Three NUI Galway academics to sit on Council of State

By Katie Finnegan
Published in SIN Newspaper - January 2012
 

President Michael D.Higgins

THREE NUI Galway academics have been chosen by President Michael D Higgins as appointees to the Council of State.

Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh, Mrs Justice Catherine McGuinness and Professor Gerard Quinn were appointed by the president along with four others.

Professor Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh

Professor Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh is a retired history professor and a former dean of arts and vice-president of the college. Professor Ó Tuathaigh has held many important roles including having been a member of the Senate of the NUI and of the Irish-US Fulbright Commission and has also been a former cathaoirleach of Údarás na Gaeltachta. Prof Ó Tuathaigh has been widely published in both Irish and English on many different areas of modern Irish history.

Judge Catherine McGuinness

Judge Catherine McGuinness was called to the Bar in 1977 and to the Inner Bar in 1989. She was a member of Seanad Éireann from 1979-82 and was previously a member of the council of state from 1988-90. She served as a judge of the Circuit Court from 1994-1996, of the High Court from 1996-2000 and of the Supreme Court from 2000-2006. From 2005-2011, she was president of the Law Reform Commission. She is currently the adjunct professor of law at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

Professor Gerard Quinn is the current Director of the Centre for Disability Law and Policy at NUI Galway. The center is part of a new research institute researching policy innovation covering age, child and family as well as disability. A graduate of UCG, he holds a master’s and doctorate in law from Harvard Law School. His specialisation is international and comparative disability law and policy.

Gerard Quinn

He has worked in the European Commission and is a former member of the Irish Human Rights Commission.

The four others are Sally Mulready, a councillor in Hackney in London, is a prominent emigrant rights activist in Britain who moved there from Dublin in the 1970s. Prof Deirdre Heenan of the University of Ulster, human rights lawyer Michael Farrell and finally Ruairí McKiernan (32), a social entrepreneur from Cootehill, Co Cavan.

During his presidential campaign, Mr Higgins promised that if elected president he would make sure the council was “representative in an inclusive sense”.

The Council of State is the body established under the Constitution to advise the President in the exercise of his powers. Presidents can convene the council to consider legislation, but are not bound by its recommendations.

Bertie Ahern

The council is composed of the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, the Chief Justice, the president of the High Court, the Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann, the Cathaoirleach of the Seanad, the Attorney General, and former presidents, taoisigh and chief justices who are able and willing to act on the council. Aside from the seven appointed members, the current “ex officio” members of the Council of State are Taoiseach Enda Kenny; Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore; Chief Justice Mrs Justice Susan Denham, Ceann Comhairle Seán Barrett, Seanad Cathaoirleach Senator Patrick Burke, president of the High Court Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns and Attorney General Máire Whelan.

The other members are former presidents Mary McAleese and Mary Robinson, former taoisigh Liam Cosgrave, John Bruton, Albert Reynolds, Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen; and former chief justices John L Murray, Thomas Finlay and Ronan Keane.