Which master's course in Ireland suits an English graduate choosing between literature research and teaching English to speakers of other languages?

Literature and TESOL sit on the same English degree but lead to genuinely different working lives, one built around independent research and writing, the other around a classroom and a teaching practicum. Ireland has strong, specifically designed programmes for both paths, so the choice comes down to which working life you actually want, not which sounds more academic. If teaching is the goal but you have never taught before, University College Dublin runs a dedicated MA TESOL stream specifically for applicants without teaching experience, distinct from its other stream, which normally expects at least a year of prior teaching.

MA English at Galway: The Strongest Choice for Literary Research

• One-year, 90-ECTS structure: includes a substantial 15,000-word dissertation.
• PhD springboard: explicitly designed for students who may continue into doctoral research.
• Broad literary options: gender, environmental literature, Irish literature, and creative writing among its strands.

Maynooth's MA TESOL and EMI: The Strongest Choice for Teaching

Applied Linguistics: A Genuine Middle Ground If You Are Torn

University College Cork's MA Applied Linguistics is a one-year programme that does not require previous linguistics study, and it explicitly welcomes language graduates alongside those interested in teaching, combining research methodology training with a thesis. Trinity College Dublin's MPhil in Applied Linguistics leans more academic still, covering second-language acquisition, language testing and multilingualism with its own 15,000-word dissertation. Either keeps a research option open while giving you more teaching-relevant grounding than a straight literature MA.

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University of Galway, Maynooth University, and University College Cork each publish their MA English, MA TESOL and EMI, and MA Applied Linguistics programme pages directly.

My Advice

In my experience, a TESOL master's does not by itself qualify you to teach in mainstream Irish primary or secondary schools; it qualifies you for English-language teaching contexts specifically. Confirm that distinction matches what you actually want before you commit to either path.