This study examines civic engagement and highlights the ways community engagement practice can learn from practitioners in Ireland as they navigate present-day university environments. It explores the origins, interpretations, and common operational models of civic engagement, presenting it as a contested field shaped by differing orientations and politics. I delve more deeply into community engagement practices on the continuum from transactional to transformative, making the case for the latter throughout. I also explore how the relevant Irish civic engagement policies are enabling and restricting for practitioners, and how they may contribute to the domestication of community engagement within the neoliberal-patriarchal university. This research is positioned within the context of the neoliberal-patriarchal framing of the Irish higher education system, and conducted within a critical feminist research paradigm, drawing from the theories of intersectionality, critical feminist pedagogy, as well as my own practice in community engagement. It is a qualitative study that consists of in-depth interviews with seven Irish female civic engagement practitioners. The findings reveal that the participants’ commitments are to a radical and transformative model of civic engagement focused on social justice and equality, and based on the principles of holistic, engaged and nurturing pedagogy. At the same time, this study shows that the practice tends to be more traditional and tempered. This research portrays community engagement as innovative work in a rigid higher education system, and a practice that is liminal and largely invisible and unrecognised. Despite its marginal status, this research also documents the ways in which civic engagement can disturb the dominant discourse of a neoliberal-patriarchal university. The unique contribution of this research lies in its focus on the lived experiences of civic engagement practitioners, offering a new perspective on community engagement through a critical, intersectional feminist lens. It sheds light on the values, practices, and challenges faced by practitioners who work in a university environment that is often counter-normative to their practice and values, expanding our understanding of civic engagement in Ireland.