Deadline set for TY legal-essay entries
The Law Society is inviting transition-year (TY) students to enter the national Gráinne O’Neill Memorial Legal Essay Competition.
Students are asked to submit a 1,500-word essay examining the topic 'Guilty of the Trend: when online trends incite real world harm, who should the law punish, the user or the platform?'.
The deadline is Monday 30 November.
Essays go through two rounds of judging and all finalists are invited to the awards presentation ceremony in May 2027, where the winning students and schools will be announced.
Schools can contact EssayCompetition@LawSociety.ie for an information pack.
The competition enables TY students to explore a topic in a way that will help them to be creative and innovative in their thinking and writing.
Contemporary justice issues
It aims to inspire legal learning amongst students across the country, by encouraging them to consider contemporary justice issues, and legal matters that they might encounter in their daily lives.
The judges will be looking especially at freshness and an approach that is unique, and different from other students.
There are three cash prizes for the overall winners and a special memorial trophy and medal for the winner. The trophy will remain with the prize-winning school for a period of one year.
Last year, more than 500 essays were submitted by students from 67 schools across 20 counties, with Rhea Schreiber from Sacred Heart Secondary School, Tullamore, announced as the winner.
Gráinne O’Neill
The competition honours the life and legacy of the late Judge Gráinne O’Neill, who became the youngest judge in Ireland when she was appointed to the District Court in 2014.
She died in 2018 following a period of illness.
During her life and, especially, during her years as a judge, she worked diligently to apply the law in a fair, rigorous, and compassionate manner.