MAEVE O’ROURKE

UCD LAW

UCD Law Alumni Award Winner 2014

Integrity: It’s in our DNA
The courage, perseverance and compassion of our graduates make us what we are. Their relentless pursuit of justice brightens our future.

Maeve O’Rourke was the recipient of the UCD Alumni Award in Law in 2014, in recognition of her outstanding humanitarian work securing justice for the victims of the Magdalene Laundries.

Maeve graduated from the UCD Sutherland School of Law in 2009 and then went on to Harvard University where she gained a Masters degree. While in America, she studied children’s law, reproductive health and women’s rights. Maeve decided to write her Masters thesis at Harvard about the Magdalene Laundries. In the course of her research, she discovered the Justice for Magdalenes campaign and has been working for them pro bono ever since.

Maeve works closely with Dr Katherine O’Donnell and Claire McGettrick of UCD on the Justice for Magdalenes campaign.

Following her year at Harvard, Maeve worked in London for a year on a fellowship, spending time with the women’s rights organisation Equality Now whilst still working on the Magdalene’s campaign. Maeve brought a case before the Irish Human Rights Commission in 2010 and UN Committee against Torture and UN Human Rights Council in 2011 on behalf of the Justice for Magdalenes survivors’ advocacy group. In 2013, Maeve was awarded Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year at the Family Law awards for her work with the Justice for Magdalene’s survivor’s advocacy group.

Maeve is currently researching for a PhD at Birmingham Law School on the human rights of older persons to freedom from torture and ill-treatment.