Conor O'Mahony

Professor Conor O'Mahony is a graduate of UCC (BCL 2001, LLM by Research 2002) and the University of Wales, Aberystwyth (PhD, 2005). He has lectured in UCC since 2005, and was appointed Dean of the School of Law in August 2025. He is the Director of the Child Law Clinic at UCC, through which he works to support litigation concerning children and to advocate for law reform in the area of child law. From 2019 to 2022, he served as Special Rapporteur on Child Protection to the Government of Ireland.

Professor O'Mahony's research interests lie broadly in the areas of constitutional law and child law, with a particular focus on family and children's rights. He is the author of Educational Rights in Irish Law (Thomson Round Hall, 2006) and has published articles in such international journals as the International Journal of Constitutional Law, Public Law, the Human Rights Law Review, the International Journal of Children's Rights, the Harvard Human Rights Journal, the International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family, the Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, the Child and Family Law Quarterly, the International Journal of Children's Rights and Children and Youth Services Review. He has delivered papers at conferences in eleven different countries. He has been invited to provide expert testimony to various Oireachtas Committees as well as the Constitutional Convention and the Citizens' Assembly, and contributes regularly to analysis in the national media.

Past projects include the Child Care Proceedings in the District Court, which was awarded the UCC Research Team of the Year Award for 2016; IDEA: Improving Decision for Children through Empowerment and Advocacy - a two-year, five country project which received €420,000 of funding from the European Commission; the Voluntary Care in Ireland Study, which was one the first empirical investigations internationally of the protection of the rights of children and parents in voluntary care agreements; and FYDO - Facility Dogs in Europe, which piloted the use of facility dogs as a means of mitigating secondary victimisation for vulnerable victims and witnesses of crime (including children) during their contact with the justice system.

Modules Taught:

• LW1161 Constitutional Law: Fundamental Rights
• LW3310 Advanced Constitutional Law
• LW6563 Child Protection Law (LLM)
• LW6654 Child Law Clinic (LLM)

1. Enda Cawley, "School Expulsion in Ireland: A Socio-Legal Rights-Based Analysis of Expulsion Law And Practice" (2025)
2. Franz Wittmann, "Non-violent Education as a Children’s Right – A Human Rights-based Response to Child Sexual Abuse in Educational Institutions" (2024)
3. Claire O'Connell, "How Irish Law Can Recognise Intending Parentage While Vindicating the Child’s Right to Identity in Assisted Human Reproduction" (2023)
4. Lydia Bracken, “An Evaluation of the Implications of the Best Interests of the Child Principle in the context of Same-Sex Parenting in Ireland” (2015)
5. Laura Cahillane, “The Genesis, Drafting and Legacy of the 1922 Irish Free State Constitution” (2012)
6. Eoin Daly, “Religion, Education and the Rawlsian Social Contract: A Comparative Analysis of Liberty of Conscience Guarantees” (2011)
7. Eilionóir Flynn, “Advocacy Services for Persons with Disabilities: A Comparative Study of Disability Rights Enforcement in Ireland and Victoria” (2010)