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.”
We are hiring for - PA to the Manager This post is a 3 year fixed term role. Salary: £15,000 P.A, 15 hours per week. About us: Established in 1993, Coventry Irish Society (CIS) is a Charity providing a wide range of community health and support services to the Irish Community in Coventry. Coventry Irish Society has supported and celebrated the Irish community in Coventry and the Midlands since 1993 — from health and welfare services to festivals, heritage projects including our Oral History project ‘Irish Heart, Coventry Home’. We're a small dynamic charity with a big impact, and we're looking for an organised, personable PA to help our CEO keep everything running smoothly. The Role: As PA to the Manager, you'll be the right hand that keeps our finances, records, and databases in order — freeing up our Manager to focus on the bigger picture. This is a role for someone who enjoys precision and detail as much as people, at the centre of a busy and welcoming charity. To apply: Please email CEO Simon McCarthy simon.mccarthy@covirishsoc.org.uk with your CV and reasons for applying. Download and view full job role description below.
The Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme provides financial payments and health supports to eligible people who spent time in a Mother and Baby or County Home in the Republic of Ireland. For straightforward information on the application process, eligibility criteria, and institutions covered by the Payment Scheme, please see the link to download an information leaflet below. For detailed information and other queries, please visit the GOV.ie website at the link below. Visit the Gov.ie website by clicking here.
The Department for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration has announced the Stardust Recognition Payment Scheme. This is a scheme of ex-gratia recognition payments to survivors who were injured in the Stardust fire in 1981. All survivor beneficiaries of the original Stardust Victims Compensation Tribunal will be solely eligible for this recognition payment. Each person will be eligible to receive a fixed recognition payment of €20,000. Applications for the recognition payments can be made online or by post. A Stardust Recognition Payment Helpline is available during office hours at 01-859 2268 for those who wish to request an application form to be sent to their home address. Help completing the application is available via the helpline and email sdrqueries@justic.ie Applications will be accepted until 5pm on 17 August 2026 The Stardust Recognition Scheme can be accessed at the below link.
