This thesis presents an exploration of Paul Mercier’s plays, written and first performed between the period 1980 and 2006: Drowning (1984), Wasters (1985), Spacers (1986), Buddleia (1995), Kitchensink (1997), Native City (1998) and Homeland (2006). Its principal focus is on how Mercier’s plays dramatise elements of globalisation and the Celtic Tiger. Firstly, I situate a theoretical and cultural lens before examining how his plays characterise and perform an urban-world into which we are drawn, to witness and reflect on situations that are both those of others and of ourselves. Material for this thesis includes: unpublished manuscripts of the plays, theatrical reviews, the general body of work on culture, drama and theatre, and finally philosophy and sociology texts. The principal argument of my thesis is that Paul Mercier’s plays, through their characterisation and performance, dramatise the complexity of our nation-state in a world of globalisation and the ephemeral era of the Celtic Tiger. His plays bring us to the periphery of social contexts; they remain focussed on the humanity of the everyday, while, at the same time, embracing imagination, creativity, inspiration, humour, the aesthetic, Greek Tragedy, Celtic mythology and kitchen-sink drama. While Mercier’s dramatisation of the everyday might appear to be insular, in that the setting is local and Irish, neither his characters nor their stories are pre-occupied with issues of historical and national identity, at least not within a post-colonial context. Rather, his pre-occupation is with contemporary issues of a different kind of colonisation, that of globalisation and the era of the Celtic Tiger. My study advances the canon of work on Paul Mercier; it critiques nuances of globalisation and the Celtic Tiger through the lens of drama and performance.