I’ve been rereading Nell McCafferty’s book, In the Eyes of the Law, her stories from the Dublin District criminal court in the 1970s. It’s hilarious, brilliant, moving, and sometimes terribly sad; one of the best books I’ve ever read about the absurdity and importance of justice.

It was such a pleasure to meet Pat Bourne, Irish Ambassador to Thailand, in Bangkok this afternoon. Over lunch with colleagues from International IDEA, we had some great discussions of Thai and Irish constitutional politics, and holidaying in Kerry!

The pleasure was all mine.  Glad to see international models and examples, including Ireland’s, being considered and discussed in the context of ongoing discussions on how politics can best serve the people.

I was really honoured to be invited by International IDEA and the Faculty of Political Science of Chulalongkorn University to discuss Thai senate reform with some key stakeholders, and give a sense of Ireland’s interesting experiment in vocational bicameralism. I learned so much!

I'm utterly baffled by the innumeracy involved in being unable to solve covid inflation in grades. It's simple. The "problem" seems to revolve around students in year T potentially deferring taking their inflated points into year T+1. (1/2) rte.ie/news/2024/0823…

Hugely exciting to see my book in the The Library of Trinity College Dublin, the wonderful staff of which (especially Tony Carey) were so helpful when I was writing it! Colleagues and students, a great time to borrow a book for end of summer light reading…

I've never felt more seen by a New Yorker Cartoon.

Lovely to catch up with some of our new Heads of School this afternoon - Ann Devitt (School of Education), David Kenny (School of Law), Catherine Conlon (School of Social Work & Social Policy), and Justin Mac Gregor (School of Creative Arts).

Always a pleasure to talk to our Provost Linda Doyle, and discuss our shared educational mission with three fantastic new Heads of School from across the University.

Congratulations to all receiving CAO offer today for university places! We’re so looking forward to welcoming all of our Law, Law and language, and Law Joint Honours students to TCD Law School in a few weeks.

The Irish Fulbright Commission has opened its awards for both students and academics. Deadline October 31st. My Fulbright scholarship facilitated a course of study in the US that was career defining for me. I strongly encourage those interested to apply. fulbright.ie/2024/08/28/202…

Many congratulations to our superb Psychology TCD colleagues on their #Silver #AthenaSwan award & TCD Law School & SWSP_TCD who secured #Bronze award renewals, announced today.

Very pleased to say that TCD Law School successfully renewed our Athena Swan Bronze Award, which was first awarded to us in 2020. The School is deeply committed to gender equality and to being a broadly inclusive place to work and study. tcd.ie/news_events/ar…

It was a pleasure to see our great TCD Law School colleague Deirdre Ahern recognised with an Excellence in Research Supervision Award! Advising graduate researchers is such an important part of our job. Thanks Linda Doyle for hosting us & for your kind words about Deirdre’s work!

Fantastic to hear that three Trinity Schools have retained their Athena Swan Bronze Awards, and two Schools have advanced to Silver. 🌟 Trinity now holds 14 Bronze and 4 Silver school awards, 1 Bronze professional unit award and an Institutional Silver award.

From The Secret History: “Does such a thing as 'the fatal flaw, that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature? I used to think it didn't. Now I think it does. And I think that mine is this: a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs.”

A modest proposal to make legal scholarship more accurate and illuminating: any time a title says “Principles of”, we replace it with “Vibes of”

Students are back in class today TCD Law School, and I’m very excited because I’m a nerd and love teaching! Our new first years join us next week; if that’s you, you can find our orientation schedule here: tcd.ie/law/news-event…

Come to the Arts and Humanities Research Festival Trinity Long Room Hub on September 24th to hear me talk about why lawyers should engage with literature to understand the law more richly, and to (try to) stay human! Full programme of great talks and events here: bit.ly/TCDAHFest

This applies to all levels of education, but is particularly acute at third level, where Ireland spends just half the OECD average.