He was born in Manchester, raised in Tuam, Co. Galway and has lived in Limerick City and the surrounding areas for the last 25 years. 

Dara’s memoir A Sheepdog Named Oscar, published in the US in August 2025 by Dopplehouse Press, was selected as Barnes & Nobel’s September nonfiction book of the month. It quickly became a New York Times bestseller, peaking at no. 4 while remaining there for five weeks in total. The book then became the subject of a four-way auction for UK & Irleand rights in October, with Simon & Schuster UK agreeing to publish in May 2026. The North American rights to the audiobook, narrated by Dara’s lifelong friend Michael Vallely, were also attained by Speigel & Grau in NYC. The audiobook was released at the end October 2025. Several translations of the memoir are also currently in process.

A Sheepdog Named Oscar started as a documentary project during COVID, melding photographic illustrations and text to reflect on Dara’s rescue and rehabilitation of an abandoned sheepdog in East Clare. Incorporating reflections on nature, poetry, literature, art criticism, philosophy and myth, the book is veiwed as a moving and affecting exploration of cross-species love in a time of crisis. In a formal capacity, the book is shapeshifting and seamless, reflecting the weather of the Irish seasons. In November 2025, Dara toured the US on a speaking enlistment to promote the book in its focus on Ireland, reflecting on the importance of the Irish rural landscape and its regenerative properties.

In addition to memoir, Dara is a widely published, internationally renowned documentary film scholar, who has lectured internationally and published widely. He has curated for Cork Film Festival, been a keynote speaker at Leuven Film Festival, contributed to EVA International on numerous occasions and has been a visiting professor at Aalto University, Helsinki and University of Colorado at Boulder. He is currently working on numerous projects, one of which is the sequel  to A Sheepdog Named Oscar, titled The Ghost of Glenstal: A Winter Tale (part two of The Oscar Chronicles).