McGuinness later recalled how Deane was "gentle, kind and never raised his voice at all, an ideal teacher who was very highly thought of".
[1] Over the next two decades, he taught American college juniors part-time at the School of Irish Studies in the Ballsbridge section of Dublin.
Deane subsequently relocated to the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, as the Donald and Marilyn Keough Chair of Irish Studies, from which he retired as professor emeritus.
[1][5] Deane was a member of the Royal Irish Academy and a founding director of the Field Day Theatre Company,[6] together with Heaney, Tom Paulin, and David Hammond.
He co-founded the book series Field Day Files, which contained key works by David Lloyd, Joe Cleary, Marjorie Howes, and Kerby A.
In his criticism, Deane brought a postcolonialist interpretation to historical and literary works from the Irish, British, and French traditions in particular.