Materials subjected to irradiation damage often undergo local changes in the microstructure that effect the expected performance. To investigate those changes, this work proposes a novel approach to detect strain localisation caused by irradiation-induced damage in nuclear materials on the microstructural level, considering a statistically relevant number of grains. This approach determines local strains using high-resolution digital image correlation (HRDIC) and compares them with the underlying material microstructure. Sets of images captured before and after irradiation are compared to generate full-field displacement maps that can then be differentiated to yield high-resolution strain maps. These strain maps can subsequently be used to understand the effects of irradiation-induced dimensional change and cracking on the microscale. Here, the methodology and challenges involved in the combination of Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and HRDIC to generate strain maps associated with radiation-induced damage. Furthermore, this work demonstrates the capabilities by analysing three different materials subjected to proton irradiation: (a) a zircaloy-4 (Zry-4) metal irradiated to 1 & 2 dpa, and (b) two ceramics based on MAX phase compounds (i.e., the Nb₄AlC₃ ternary compound and a novel (Ta,Ti)₃AlC₂ solid solution), both irradiated to ~0.1 dpa. These results demonstrated that all materials show measurable expansion and for the very high strains seen in the MAX phases these can be easily attributed to the microstructure. Grain-to-grain variability was observed in Zry-4 with a macroscopic expansion along the rolling direction that increases with irradiation damage dose, the Nb₄AlC₃ ceramic shows significant expansion within individual grains leading to intergranular cracking, while the less phase-pure (Ta,Ti)₃AlC₂ ceramic exhibits very high strains at phase boundaries, with limited expansion in the binary carbide phases. This ability to measure irradiation induced dimensional changes at the microstructural scale is important for designing microstructures that are structural resilient during irradiation.