In recent years social media has become a leading source of information and communication with platforms such as twitter becoming one of the most popular places for obtaining news and information in real time.
The following is a list of 20 top Irish legal twitter accounts who regularly share topical information that may be of interest to legal professionals, both junior and senior, across Ireland. In putting together this list of top Irish legal tweeters, we considered how adept they are at engaging their followers and analysing the most important legal news and stories of the day. They are ranked in order of those with the most followers.
[Update] We have taken into consideration all your comments and suggestions and can now reveal our updated list of the top 20 Irish legal people you should follow on Twitter.
If you still feel that we are missing some key inclusions, continue to let us know in the comments below.
1 Dearbhail McDonald @DearbhailDibs
Follower count: 18,900
Area of law: Legal Columnist
Why you should follow:
Dearbhail McDonald is Associate Editor and the legal Editor at the Irish Independent. She tweets regularly about current affairs and legal related articles. Her presence on twitter has banked her a record number of followers in her field.
2 Ivana Bacik @ivanabacik
Follower Count: 15,300
Area of law: Criminal law, constitutional law, feminist theories, human rights and equality
Why you should follow:
Ivana Bacik is the Reid Professor of Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology, a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin and a practising Barrister. She has a Law degree from Trinity College Dublin and an LL.M. from the London School of Economics. Ivana tweets about topics of interest including criminal law, constitutional law, feminist theories, human rights and equality issues in law.
3 Donncha O’Connell @donnchanuig
Follower count: 6,600
Area of law: Human rights
Why you should follow:
Donncha O’Connell is the head of the school of law and established professor of law at The National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG). He is also Commissioner of The Law Reform Commission and Editor of Irish Human Rights Law Review. His tweets are personal, regular, and mainly based around legal news, current affairs and political opinions.
4 Fiona de Londras @fdelond
Follower count: 5,276
Area of law: Academic Law particularly human rights
Why you should follow:
Fiona de Londras is Chair in Global Legal studies at University of Birmingham and previous to this was based at Durham Law School where she co-directed the Durham Human Rights programme. She also has visiting professorial positions around the world including in University College Dublin. Her website fionadelondras.com has all information about her research, publications and blog posts. Her twitter, although personal, she has shared a great deal of legal articles and opinions.
5 Mark Adair @markadairlawyer
Follower count: 4,274
Area of law: Specialist technology, cloud computing and telecoms law
Why you should follow:
Mark is one of the senior associates at Mason Hayes & Curran. He is a specialist technology, cloud computing & telecoms lawyer. Mark has written articles on managing legal and business risks in the FinTech industry. His twitter focuses mainly on his views and tech law blogging.
6 Vivienne Traynor @viviennetraynor
Follower count: 4,119
Area of law: Courts reporter
Why you should follow:
Vivienne Traynor is a Courts Reporter for RTE News. Her twitter feed has an array of news reports and is highly focused on legal based reports.
7 Eoin O’Dell @cearta
Followers: 3,959
Area of law: Intellectual property law
Why you should follow:
Dr. Eoin O’ Dell is an academic lawyer. He has worked in Trinity as a lecturer of law since 1990 and has had various publications and has written multiple articles in law journals. His feed deals with Intellectual Property Law, education and technology. He also has a separate twitter for, as he puts it, “less stuffy tweets” @301N which has a following of 1,909 followers.
8 Simon McGarr @Tupp_Ed
Follower Count: 3,784
Area of law: Civil and commercial litigation
Why you should follow:
Simon McGarr is a solicitor for McGarr solicitors. He also runs a blog called Tuppenceworth.ie, a personal blog focused on his particular areas of interest and personal opinions on current affairs. His twitter is quite similar to his blog in terms of what he discusses. He is a good one to follow if you are interested in reading different opinions on new legislation and movements.
9 TJ McIntyre @tjmcintyre
Follower Count: 3,371
Area of law: Information technology law and civil liberties
Why you should follow:
Dr TJ McIntyre is a Law Lecturer in University College Dublin. Alongside his twitter he runs a blog tjmcintyre.com which he started in 2004. McIntyre’s twitter is of a similar theme to his blog, “Information Technology law issues with a focus on fundamental rights.”
10 Rossa McMahon @rossamcmahon
Followers: 3, 236
Area of law: Political law
Why you should follow:
Rossa McMahon is a solicitor in Patrick G McMahon Solicitors, Limerick. His twitter is an extension of his blog “A Clatter of the Law”. His blog has been running since 2009 and has built up a following of over 4,000 subscribers. His twitter is largely focused on politics and law in Ireland. Containing discussions about topical issues and his views on Irish politics.
11 Dyane Connor @Dyaneconnor
Follower count: 2,864
Area of law: Journalist, current affairs
Why you should follow:
Dyane Connor is multi-media Journalist for RTE but previously worked as a courts correspondent for TV3 news and presenter of ’24 Hours to Kill’. Although she is not directly associated with the legal arena her twitter account contains many legal related issues and discussions.
12 Wendy Lyon @wendylyon
Followers: 2, 530
Area of law: Immigration, sexual, reproductive and maternity rights
Why you should follow:
Wendy Lyon holds an LLM in International Human Rights Law and she has been involved in feminist activism on both sides of the Atlantic for quite some time. She works as a solicitor, practising mainly in the areas of immigration and sexual/reproductive/maternity rights. Her twitter is personal but she also has a large legal focus containing interesting articles and discussions about human rights law and politics.
13 Conor O’Mahony @ConorUCCLaw
Followers: 2,325
Area of law: Constitutional law, children’s rights, special educational needs
Why you should follow:
Conor O’Mahony’s research interests lie broadly in the areas of constitutional law and child law, with a particular focus on constitutional interpretation, family and children’s rights, educational rights and special educational needs. He is a regular tweeter on these subjects and addition also takes an active role in public debate in referendums on constitutional amendments.
14 Darius Whelan @dariuswirl
Follower Count: 2,210
Area of law: Mental health law and internet law
Why you should follow:
Dr Darius Whelan works at University College Cork as a lecturer and also edits a blog hosted by them. He is also the President of the Irish Mental Health Lawyers Association and is the Irish partner for the Creative Commons Project. His twitter consists of coverage, and his personal views on recent amendments, court cases and articles.
15 Conor Gallagher @Courts_hack
Follower count: 2,199
Area of law: Media
Why you should follow:
Conor Gallagher is Managing Editor of CCC Nuacht news wire. Co-host of This Side of the Law @courtpodcast. His twitter feed contains tweets about crime and law but in a personal capacity.
16 Gareth Noble @GarNob
Follower count: 2,081
Area of law: Child and disability rights law
Why should you follow:
Gareth Nobel is a child and disability rights lawyer and Partner in human rights law firm KOD Lyons. He is recognised as one of Ireland’s leading litigators in the area of children with disabilities. He has successfully represented many families in challenging the law in respect of Domiciliary Care Allowances, Carer’s Allowance and services for children. His twitter handle has an array of legal based tweets of articles, interests and opinions.
17 Ursula Kilkelly @Ukilkelly
Follower Count: 2,074
Area of law: Children’s rights, human rights, law, education and justice
Why you should follow:
Professor, Dean @UCCLaw and director @childlawucc. Ursula is an international children’s rights scholar. She has published widely on children’s rights, the European Convention on Human Rights and youth justice. Follow her as she gives her personal views about child rights, human rights, law, education and justice.
18 Mary Rogan @MaryRogan
Followers count: 2,036
Area of law: Prison law and policy
Why you should follow:
Mary Rogan is a barrister and head of law at Dublin Institute of Technology. Dr. Rogan is the author of Prison Policy in Ireland: Politics, Penal-Welfarism and Political Imprisonment, (Routledge) and tweets regularly about her legal views.
19 Stuart Gilhooly @PFAISolicitor
Follower count: 1,436
Area of law: Litigation
Why you should follow:
Stuart is an independent solicitor to PFAI, Senior VP of the law society and feature writer for Parchment, DSBA magazine. His twitter contains an array of legal related posts.
20 Lincoln Recruitment Specialists @lincolnirl
Follower count: 1,029
Why you should follow:
Some shameless self promotion: We regularly release quarterly updates on the current state of the Irish legal employment market in Ireland in addition to industry articles, employment news, job opportunities and updates. We are one of the renowned recruiters in the Irish legal market and all our legal recruiters are themselves qualified legal professionals. Our industry knowledge and extensive client base allows us to offer exceptional opportunities to legal professionals in the market.
