McDonald, R. (2007) 'What a male!': triangularity, desire and precedence in 'Before Play' and Play. Samuel Beckett Today/Aujourd'hui, 18. pp. 213-225. ISSN 0927-3131
McDonald, R. (2005) Strategies of silence: colonial strains in short stories of the troubles. Yearbook of English Studies, 35. pp. 249-263. ISSN 2222-4289
McDonald, R. (2005) Irish literature: tradition and modernity. In: Marcus, L. and Nicholls, P. (eds.) The Cambridge history of twentieth-century English literature. The New Cambridge History of English Literature. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 653-667. ISBN 9780521820776
McDonald, R. (2007) The death of the critic. Continuum, London, pp224. ISBN 9780826492791
McDonald, R. (2007) The Cambridge introduction to Samuel Beckett. Cambridge introductions to Literature. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp150. ISBN 9780521838566
McDonald, R., ed. (2005) Irish writing since 1950. The Yearbook of English Studies, 35. MHRA, Leeds.