Responding to Ireland’s Mother and Baby Homes Commission Report
Ireland’s Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation Report was published last week. This is the latest in a series of state investigations into so-called ‘historical’ institutional injustice. Following an...
Sealing the Records of Irish Institutional Abuse
The Irish Oireachtas (parliament) has passed controversial legislation relating to the Mother and Baby Homes Commission archives. The Commission’s report should be published by the end of the year. It...
Irish Supreme Court quashes climate mitigation plan: environmental rights caught between redundancy and vagueness
On 31 July 2020, the Irish Supreme Court annulled the government’s climate mitigation plan. A grand chamber of – exceptionally – seven judges ruled unanimously that the plan did not...
Ireland: Historic Victory for Environmental Campaigners
In a landmark decision, the Irish Supreme Court has unanimously quashed what it termed the Irish Government’s ‘excessively vague’ plan to tackle climate change. The Court held that the plan...
Immigration Detention and the Dublin III Regulation (Part II/II)
In November, two important judgments were handed down concerning the legal regime governing immigration detention under the Dublin III Regulation; one by the Supreme Court and one by the High...
Immigration Detention and the Dublin III Regulation (Part I/II)
In November, two important judgments were handed down concerning the legal regime governing immigration detention under the Dublin III Regulation; one by the Supreme Court and one by the High...
Environmental Human Rights Litigation in Ireland
Recently, the Irish High Court handed down judgment in the case of Friends of the Irish Environment v The Government of Ireland and Others or ‘Climate Case Ireland’. The case...
LGBT+ Rights in Northern Ireland
It’s the middle of a busy month for the LGBT+ sector in Northern Ireland, with four Pride festivals taking place across the province. Normally the summer is a bit of...
UN Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children raises serious concerns regarding Ireland’s history of illegal adoption practices
Ireland has an extensive history of systemic human rights abuses of women and children, encompassing multiple institutional settings and spanning most of the 20th century: Magdalene Laundries, Mother and Baby...
Continued Criminalisation in Ireland’s New Abortion Law
Since the start of January lawful abortion has been available in Ireland. The passage of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 has fundamentally changed the landscape of...
A Victory for Equality: The End of the ‘Baptism Barrier’ in School Admissions in Ireland
The Admissions to Schools Act 2018, due to come into effect from the beginning of next year, will end the right of the vast majority of primary schools in Ireland...
Ireland Votes to Remove Blasphemy Offence from Constitution
The 37th Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland was passed by referendum on Friday, removing the word ‘blasphemous’ from Article 40.6.1i. In Article 40.6.1, the State guarantees “subject to public...
