaching again this year (2015).

During my 30 years at UCD, I lectured in English, American and Anglo-Irish literature from the early modern period to the early 20th century. My favourite period was, in fact, about 1840 to 1910. Specializing in what was known as "decadence"​ (the English 1890s) many of my publications focused on Oscar Wilde and his circle; especially the (previously little known) Man Who Was Dorian Gray -- the title of my biographical novel about him. The work on Wilde resulted in one of the first books which located Wilde in his native context ( Wilde the Irishman). My American interests led to an unusual essay, "Domesticating Delphi: Emily Dickinson and the Electromagnetic Telegraph," an early venture in looking at the impact of new technologies on American literature. While at UCD, I also was instrumental in writing (and finding sponsors for) what has now become the Clinton Institute there -- a hub of American studies unique to Ireland.