Robert O'Driscoll was born in Newfoundland and studied at Memorial University and the University of London. At present he is responsible for the graduate program in Anglo-Irish literature, St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto.

Dr O’Driscoll formed the Irish Studies Committee, which sponsors an annual seminar on Irish Studies, and is one of the founders of Yeats Studies. He has published articles on Yeats, Joyce, Beckett, Lady Gregory, and nineteenth-century Anglo-Irish literature and is now working on two books.