Ní Chuilleanáin er datter av Eilís Dillon og professor Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin. Hun studerte ved University College Cork og The University of Oxford. Hun bor i Dublin sammen med mannen, Macdara Woods, som hun har en sønn med, Niall. Hun er Fellow av Trinity College Dublin og emeritus professor av School of English der hun begynte å arbeide i 1966. Hennes vide akademiske interesser (særlig hennes spesialiet Renessansens litteratur og hennes interesse for oversetning) avspeiles i hennes dikt. Hun gikk av med pensjon i 2011, og en del av hennes dikt er pensum for examen artium i Irland.[2] Ní Chuilleanáin er grunnlegger av litterærtidsskriftet Cyphers. Hennes første diktsamling vant Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award i 1973. I 2010 var The Sun-fish vinneren av den kanadiske International Griffin Poetry Prize og hun ble nominert til Poetry Now Award.
1972: Acts and Monuments, Dublin: The Gallery Press.[3]
1975: Site of Ambush, Dublin: The Gallery Press.[3]
1977: The Second Voyage, Dublin: The Gallery Press;[3] Winston-Salem, NC: Wake Forest University Press, 1977, 1991.[4]
1981: The Rose Geranium, Dublin: The Gallery Press.[3]
1986: The Second Voyage, Dublin: The Gallery Press;[3] Newcastle upon Tyne: Bloodaxe Books; Winston-Salem, Wake Forest University Press, 1991.[4]
1989: The Magdalene Sermon, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press (shortlisted for the Irish Times/Aer Lingus Award).[5] Winston-Salem, North Carolina: Wake Forest University Press, 1991[4]
1994: The Brazen Serpent, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press;[5] Winston-Salem, North Carolina: Wake Forest University Press, 1995.[4]
2001: The Girl Who Married the Reindeer, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press;[5] Winston-Salem, North Carolina: Wake Forest University Press, 2002.[4]
2008: Selected Poems, Gallery Press, London: Oldcastle and Faber;[5] Winston-Salem, North Carolina: Wake Forest University Press, 2009.
2009: The Sun-fish, Gallery Press; Winston-Salem, NC: Wake Forest University Press, 2010 (winner of the 2010 International Griffin Poetry Prize).
1999: The Water Horse: Poems in Irish by Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill with Translations into English by Medbh McGuckian and Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press; Winston-Salem, North Carolina: Wake Forest University Press, 2003.
2005: Verbale by Michele Ranchetti, translated by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin and others, Dublin: Instituto Italiano di Cultura.[5]
2005: After the Raising of Lazarus: Poems Translated from the Romanian by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, poems by Ileana Mălăncioiu, Cork: Southword Editions.[5]
2010: Contributions in The Word Exchange: Anglo-Saxon Poems in Translation, in Greg Delanty, Michael Matto eds., New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
2010: Legend of the Walled Up Wife by Ileana Mălăncioiu, translated from the Romanian by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Oldcastle: The Gallery Press.
2013: Translation, Right or Wrong, ed., with Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin and Susana Bayó Belenguer, Dublin: Four Courts Press.
2010: Heresy and Orthodoxy in Early English Literature, 1350-1680, ed., with John Flood, Dublin: Four Courts Press.
2009: Translation and Censorship: Patterns of Communication and Interference, ed., with Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin and David Parris, Dublin: Four Courts Press.
2003: The Wilde Legacy, ed., Dublin: Four Courts Press.
2001: As I Was Among Captives: Joseph Campbell's Prison Diary, 1922-23": Cork University Press.