Law Society invites Mayo students to enter essay competition

The Law Society of Ireland is inviting Mayo Transition Year (TY) students to enter the Gráinne O’Neill Memorial Legal Essay Competition.

The prestigious competition is part of the Law Society’s continued drive to widen access to legal training. 

Last year, 140 students from 48 schools across 16 counties entered the annual national competition.

To enter, students are asked to submit a 1,500-word essay examining the topic, ‘Hate Crime; the role the law can play in addressing Hate Crime’ by Friday, November 22.

Run by the Law Society for a third year in a row, the national competition aims to inspire young peoples’ legal learning by encouraging students from a wide range of backgrounds to consider contemporary justice issues.

Legal education

President of the Law Society, Barry MacCarthy, explained that ‘the solicitors’ profession is changing’, and the Law Society is committed to ‘widening access to legal training for the next generation’. 

“Hate crime, the theme of this year’s Gráinne O’Neill Memorial Legal Essay Competition, is a topical issue. Students are encouraged to explore the role the law can play in addressing hate crime in Irish society.

“Essays that are well planned out, have a good analysis of the law and application to Irish life have stood out in previous years. Each student approaches the essay topic in their own personal way, and this is what makes the competition so unique,” he continued.

Mr MacCarthy called the Gráinne O’Neill Memorial Legal Essay Competition ‘just one of the Law Society’s school outreach programmes aimed at expanding access to the law for young people’. “Schools can also engage with other Law Society student initiatives including Solicitors of the Future, Street Law, and Legal Ambitions,” he added.

Patrick Galvin from Abbey Community College in Waterford was last year’s competition winner. 

He was inspired to enter the competition as he ‘thought the themes sounded interesting and topical’. “My advice to those entering this year would be to spend some time thinking about the topic and researching it before you start writing your essay, and to aim for depth, rather than breadth. I got my information from the British and Irish Legal Information Institute; the Irish Statute Book and Oireachtas.ie,” he said. 

About the competition

The Gráinne O’Neill Memorial Legal Essay Competition honours the life and legacy of the late Judge Gráinne O’Neill. 

In 2014, Ms O’Neill became the youngest judge in Ireland when she was appointed to the District Court. 

Sadly, she passed away in 2018 following a period of illness but, during her life and especially during her years as a judge, Ms O’Neill worked diligently to apply the law in a fair, rigorous and compassionate manner.

The competition was initiated by The Hon Mr Justice Keenan Johnson of the Circuit Court, in collaboration with the Midland Solicitors’ Bar Association, in 2019. This is the third year the competition is inviting entries from TY students across the country.

Applications close on 22 November 2024. Further information is available on the Law Society website.