Research and scholarship are highly valued in all SpIRE activities. The students are involved in research and development in a wide range of areas such as spirituality and health, spirituality and social concern, spiritual autobiography, spirituality and childhood, spirituality as an academic discipline, contemplative education, and spiritual tourism. A few of the team exercise international leadership roles in the field of spirituality studies.
In order to advance its commitment to a lively research culture, SETU-SpIRE students participate in a unique Research Group (SpirSoP – Spirituality in Society & the Professions) established by SETU and resourced by SpIRE. The research group is unique because it is the only one of its kind in an Irish university. www.setu.ie/spirsop
Four MA graduates in Applied Spirituality registered for PhD studies at SETU. One of them, Diane, successfully defended her PhD dissertation on December 15, 2025. A member of the 2023-24 MA class, Sue, moved from witin the programme that year after being awarded an SETU postgraduate research scholarship to start a PhD investigating the function of the Inner Development Goals.
CURRENT PhD PROJECTS with SETU and at SpIRE
Exploring the Emergence of End-of-Life Doulas in Ireland and Canada
Investigating the function of the Inner Development Goals in supporting activists to achieve the Climate Sustainability Development Goal in Ireland
Hunger for Food, Hunger for Life
Contemplative Practices in Protestantism Today – this PhD was successfully defended on December 15, 2025
More than Rucksack and Hiking Boots
A taught MA in Applied Spirituality has been running in Ireland since 2001 and it has been described as ‘potentially world-leading’ by an international external examiner. The programme in its first form ran at Milltown Institute, Dublin as a Milltown Institute programme and was awarded by the National University of Ireland from 2006. A similar version of the programme ran at All Hallows College as an All Hallows programme and was awarded by Dublin City University from 2010-2015. A third version of the programme (2016f) is now awarded by South East Technological University (SETU). SETU is a coming together of what was Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) and Institute of Technology Carlow. This is the first time in Ireland for an MA in Applied Spirituality to be awarded by a Technological University. While the programme is an SETU programme, it is hosted and resourced by SpIRE in Dublin.
Dr Bernadette Flanagan and Dr Michael O’Sullivan have been actively involved in writing each of the approved versions of the programme. For more information about the history of these developments see Michael’s Presidential Address to the international Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality in San Diego in 2025, which was published in the Spring 2025 issue of Spiritus and is available online at https://muse.jhu.edu/article/956945
In March 2026 SpIRE organised the Silver Jubilee celebration of postgraduate studies in applied spirituality in and from Ireland. The event was a great success. A full AV recording of it is available on the SpIRE website at https://spiritualityinstitute.
Noel Keating, who completed his PhD in spirituality with WIT following the closure of All Hallows College, graduated with an MA in Applied Christian Spirituality from All Hallows College (Dublin City University) in 2013. The photo shows him with Dr Michael O’Sullivan, SJ, Programme Director of the MA and Director of SpIRE being presented with the medal for academic excellence across all the taught MAs at All Hallows College in 2012-13. Dr O’Sullivan was programme director/leader of this MA from 2005 – 2021 and has been prominent, also, in designing and developing the MA over the years and in leading it through different institutional accreditation processes.
The following is a selection of MA dissertation titles which formed part of the taught MA in Applied Spirituality that Michael and Bernadette have done so much to forward and develop since it began in 2001. A greater number of dissertations from 2016f has been included than from the pre-WIT/SETU years of the programme. Several of the MA graduates have had books published arising from their dissertations. In honour of the MA being 20 years on the go in 2021, SpIRE has compiled a list of publications that it is aware of by graduates since the MA started.
Dissertations
A list of some of the dissertations by MA in Applied Spirituality graduates according to the year of completion and starting with the most recent graduation year.| Name and Year | Dissertation Title | Completion Year |
|---|---|---|
| Conor Crowley | Pondering Mary Throughout the Abrahamic Traditions | 2025 |
| Ray Flaherty | Developing a Psychotherapist's Eco-Spiritual Self-Care Toolbox | 2025 |
| Nadine Hillen | Developing Spiritual Practices to Embody Senstivity and Cultivate Spiritual Awareness - An Exploratory Study | 2025 |
| Jeffrey Imrie | "Birthing Fallen Angels": An Auto-Ethnography and Diary Study of a Contemporary Spiritual Seeker | 2025 |
| Aziz Jan | Frameworks for Spiritual Leadership: Insights from Iain McGilchrist, Muhammad Hamidullah, and Israr Ahmad | 2025 |
| Cecily Maher | Exploring the Universe Story: An AutoCosmology Perspective | 2025 |
| Karen O'Connor | Spiritual Themes in Contemporary Women Authored Fiction | 2025 |
| Orla Power | Soulful Massage: Exploring the Fusion of Spirituality and Touch in the Practice of Massage | 2025 |
| Kay Quigley | Displacement and Spirituality | 2025 |
| Sean Savage | Indigenous Consciousness in Ecological Spirituality: A Case Study of the Kogi People | 2025 |
| Rita Aung | Exploring Contemplative Dialogue between Theravada Buddhism and Catholicism in Myanmar | 2024 |
| Siobhan Cahalan | Passive Action: A Glimpse of the Union we once had with God | 2024 |
| Hyesook Susanna Choi | Spirituality of Migrants | 2024 |
| Aoife Corcoran | The Body Sleeps and the Spirit Wakes: Sacred Embodiment in Restorative Yoga | 2024 |
| Antoinette Doocey | Claiming the Bean Feasa from Celtic Mythology as an Empowering Spiritual Resource for Older Women Today: A Heuristic Study | 2024 |
| Paul Keane | Near Death Experience and Spiritual Transformation | 2024 |
| Aedemar Kirrane | Scriptio Divina: Exploring the Transformative Nature of Medieval Women's Visionary Writing | 2024 |
| Maureen Lanigan | Technologies of the Spirit - Uses and Abuses: An Autoethnographical Study | 2024 |
| Sinead Madden | Navigating Emotional Well-Being: The Role of Emotional Freedom Tapping and Loving Kindness Meditation in Spiritual and Psychological Healing | 2024 |
| Richard O'Connell | Tai Chi as a Tool for Spiritual Growth | 2024 |
| Maire O'Higgins | Engaging the Spirit of Young People through the Act of Theatre Going in Education: Looking at a Model of Theatre in Education for Young People from Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Communities | 2024 |
| Ben O'Neill | The Art of Being Lost: Soul Being Amid Automated Technological Utopian Certainty | 2024 |
| Karen Whelan | Exploring the Dynamic Exchange between Self-Love and Sacred Heart Love Energy: A Spiritual Journey towards Connection with God | 2024 |
| David White | The Gardened Soul: The Emotional Connection to More | 2024 |
| Henry Byamukama 2022-23 | Exploring the Art of Being Present to Self, Holy Mystery, and Others | 2023 |
| Siobhan Byron-Smith | A Heuristic Exploration of the Family Caregiver: Developing an Eco-Spiritual Toolbox | 2023 |
| Bernadette Finn | An Exploration of Love as a Third Presence Phenomenon within the Therapeutic Space | 2023 |
| Joan Finn | Creating a Spiritually Respectful Rhythm of Life in an Age of Distraction | 2023 |
| Susan Gallagher | Audio Divina: Embracing the Noise of the World in the Presence of God | 2023 |
| Brid Kennedy | Spirituality of Flowers: What Flowers Do for Us | 2023 |
| Jurica Levatic | An Intuitive Inquiry into Personal Masculinity, Sexuality, and Spirituality | 2023 |
| Karen Lynch | Neurodiversity and Spirituality: A Transpersonal Exploratory Study | 2023 |
| Oswald Mallya | Facing the Challenge of Calamities of Evil Spirits and Demonic Possession in Pastoral Ministry in Africa | 2023 |
| Deirdre Markey | Explorations on the Spirituality of Volunteering | 2023 |
| Gay O'Brien | The Intersect of the Mystical with the Everyday: Finding the Extraoordinary in the Ordinary | 2023 |
| Kaitlin O'Brien | An Auto-Ethnography Exploration of Spirituality in the Care of the Elderly During COVID-19 | 2023 |
| Gerard Slattery | Spiritual Communion: How Can the Spiritual Needs of the Faithful be Faciltated in the Post-COVID Era | 2023 |
| Alan Wells | Brigid: An Interspiritual Icon for the Pandemic and Beyond - An Exploratory Study | 2023 |
| Ann Lee | Embodied Presence as a Transformative Spiritual Practice | 2023 |
| Brenda McKervey | The Spiritual Journey of Breast Cancer: An Autoethnographic Exploration | 2023 |
| Eamonn Bourke | An Exploration of the Spirituality of Members of the LGBTQ+ Community (Who are Non-affiliated with a Particular Faith Community | 2022 |
| Margery Buckingham | Growing through Grief: Widowhood as Catalyst for Spiritual Development | 2022 |
| Shane Cashman 2021-22 | My Spiritual Journey to Overcoming MS - An Autoethnographic Exploration | 2022 |
| Çağın Çilingir | An Auto-Ethnography of Undertaking Postgraduate Spirituality Studies | 2022 |
| Miriam Costelloe | Eucharistic Spirituality and the Feminine Body | 2022 |
| Savina Donohoe | The Spirituality of Kind Leadership in Public Service Settings | 2022 |
| Therese Gaynor | Spirituality and Sexual Abuse Trauma: An Autoethnographic Exploration | 2022 |
| Niamh Morris | Every Contact Leaves a Trace – Towards a Spirituality of Encounter | 2022 |
| Onyewuchi Obirieze | Exploring the Impact of Missionary Activity on Nigerian Christianity Today | 2022 |
| Lisa Power | The Art of Spiritual Surrender: Cynthia Bourgeault, Richard Rohr, Eckhart Tolle | 2022 |
| Anne Kennelly 2020-21 | Trasna Na Dtonnta (Over the Waves): The Concept of the Anam Chara (Soul Friend) as Illuminated in Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis | 2021 |
| Michael Mara 2020-21 | Thus is God: The Incarnation as Revealed through the Hands of Jesus | 2021 |
| Joseph Clifford | The Spirituality of Catholic Social Teaching and its Place in Parish Communities | 2021 |
| Aine Jackson-Dunne | Spirituality and Transcendence in Choral Singing: An Heuristic Inquiry | 2021 |
| Flor O'Mahony 2020-21 | Spirituality and Tertiary Education in Majority World Countries: Exploring Level Six Curriculum | 2021 |
| Bert Van Embden 2020-21 | Spiritual Care of the Elderly | 2021 |
| Marius Cassidy 2020-21 | Oh God, Who Are You…and Who am I? COVID-19 Health Measures and The Spirituality of Older Men Living Alone | 2021 |
| Liviu Caliman 2020-21 | Michael O’Sullivan and David R. Hawkins on Spirituality Research, Authenticity and Self-Transcendence | 2021 |
| Karen Lea Engelbretsen 2020-21 | Intercultural Community Living: From Vision to Reality | 2021 |
| Eilin Teeling 2020-21 | Enhancing Mid-Life Spirituality in the Presence of a Tree | 2021 |
| Valerie Murphy 2020-21 | A Mystagogy of Woodlands and Forests (Perceptions of Associated Spirituality | 2021 |
| Ann O'Kane 2020-21 | A Contemplative Encounter with the Spiritual Vision of Georgia O’Keefe | 2021 |
| Gabrielle Farrell 2019-20 | Via Feminina: A Pathway to Wholeness | 2020 |
| Andrea Hayes 2019-20 | The Spirituallity of National Parks | 2020 |
| Okeremute Okeregha 2019-20 | The Spirituality of Women in the Context of Extractive Industries | 2020 |
| Caroline Lundy 2019-20 | The Spirituality of the Labyrinth | 2020 |
| Louise Daly 2019-20 | The Spiritual Dark Night of the Feminine: A Woman's Search for Meaning in the 21st Century | 2020 |
| Patrick Murphy 2018-19 | The Significance of Nature for People Living in a Rural Irish Setting in Spiritual Context | 2020 |
| Aisling Brennan 2019-20 | The Movement of Spirit in Musicians in Performance | 2020 |
| Vivien Squire 2019-20 | The Cross: Trauma, Transformation and Healing in Women's Lives | 2020 |
| Catherine Lowry O'Neill 2019-20 | Seeing with the Eyes of the Heart: A First Person Organic Inquiry into Visio Divina | 2020 |
| Yvonne O'Donovan 2019-20 | Saints Ite: Wisdom of the Indwelling Spirit: Am Exploratory Study of Celtic Spirituality as Contemporary Guide | 2020 |
| Liz Barry 2019-20 | More than just a Birdbath Francis: Franciscan Spirituality and the Environmental Crisis | 2020 |
| Aideen Dunne 2019-20 | Leadership and Spirituality | 2020 |
| Margaret Scully 2019-20 | Celtic Pagan Spirituality in Contemporary Ireland: Ceremony and Ritual for Child Blessing | 2020 |
| Kerri Clough 2019-20 | Animal Spirituality: Spiritual Dimensions of Non-Huamn Animal Lives | 2020 |
| Catherine Bourke 2019-20 | An Exploration of How Spirituality Presents in the Lives of Irish Millenials | 2020 |
| Geraldine Mulholland 2018-19 | To Investigate the Motivation, Passion, Vocation and Commitment of Lay Chaplains and the Challenges Faced by Them in Developing the Spirituality of Young People | 2019 |
| Kathleen Lyng 2018-19 | The Spirituality of Laudato si - From Text to Local Action | 2019 |
| Pradeepika Perera 2018-19 | The Lived Spirituality of the Consecrated Women Envisioning the Future in the Sri Lankan Context | 2019 |
| Irene Balzan 2018-19 | Spirituality during a Time of War: An Exploratory Study of Meaning-Making, Resilience and Witness in Missionary Religious Women | 2019 |
| Sandra Dumond 2018-19 | Spirituality and the Third Phase of Life | 2019 |
| Annabel Esman 2018-19 | Spiritual Emergency and Postmodern Spirituality: An Autoethnography | 2019 |
| Diane Jackson 2018-19 | School Gate Spirituality: A Heuristic Study | 2019 |
| Michael Kelly 2018-19 | Rites of Passage for Young Irish West of Ireland Men - An Exploration of how Irish Indigenous Wisdom could be Incorporated into Richard Rohr's Male Rites-of-Passage Programme | 2019 |
| Anita Maryam 2018-19 | Exploring Indigenous Spirituality: A Kutchi Kohli Case Study (Pakistan) | 2019 |
| Helen Higgins 2018-19 | Ecxo-Spiritual Approaches for Cosan na Naomh Pilgrims | 2019 |
| Terry Mitchell 2018-19 | An Investigation into the Spiritually Transformative Experience of Reading Psalms 118, 78:1-39, 144 | 2019 |
| Noel O'Driscoll 2018-19 | An Exploration of Hospitality as a Path towards Spiritual Transformation | 2019 |
| Margaret Maung 2017-18 | Transformational Leadership and Spirituality: A Study of Women Religious Congregations in Myanmar | 2018 |
| Petra Pajdakovic Sebek 2017-18 | Spirituality in the Selfie Culture of Instagram | 2018 |
| Colm Kennedy 2017-18 | Spirituality and Leadership in Business | 2018 |
| Jimmy Myerscough 2017-18 | Shaping their Father’s God: Narrative Research into What Christian Fathers Learn about God through Parenthood | 2018 |
| Monica Delaney 2017-18 | How are the Spiritual Needs of Members Being Met in Emerging Christian Communities in Ireland Today? | 2018 |
| Emma Smith 2017-18 | An Exploration of the Inner World of Experience of the Eco-Spiritual Intuitive and its Transformative Potential | 2018 |
| Priscilla Fitzpatrick 2017-18 | A Mother’s Relationship with God as Influenced by the Spirituality of her Children: Discerning the Presence of God in Mother and Child Relationships | 2018 |
| Kevin Farrell 2016-17 | Walking as Spiritual Practice | 2017 |
| Lesley O’Connor 2016-17 | Visio Divina – An Investigation of Emerging Trends | 2017 |
| Paddy Banville 2016-17 | The Spiritual Journey of Homosexual Catholic Priests | 2017 |
| Mary Keane 2016-17 | Spiritual Resources for Single Women in Ireland to Sustain Them on their Journey | 2017 |
| Michael Punch 2016-17 | Landscapes of the Spirit in North Inner-City Dublin | 2017 |
| Gabrielle Jin 2016-17 | How People from a Christian Background Assimilate the Practice of Mindfulness | 2017 |
| Eduard Obuf 2016-17 | Exploring Cinema as Spiritual Experience | 2017 |
| Carmel Keane 2014-15 | Intuitive Inquiry and the Encounter with AMMA: The Personal Experience of Irish Devotees | 2015 |
| Elizabeth Fletcher 2013-14 | Spirituality in the Face of General Anaesthesia: A Qualitative Study | 2014 |
| Aine Campbell 2013-14 | An Exploration of the Spirituality of Catherine McAuley Informing the Spirituality for Sisters of Mercy: Through the Lens of Radical Wisdom Theory | 2014 |
| Patricia Nguyen 2012-13 | The Longing for Home: Images of ‘Home’ and their Spiritual Meanings | 2013 |
| Noel Keating 2012-13 | Exploring the Contours of the Child’s Experience of Christian Meditation | 2013 |
| Noel Brosnan 2011-12 | Unitive Consciousness for Contemporary Middle-Aged Irishmen: An Autoethnographic Study | 2012 |
| Ken Hannaway 2011-12 | Exploring the Relationship between Christian Spirituality and the Professional Approach towards Suicide Prevention | 2012 |
| Kathleen Geaney 2011-12 | Contemplative Practice / Meditation: A Meeting Place For Transformative Dialogue Between Buddhists and Christians in Myanmar | 2012 |
| Laurie Engesser 2010-11 | The Relationship between Spirituality in Twelve Step Addiction Recovery and Attachment to a Higher Power | 2011 |
| Geraldine White 2010-11 | How Men Cope with the Transition to Retirement: The Role of a Spiritual Dimension | 2011 |
| Caroline Stratton 2010-11 | Exploring the Role of Christian Spirituality in the Lives of Young Adults in Contemporary Ireland | 2011 |
| Sean O Faircheallaigh 2010-11 | “The Three who are in the great pouring Sea” – God and Nature in Spirituality: An Examination of Gaelic Vernacular Prayers | 2011 |
| Suzanne Kelly 2009-10 | Encounters with Ultimate Reality: An Exploration of the Spiritual Challenges of Death and Dying | 2010 |
| Senan D’Souza 2008-2009 | The Spirituality of Gardening | 2009 |
| Margaret (Rita) Kelly 2007-08 | Towards a Transformative Spirituality: Exploring Stress and Trauma among Missionaries in Ministry | 2008 |
| Ann O’Farrell 2007-08 | The Journey from Desire to Mystical Longing in Leonard Cohen: An Articulation of Postmodern Spirituality | 2008 |
| Mary E. Keating 2007-08 | The Family - Womb for the Spiritual Life of the Young Child | 2008 |
| Niamh Kelly 2007-08 | Pilgrimage in Glendalough as Spiritual Experience | 2008 |
| June Kennedy 2007-08 | Is Spirituality Implicit in Ecological Practice, Literacy and Discourse? | 2008 |
| Ann Gallagher 2007-08 | God in the Writings of John McGahern: The Spiritual Dimension Underlying his Writings | 2008 |
| Marion Dooley 2007-08 | An Alternative View: The Poet Patrick Kavanagh offers a Contemplative Eye on Life | 2008 |
| Carol Milton 2007-08 | “For your Hidden Self to Grow Strong”. A Study of Adolescent Spiritual Formation and its Potential Role in Suicide Prevention | 2008 |
| Eoin Garrett 2006-07 | The Language of the Soul made Audible: An Investigation of Spiritual Effects of Liturgical Music on the Worshipper | 2007 |
| Mary O’Brien 2006-07 | Poem Making as Meditative Practice | 2007 |
| Grainne Putney 2006-07 | God on the Streets: Exploring the Lived Spirituality of People Who Are Homeless | 2007 |
| David Halpin 2005-06 | The Spirituality of Questioning Catholics: Balancing Loyalty and Dissent | 2006 |
| Sorcha Woods 2005-06 | Children’s Spirituality: Nature as a Source of Spiritual Experience for Children | 2006 |
| Ruth Harris 2005-06 | An Exploration of the Theme of the Wounded Healer in the Context of Bereavement Following Suicide | 2006 |
| Sally Hyland 2004-05 | God, Hidden in the Marginalised | 2005 |
| Anne Ryan 2004-05 | Depression and Spiritual Growth | 2005 |