Educated at the Catholic University School, Colaiste na Rinne and at University College Dublin, Dowling has been long connected with Irish theatre having founded the Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin in 1986, serving as artistic director of the Irish Theatre Company and the Peacock theatre and founding the Young Abbey, Ireland's first theater-in-education group.
[citation needed] He became the Guthrie Theatre's artistic director in 1995[4] and has directed productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Playboy of the Western World, Much Ado About Nothing, The Importance of Being Earnest, Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and Amadeus.
[citation needed] He directed Hamlet, the Guthrie's last production in its original location next to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.
[citation needed] Dowling's first production at the theater's new location was The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard.
[5] Following the announcement of the 2012 Guthrie Theatre lineup, Dowling was criticized for the lack of diversity in the selection of directors and playwrights.