Bríd Ní Ghráinne

Bríd is an expert in the Law of Forced Migration, particularly on the topic of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), which refers to the (estimated) 71 million people who have been forced to flee their homes but who remain within their states.  The complexity of reasons for which IDPs flee has meant that her research spans refugee law, human rights law, humanitarian law, disaster law, law of the sea,  as well as general Public International Law. Bríd has published widely in these areas in leading journals such as Human Rights Law Review, International and Comparative Law Quarterly, Legal Studies, Refugee Survey Quarterly, and International Journal of Refugee Law. Her book entitled 'Internally Displaced Persons and International Refugee Law' was published with Oxford University Press in 2022. Her second book, 'Safe Zones in International Law', will be published with Oxford University Press in 2026.

Aside from her post at Maynooth, Bríd is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of International Relations, Prague; a Senior Research Associate at the Refugee Law Initiative, University of London; a Senior Research Associate at the Internal Displacement Research Programme, University of London; and a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Reading. Bríd is also co-lead of the Working Group on Internal Displacement Law and Policy, Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Irish Yearbook of International Law and Co-Book Review Editor at the International Journal of Refugee Law. Bríd regularly appears in both English and Irish-language media as a commentator in her areas of expertise. 

Previously, Bríd was Principal Investigator on the ‘Safe Zones in International Law’ project funded by the Czech Ministry of Education at Masaryk University, Czech Republic. She has been a consultant to Greenpeace East Asia, UNDP, Oxford Analytica, Ukrainian-based NGO Stabilisation Support Services, and the UN Secretary-General's High Level Panel on Internal Displacement. Bríd was also appointed as one of four Expert Members of the Council of Europe’s Working Group on IDPs, and co-designed the Council of Europe's HELP (Higher Education for Legal Professionals) course on Internal Displacement.

From 2014-2018, Bríd was a Lecturer at the University of Sheffield where she won two of the University’s top teaching awards. She has also previously worked as a Trainee at the Legal Division of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and taught at the Universities of Helsinki, Cyprus, Oxford, and Shandong University China. Bríd holds a DPhil from the University of Oxford; an LLM (Public International Law) from Leiden University; a BCL (International) from NUI Galway; and diplomas in Legal French and Legal Irish from the Law Society of Ireland and NUI Galway, respectively. 

Bríd teaches International Human Rights Law, International Mooting, and International Humanitarian Law at Maynooth. She welcomes potential research students, collaborations, and media enquiries pertaining to any of her research areas.