Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill was born in 1952 in Lancashire, England to Irish parents. Ní Dhomhnaill spoke Irish at home, and grew up in the Dingle Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking region) in County Kerry, and County Tipperary, Ireland. She attended high school in Limerick and at age sixteen, submitted an Irish-language poem to the Irish Times, which later won an award. Ní Dhomhnaill studied English and Irish at University College Cork, and joined Innti, an Irish-language poetry group.
In 1973, Ní Dhomhnaill met and married Dogan Leflet, a Turkish geologist. They lived in the Netherlands and Turkey until 1980, when they returned to Ireland. In 1981, she published her first poetry collection, An Dealg Droighin, which would go on to win four Seán Ó Ríordáin awards. In the subsequent 20 years, Ní Dhomhnaill published four more Irish-language collections. Her poems have been translated into English by poets such as Paul Muldoon and Seamus Heaney. Ní Dhomhnaill’s poems draw upon Irish folklore and history, often exploring women’s emotions, struggles, and power. In 2002, Ní Dhomhnaill edited and introduced the Contemporary Poetry section of The Field Day Anthology of Irish Women’s Writing (2002), which includes poems by Biddy Jenkinson, Eavan Boland, Nuala Archer, Máire Mhac an tSaoi, Rita Ann Higgins, Vona Groarke, and many others.
Ní Dhomhnaill has served as the Naughton Fellow of Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame, and has held the Burns Chair of Irish Studies at Boston College and the Heimbold Chair in Irish Studies at Villanova University. She appears regularly on Irish radio and television and continues to write, teach, and travel.
