On 9 September 2016, Dr Fergus Ryan of Maynooth University Department of Law spoke at the DCU Socio-Legal Research Centre's 2nd Biennial Conference, on State Accountability for Vulnerability.
Fergus spoke on ‘Marriage as a cure for all ills?’ highlighting the continuing legal and financial vulnerability of particular sectors of the LGBTI community in the wake of last year's marriage referendum. Fergus focussed, in particular, on intersectional factors such as gender, age, race and education, noting that despite stereotypes, particular sectors of the community often face high levels of deprivation and poor mental health. Although civil partnership, equal marriage and gender recognition have resolved many legal difficulties for same-sex couples and people who are transgender, legal gaps and anomalies remain that contribute to vulnerability.
Dr Fergus Ryan lectures in Family Law on the Department's LLB programme and in Gender, Sexuality and the Law and Marriage and the Law on the LLM (Global Legal Studies) masters degree.