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Síofra O’Leary, President of the European Court of Human Rights, delivers the second lecture in the Department’s EU50 Iveagh House lecture series.

Justice Síofra O’Leary will be introduced by Minister of State for European Affairs and Defence Peter Burke TD to deliver her EU50 lecture. After the lecture, President O’Leary will be joined for a panel discussion by Senator Fiona O’Loughlin and Professor Aoife Nolan, moderated by Suzanne Lynch.

About the EU50 Iveagh House Lecture Series:

Since 2012, the Department of Foreign Affairs has hosted a series of commemorative lectures at its headquarters at Iveagh House in Dublin, with distinguished speakers invited to consider seminal events in our state’s history, not as an end in itself, but as a starting point for reflection on the future. Within that tradition, the EU50 Iveagh House lecture series is devoted to reflecting on how, over half a century, membership of the European Union has shaped Ireland and how Ireland, in turn, has shaped the European Union. Part of the Government’s wider EU50 programme, the series features a range of leading voices from across the European Union or, as in the case of President O’Leary, its key partners.

This lecture focuses on Ireland’s European relationships beyond the European Union, namely with the Council of Europe and its European Convention on Human Rights. It will reflect on the importance of the Council of Europe’s work on promoting human rights, democracy and rule of law across Europe since its foundation in 1949.

Guest speaker Síofra O’Leary was elected President of the European Court of Human Rights in 2022, becoming the first woman and the first Irish citizen to hold the role. A Judge on the Court since 2015, she served as its Vice-President between January and November 2022. Prior to her appointment in Strasbourg, she held a number of academic positions, and was a référendaire and chef de cabinet at the Court of Justice of the European Union. Síofra will offer her perspective on the role of the European Convention on Human Rights in shaping modern Ireland.

Senator Fiona O’Loughlin is a member of Seanad Éireann and former member of Dáil Éireann. Chair of the Oireachtas Women’s Caucus, she was the first female TD elected for her - and St Brigid’s - native Kildare. Head of Ireland’s Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, she has played a leading role in preparing for the organisation’s Summit in Reykjavik later this year.

Professor Aoife Nolan is Vice-President of the Council of Europe’s European Committee of Social Rights, the continent’s leading monitoring mechanism on economic and social right. Professor of international human rights law and co-director of the University of Nottingham Human Rights Law Centre, she has published extensively on human rights and was a member of the Scottish First Minister's Advisory Group on Human Rights Leadership.

Suzanne Lynch is Chief Brussels Correspondent for POLITICO Europe and host of the EU Confidential podcast. Prior to joining POLITICO Europe in 2021, she worked as Washington Correspondent for the Irish Times, having been its European Correspondent in Brussels between 2013 and 2017. @suzannelynch1

#IrelandEU50


About St. Brigid’s Day

In Ireland, the first of February marks the beginning of Spring and the celebration of Lá Fhéile Bríde, St Brigid’s Day. Like many of other feast days of the Irish calendar, Brigid predates Christianity – her roots lie in the Celtic festival of Imbolc, the feast of the goddess Brigid, celebrated at least five millennia ago. In old Irish, Imbolc means "in the belly", a reference to lambing and the renewal Spring promises.
Brigid was a triple goddess – of healing, fire, and of poetry – and the saint who took her name, born in 450 AD, carried some of those same associations. The patron saint of poets and midwives, by legend, she maintained a sacred fire by the monastery she founded in Kildare. Alongside St Patrick and St Columcille, she is one of Ireland’s three patron saints.

Brigid’s name can be translated as “the exalted one”. And, over recent years, her festival has come to be an exaltation of Irish women. From Washington to Warsaw, Sydney to Santiago, Ireland’s diplomatic network, in partnership with local communities, host a series of festivals each February celebrating the remarkable contribution Irish women have made – and continue to make - across the world.

In 2024 Ireland will mark the 1500th anniversary of St Brigid’s passing with a special programme of events nationwide. This year, however, is also special, with St Brigid’s day celebrated for the first time by a public holiday.

#StBrigidsDay