Funded research
We are currently involved in a range of projects including 2 European Research Council (ERC) grants, several Horizon Europe projects, multiple Taighde Éireann – Research Ireland funded projects, as well as collaborations with policymakers, industry, civil society organisations, and other external stakeholders.
Upcoming projects:
Dr. Ian Marder & Dr. Threase Kessie received funding from Restorative Justice Services (RJS) to design the RJS Strategic Plan for 2025-2028.
Dr. Ian Marder (Associate Professor in Criminology, School of Law and Criminology) Dr. Threase Kessie (Assistant Professor in Design Innovation, Department of Design Innovation) received funding from Restorative Justice Services (RJS) to design the RJS Strategic Plan for 2025-2028. RJS is a Community-Based Organisation, funded by the Probation Service to deliver restorative justice in Dublin and the surrounding counties. Threase and Ian delivered three workshops this month with RJS staff, volunteers, board members and colleagues from across the criminal justice and community sectors to explore their goals and wishes for RJS and the actions they think RJS should take to achieve those goals.
Read more here
Maynooth University’s School of Law and Criminology has signed a partnership agreement with the Irish Women Lawyers Association (IWLA)
The School of Law and Criminology has signed a partnership agreement with the Irish Women Lawyers Association (IWLA), strengthening opportunities for female students in law and criminology. The signing ceremony took place on March 25, 2025, with key representatives from both institutions in attendance.
As part of this collaboration, the IWLA has introduced the prestigious IWLA Scholarship, aimed at supporting and empowering women in law and criminology. Open to Year 2 undergraduate students registered with the MU Access Programme, the scholarship provides financial assistance, hands-on legal experience, and invaluable mentorship opportunities. We are pleased to announce that the placement provider for the scholarship this Summer will be the Innocence Project.
Read more here
Maynooth University wins 'Best Memorials' Award at Irish finals of Jessup Moot Court Competition
Maynooth University has won the award for best memorials (written pleadings) at the Irish finals of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court competition. This highly prestigious competition represents the pinnacle of interscholastic mooting, and we would like to warmly congratulate the students - Lauren Hayden, Zoe Walsh Gibb, Emma Conway, Ethan Johnson, and Martha McArtain – as well as their coach, Dr Bríd Ní Ghráinne, on this remarkable achievement. Congratulations also to the Institute of Professional Legal Studies, Queen's University Belfast, who were the overall winners of the final. The students took part in the competition through the International Mooting module, which provides academic credit for participation in the Jessup moot. The team and their coach are very grateful to the wonderful support they received throughout the Jessup experience, particularly from Prof Fergus Ryan, the School of Law and Criminology, Oisin Suttle, Hubert Smekal, Rashmi Dias Goonewardena, Kate Coneely, John Morrison, Aoife Murphy, and Jaya Duignan.
Notable recognition
Dr John Morrison, Associate Professor with The School of Law and Criminology, has recently been appointed as the new co-editor in chief of the peer reviewed journal Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression. This follows John serving a number of years as an associate editor of the journal. He serves as co-editor alongside Prof. Rachel Monaghan of Coventry University. The journal addresses the complex causation and effects of terrorist activity by bringing together timely, scientifically and theoretically sound papers addressing terrorism from a behavioral science perspective. Articles will also draw in insights from related disciplines, including anthropology, criminology, economics, history, political science, nonlinear dynamic systems, linguistics and sociology."
Policy and Media
Numerous articles referencing our published work have appeared in the mainstream media, while colleagues have appeared on Newstalk and RTÉ in recent weeks.
We have held several events to emphasise our work with policymakers in the first half of the 2025 Spring Semester with many more to arranged in the coming weeks.
Colleagues have contributed to policy reports at National and internal level with colleagues expertise being presented and delivered to implement recommendations for policy change across many areas from Criminal Justice to Employment Law.
Find more information about the School of Law and Criminology's research achievements here
Dr. Amina Adanan
‘Advancing the Rights of Prisoners in Ireland Through Strategic Litigation’ (AD-PRIS).
Dr. Amina Adanan was awarded a New Foundations grant by
the Irish Research Council for a project ‘Advancing the Rights of Prisoners in Ireland Through Strategic Litigation’ (AD-PRIS). Project details: Notwithstanding the increase in public interest cases to advance the rights of disadvantaged groups in Ireland, prison law remains under litigated in the State. Working with the leading national CSO advocating for penal reform (Irish Penal Reform Trust), and using desk based research supplemented by semi-structured interviews, AD-PRIS has two aims. First, to draft a strategic litigation policy for the advancement of the prisoners’ rights in Ireland, exploring the legal options that exist at a national, European and international level. Second, to develop a network of stakeholders, legal practitioners and academics with the purpose of initiating such cases.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Lynsey Black
In 2022,
Dr. Lynsey Black was awarded an IRC Starting Laureate for her project 'CONSPACE: Penal Nationalism and the Northern Ireland Border' (IRCLA/2022/2418_BLACK). This is a four-year project which uses archival and participant research methodologies to tease out the meanings of crime, punishment and security at the Northern Irish border over a 100-year period exploring both historical and contemporary instances of penal nationalism at the border. The work brings in the perspectives and approaches of border criminology and penal nationalism. The CONSPACE project is affiliated with
Maynooth University Social Science Institute (MUSSI).
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Joe Garrihy and Dr. Ciara Bracken-Roche
Dr. Ciara Bracken-Roche and Dr. Joe Garrihy recently received awards under the Irish Research Council (IRC) ‘New Foundations’ programme for their project, Boxed Out: Higher education, criminal convictions, and perceptions of risk, in partnership with Irish Penal Reform Trust
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dr Avril Brandon
Dr. Avril Brandon has been awarded funding from the Department of Justice to conduct research on ethnic monitoring in the criminal justice system. This research aims to examine and learn from the experiences of other jurisdictions that have developed and implemented ethnic monitoring systems. She will conduct this research in collaboration with Professor Denis Bracken at the University of Manitoba, Canada.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dr Mary Dobbs
Dr. Mary Dobbs is also part of a Horizon Europe project (P2GreeN) (2022-2026) looking at the potential to reclaim nutrients from human waste for use as fertiliser in food production - she will be investigating the legal and regulatory frameworks across the EU and relevant regions for this project.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Professor Michael Doherty
Professor Michael Doherty, Head of the School of Law and Criminology, is currently undertaking research on different ways of regulating new forms of employment emerging through technological advance, and through the increasingly differentiated forms of employment relationship that are observable. The digitalisation of the workplace leads to both completely new phenomena, and also traditional legal challenges present in novel forms. The research looks at changing conceptions of the employment relationship, relating to workers in the ‘gig economy’, but also workers ‘on the borderline’ of employee/self-employed status; the ‘false-self-employed’, and seeks to examine legislative, and other regulatory, strategies ensure the rights of such workers are secured.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Professor Michael Doherty and Dr David Mangan
VIRAL
Professor Michael Doherty and Dr. David Mangan are currently working on a European Commission Project investigating the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on employment relations in the aviation industry. VIRAL is a two-year project, with 12 partners from six EU Member States. The project aims to identify measures to reduce the impact of Covid-19 on the air transport sector. A vital consideration for the VIRAL project involves mapping employment relations changes in the European air transport value chain, due to the impact of lockdowns, and mapping plans to re-invigorate the industry in the coming years.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dr. David Doyle
Dr. David Doyle is currently in the process of completing a co-authored book on capital punishment in post-independence Ireland. He was also recently awarded an Irish Research Council New Foundations Award to seed a new study on Human Trafficking in Ireland.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Professor Delia Ferri
Protecting the Right to Culture of Persons with Disabilities and Enhancing Cultural Diversity through European Union Law: Exploring New Paths (DANCING).
Prof. Delia Ferri is researching on the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) within the European Union (EU) and its Member States. Currently, Prof. Ferri is Principal Investigator of the project Protecting the Right to Culture of Persons with Disabilities and Enhancing Cultural Diversity through European Union Law: Exploring New Paths (DANCING). DANCING explores the right of persons with disabilities to take part in cultural life as an essential aspect of enhancing cultural diversity in the EU, and aims to produce ground-breaking knowledge. By using a combination of legal, empirical and arts-based research, and adopting a participatory approach, DANCING pursues three complementary objectives, experiential, normative and theoretical respectively. The project is funded by the European Research Council (Grant agreement No. 864182).
Rethinking Digital Copyright Law for a Culturally Diverse, Accessible, Creative Europe (ReCreating Europe).
Prof. Delia Ferri is also co-investigator in the H2020 project Rethinking Digital Copyright Law for a Culturally Diverse, Accessible, Creative Europe (ReCreating Europe), where she investigates access to digital cultural goods for people with disabilities, from an intersectional perspective. As member of the H2020 project SHAPES, she focuses on regulatory frameworks to support independence and enhanced quality of life for older people with disabilities. On the whole, Prof. Ferri’s research falls within the broader realm of EU Law and Comparative Law.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Ian Marder
Dr. Ian Marder’s research projects in 2025 focus on the development of restorative justice, restorative practices and research partnerships. His restorative justice work includes projects to map restorative justice in Ireland, make restorative justice more accessible through the sharing of victims’ contact details, and support restorative justice providers to develop strategic plans. His restorative practices work includes studies of staff training in universities and among prison leaders, and a project to facilitate dialogue between the police and Black community. He is also the chair of the CORD Partnership, which seeks to bring research, policy and practice together to embed a culture of interdisciplinary open research in criminal justice in Ireland.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Professor Aisling McMahon
Professor Aisling McMahon is leading the ERC PatentsInHumans Project. The five-year interdisciplinary project is funded by a European Research Council Starting Grant and will involve a team of researchers who will focus on developing a comprehensive understanding of the bioethical issues posed by patents and how they are used over technologies related to the human body (such as, medicines, elements of medical devices, etc). The project will interrogate to what extent such bioethical implications are considered if at all, within European patent decision-making for these technologies. Ultimately, a key project aim is to reimagine European patent decision-making to further embed bioethical considerations in the patent decision-making systems for technologies related to the human body. You can learn more about this project here.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Clíodhna Murphy
Dr. Clíodhna Murphy is currently working on research relating to access to labour rights for a number of different categories of domestic worker; and is also taking part in the Northern/Irish Feminist Judgments Project, writing the 'missing' feminist judgment in the Supreme Court decision in Lobe and Osayande v Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform [2003] IESC 3.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Cian O'Concubhair
Policing Housing Rights Activism in Ireland, in partnership with Irish Council for Civil Liberties
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dr John Reynolds
'TWAIL 2023: Democratizing International Law'
Dr. John Reynolds, was awarded a Connections Grant by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for a project on ‘TWAIL 2023: Democratizing International Law’. Dr. John Reynolds is a co-applicant on the project along with his colleagues Sujith Xavier (University of Windsor), Laura Betancur Restrepo (Universidad de Los Andes) and Amaka Vanni (University of Leeds). The project brings together leading scholars and thinkers from around the world working on international law, global justice and equality from a range of perspectives, particularly those of the Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) research network. The project addresses several core intersecting thematic strands – racial justice, economic justice, environmental justice, and transitional justice – and will produce a series of special issue publications.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dr Sinéad Ring
Dr. Sinéad Ring received an award under the Irish Research Council (IRC) ‘New Foundations’ programme. The project awarded the funding: On Relevance and Consent: Interrogating The Uses of the Victim's Previous Sexual History in Serious Sexual Offences Trials, in partnership with Rape Crisis Network Ireland
See please below what an exciting line-up we have for the Spring 2025 Maynooth University, School of Law and Criminology Research Seminar Series.
12th Feb 2025
10:00-11:00 Edoardo Celeste (DCU)
Digital constitutionalism and EU digital sovereignty
SE230
26th Feb 2025
12:00-13:00 Cormac Behan
The alleged proposals to convert prisons into hotels’: Michael Davitt, Imprisonment, and the Promise of Penal Reform
SE234
12th March 2025
12:00-13:00 Frea Anderson
SE234
26th March 2025
12:00-13:00 Michael Boland
Directorial Standards and Expectations in Company Law
SE234
9th April 2025
12:00-14:00 Prof Marco Rocca (Strasbourg Uni)
ERC project Temporary labour migration in and to the European Union
SE234
16th April 2025
12:00-13:00 Sarah Hamill (TCD)
The Celtic Paper Tiger: Ireland's tenancies legislation and the chimera of tenants' rights
SE234
30th April 2025
12:00-13:00 Shane Horgan (Edinburgh Napier Uni)
Influence, Innovations and Infrastructure: reflections on emerging police strategies in techno-social contexts
SE234
14th May 2025
12:00-13:00 Claire Hamilton & Melanie Murchison (Manitoba)
Exclusionary rule
SE235
28th May 2025
12:00-13:00 Obele Akinniranye
Navigating Liability in the Age of Autonomy: A Critical Analysis of the EU Regulatory Framework for AI and Autonomous Vehicles
SE234
