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Suggests that the "six material commemorations of Shakspeare" in Belfast were created as part of the Victorian English imperial project. Shows how a Shakespeare bust on a Belfast linen factory celebrates Shakespeare as cultural figure, tying him to industrial Belfast and British empire.

"Explore[s] resonant correspondences between Shakespeare, Synge, Joyce, and Beckett." Shows how these Irish writers "inscribe their works into the very history of reception they create, in making and unmaking predecessors like Shakespeare in a stance that is both tragicomic and performative."

Explores W. B. Yeats's differing (and at times contradictory) constructions of Shakespeare, with an emphasis on Shakespeare's presentation of tragedy and the tragic. Shows that Ted Hughes's interpretation of Shakespeare is influenced by Yeats's.

Uncovers Shakespearean influences in Robert Maturin's gothic novel, Melmoth the Wanderer (1820), noting that "virtually all characters of any importance in Melmoth the Wanderer quote Shakespeare." Shows how Maturin's characterization and intertexts draw parallels between Melmoth and Shakespearean characters, notably Hamlet, Glendower in 1 Henry IV, and Richard III. Reads Melmoth the Wanderer as an Irish example of Romantic bardolatry.

Using extant playbills as evidence, describes the 1756 theatrical season in Tralee, Ireland, emphasizing the importance of Shakespeare adaptations (including Thomas Betterton's 1 Henry IV) and conjecturing that the theatre attracted both Protestant and Catholic audience members. Argues that "these playbills suggest that knowledge of Shakespeare in the farthest corners of mid-eighteenth-century Ireland may have been considerably more expansive than might be assumed."

Argues that Thomas Sheridan "quite consciously presented his adaptation [of Coriolanus] as a response to contemporary criticisms of his management" of Dublin's Smock Alley Theatre. Positions Sheridan's 1752 production of Coriolanus as key moment in building Smock Alley's cultural capital and reputation.

Traces how medieval and early modern romances explore themes of trust, "focusing on the motif of the broken oath." Suggests that Shakespeare revisits Proteus's broken oath to love Julia in Two Gentlemen of Verona with Portia's "oath [to Bassanio] imposed by her father" in Merchant of Venice. Argues that  "Merchant does not celebrate the return of trust so much as explore its fragility and its costs."

Describes how in Winter's Tale, financial credit is based on moral credit (trust). Suggests that the play opens with a credit and gift-exchange economy and presents Bohemia as a cash and credit economy. Links credit to lineage and authority.

"Investigates how The Merchant of Venice echoes issues of predestination by linking success with trust in risk rather than in faith alone, thus questioning the concept of grace." Suggests that "Antonio's poor management of risk...disqualifies him as a successful businessman," whereas Bassanio's "reckless, individualistic gamble for the heiress Portia" is successful because he "is capable of freeing himself from the shackles both of religious faith and interpersonal trust."

Shows how "ritual interactions" create "bonds of trust" and build community in Merry Wives of Windsor.