April University of Galway welcomes Council of State appointees

A law professor and former president of University of Galway are among new appointees to the Council of State by President of Ireland Catherine Connolly. 

 Professor Donncha O’Connell of the School of Law is one of seven nominees alongside Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, who was president of the University between 2018 and 2024.  

 The Council of State is the constitutional body that advises the President on the exercise of certain powers such as the referral of Bills to the Supreme Court under Article 26 of the Constitution.  

 President of University of Galway, Professor David Burn, said: “My congratulations to all of the President Catherine Connolly’s nominees, in particular our Professor O’Connell and one of my predecessors in the role of President, Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh. It is a great tribute to the esteem in which they are held as individuals and also to University of Galway. I wish them well in supporting and advising the President.” 

 Professor O’Connell joined the staff of University of Galway in 1993 and became an Established Professor in 2013. A native of Swinford, Co Mayo, he has served terms as Dean of the Faculty of Law and Head of the School of Law.  

 He also served two terms as a Commissioner of the Law Reform Commission and was a member of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland and a board member of the Legal Aid Board. More recently, he was a member of the Independent Review Group to consider the Offences Against the State Acts.  

 He has served on the boards of a number of human rights organisations including, INTERIGHTS, FLAC and Amnesty International – Ireland, and was, while on leave of absence from the University, the first full-time Director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL). He was the Irish member of the EU Network of Independent Experts on Fundamental Rights and, later, the Senior Irish member of FRALEX, the legal expert group that advised the EU Fundamental Rights Agency based in Vienna. 

 He also served for over nine years on the board of the internationally-acclaimed Druid Theatre Company.  

 Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh is a former Professor of Accounting and Dean of the business schools at UCD. A Galway native and an alumnus, he was appointed president of University of Galway in 2018 where he led a new strategic vision for a university with values, and a university for the public good. He was also Chairperson of Universities Ireland, encouraging co-operation between the universities on the island of Ireland. He has a PhD from the University of Leeds and was a Fulbright Scholar at Northeastern University in Boston. 

 Mr Ó hÓgartaigh is on the board of the National Library of Ireland, on the Council of the Economic and Social Research Institute and on the editorial board of Studies. Scríobhann sé alt as Gaeilge ó am go chéile don Irish Times. 

 Professor O’Connell is one of a number of University of Galway staff to have served on the Council of State while working at the University. They include: the late Professor Emer Colleran who was appointed by President Mary Robinson; Professor Ruth Curtis who was appointed by President Mary McAleese; and Professors Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh and Gerard Quinn who were appointed by President Michael D Higgins. The former chair of Údarás na hOllscoile, Judge Catherine McGuinness, also served on the Council of State of Presidents Patrick Hillery and Michael D Higgins.  

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