Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC awarded Presidential Distinguished Service Award
February 5, 2024
Coventry Irish Society is pleased to congratulate Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC on the announcement that she is one of this year's recipients of the President of Ireland's Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad.
The President's Distinguished Service Award is presented by the President each year, and it recognises the service given to Ireland or to Irish communities abroad by those who live outside Ireland.
Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC
is from Ireland and holds degrees from University College Dublin (UCD) and the Honorable Society of the King's Inns, as well as from Cambridge University. She has been practising from Doughty Street Chambers since 2005. In her 18 years at Doughty Street she has acted in many leading human rights, public law and media law cases, both in the UK and internationally. This includes acting for bereaved families of the 7/7 London Bombings and the Hillsborough Disaster, and in a series of cases which have changed the law on the rights of children in police custody. She is a world expert on accountability for crimes against journalists and journalists' safety, and has led the international legal teams in a series of key cases in this field, including for the bereaved family of Daphne Caruana Galizia, assassinated in Malta in 2017; for pro-democracy campaigner and publisher Jimmy Lai, imprisoned in Hong Kong; and (jointly with Amal Clooney) for Maria Ressa, the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate from the Philippines.
Caoilfhionn has acted in a number of cases concerning the rights of the Irish in Britain and in complex cases concerning cross-border issues between Ireland and Britain. She led the legal team acting for the family of Margaret Keane, overturning a ruling preventing them from using an Irish only inscription on her gravestone. She has recently been appointed Ireland’s Special Rapporteur on Child Protection; is a Commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission; and she is an Adjunct Full Professor at UCD. She was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2017 for her “outstanding commitment to enabling the Human Rights Act’s protections.”
Linda Ervine was born into a working-class Protestant family in east Belfast. She is the manager of the first Irish language centre to be based in a loyalist area. When she began learning Irish in 2011, no one would have conceived of the idea of an Irish language centre in the heart of east Belfast but despite the many difficulties, Turas is now one of the largest providers of Irish language classes in Belfast. She is the founder of Scoil na Seolta, the first Integrated school to teach through the medium of Irish. In 2021 she was honoured to receive the MBE for her work promoting the Irish language. In 2023 she was given an honorary doctorate by Queen’s University and in 2025 she was made a member of the Royal Irish Academy as well as an honorary degree from Trinity College in June that year and an honorary degree from the Open University in October 2025. In March 2026, she was appointed to the Irish Council of State by President Catherine Connolly. About the event: Thursday 11 June | 1pm-1.45pm. This is a FREE online webinar. To book, please email us: cis@covirishsoc.org.uk with names and contact emails of all attendees. Registration closes 04 June 2026. The online link will be emailed to attendees prior to the event. With support from: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Reconciliation Fund.
Join us as we celebrate St. Patrick's Day 2026 in Coventry with events, live performances, plenty of craic and lots to discover!
Join us for a special St. Patrick's day Lunch Club from 12:30pm - 5:00pm at CIS Office, Eaton House | £10 per ticket . Blessing of the Shamrock Mass - 12pm at St Osburg's Church | Blessings of the Shamrock kindly provided by our twin City, Cork. Enjoy an Irish Stew and buffet, a special visit from St Patrick, plus live performances with music from Frankie and the McHugh School of Irish Dancers. Tickets are available at the office. Please contact us on 02476 256629 or get in touch at cis@covirishsoc.org.uk or on Facebook.
