Comhrá with St Brigid’s Presentation Secondary School, Killarney

On the morning of Tuesday 20 October, the Supreme Court held a ‘Comhrá’ with Transition Year students from St Brigid’s Presentation Secondary School in Killarney, Co. Kerry.  The participating students were studying a Law module as part of their TY programme and posed a number of insightful questions to Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly of the Supreme Court and Ms Justice Leoine Reynolds of the High Court. 

Comhrá (the word for ‘conversation’ in Irish) is an education initiative of the Supreme Court that enables secondary school students to participate in live question-and-answer sessions with judges of the Supreme Court from anywhere in Ireland by video call.  The programme provides students with an opportunity to ask judges questions about their work, the role of the Supreme Court and of the courts system more generally within our democracy, allowing them to gain an insight and understanding of the function of the Supreme Court and promote an interest in law.

The students from St Brigid’s asked Ms Justice Donnelly and Ms Justice Reynolds a number of questions about their experiences as women in law, both at the bar and on the bench, and which female role models inspired them.  In addition, the students asked a great variety of questions from the differences between cases involving adults and children, to the skills and subjects students should pursue if they want to study law at third-level.  The call concluded with the students asking both Judges what advice they would give to their 17 year old selves.