Research

The main focus of my research is employment law. I am currently conducting three specific research projects. The first is on age discrimination in employment which examines age discriminatory practices in recruitment, employment and in termination of employment. The second is on employment rights and their extension to irregular immigrants. This particular project examines the impact of a failure to protect the employment rights of irregular immigrants and examines ways in which states can develop protection regimes. These two projects tie in with my third more general project (based on my PhD research) which looks at the disconnect between employment law and immigration law and the impact of this disconnect on the rights of immigrants to equality.

Education:

I have a first class honours BCL degree (2004) and a PhD (2009) from University College Cork, Ireland. My PhD was funded by the E.J. Phelan Fellowship in International Law. I conducted my postdoctorate research at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy, Munich (2012). 

Employment History:

I have worked as a Course Director (2006-2007) and a Parliamentary and Law Reform Executive (2007-2009) at the Law Society of Ireland, Dublin and as a Lecturer in Law at Dublin City University, Ireland (2009-2013). I have also undertaken a Research Fellowship in Law at the Max Planck Institute funded by the MaxNet Aging Research Group (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany (Jan - June 2012) and Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy, Munich, Germany (June 2012 - Jan 2013). I have been a Scholar in Residence at the University of Coimbra, Portugal (2013), a Visiting Lecturer at CEU Cardenal Herrera University, Spain (2014) and visited the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka (2014). In 2015, I undertook a research visit to the Court of Justice of the European Union.

External Appointments / Memberships:

• Steering Committee Member, Manchester Interdisciplinary Collaboration for Research on Aging, University of Manchester
• Member, Fairness at Work Research Group, University of Manchester

• Employment Law (particularly, equality law (age discrimination law))
• European Law (particularly, European Equality law)
• Human Rights Law (particularly, equality law)
• Immigration Law (particularly, the rights of irregular immigrants)