Hugely pleased with this: my article about Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels as proto-comparative constitutional law is now out in @law-and-humanities.bsky.social! It’s open access thanks to @tcdlibrary.bsky.social so it’s available to all. You can read it here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Oh what a night of ancient Indian Irish musical dialogue at the iconic Jaipur Literature Festival ... Soumik Datta on sarod alongside the piano/ voice of Michael Gallen & bodhrán virtuoso Cormac Byrne layered with delicious tales of Jonathan Swift from @dkennytcd.bsky.social

Anyone in Belfast: the Jaipur Literature Festival Island of Ireland kicks off in Ulster University tomorrow evening! I’m chatting with Shashi Tharoor about Living Constitutions on Saturday afternoon. Free to attend, all welcome! Full programme and registration available here: jlflitfest.org/ireland

A college professor spent seven years decoding the inscription on the grave of the writer Jonathan Swift. He thinks he’s finally cracked it. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

One of the most fun things that has happened to me: @edcaesar.bsky.social, one of my favourite writers, wrote for the @newyorker.com about my long-running quest to find a hidden meaning in Jonathan Swift’s epitaph. Thanks to Ed’s narrative skills, it’s a great read! www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

The great Cass Sunstein delivering a public lecture on campus free speech at Trinity next Thursday. Should be hugely worthwhile. All welcome, booking essential at the form below. forms.office.com/pages/respon...

Have any legal practitioner friends in Ireland had courtroom encounters (criminal or civil) with people using the methods of the Freemen on the Land? Would love to chat quickly at some stage if so.

Paperback is here and, to judge by its cover, it’s great! It can be yours for €37.50 including shipping if you want 2026 to be your year of law and literature!

New symposium issue of Comparative Constitutional Studies: “After the Referendum”. Includes analysis of referendum failures in Ireland (by me), Australia, Chile, and Taiwan, alongside other great papers and book discussion. Open access for a limited time! www.elgaronline.com/view/journal...

Just in time for the Christmas, you can preorder the paperback copy of my book! It won’t arrive until after Christmas, which I know will disappoint many, but a printout of a preorder is often an even better stocking filler than a book. 20% off with code below! www.routledge.com/Pragmatism-L...

Another obscure academic crowdsource request - does anyone have access to the Philological Quarterly from 1966 and a willingness to help me?

Rarely spotted job fairy alert! A specific public law senior lecturer/reader post (and a few other positions - including in environmental law - to boot). Please spread the word! Happy to discuss with anyone who is tempted to come join us in Newcastle: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPM199/s...

Extremely niche request, very unlikely to work: does anyone know anyone who specialises in analysis of historical handwriting??

Really looking forward to presenting to wonderful colleagues at Glasgow tomorrow on some recent work about Irish parliamentary culture and practice.

CfP: announcing the 8th L&H Roundtable workshop 'Visions of Democracy in Art and Literature' @tcddublin.bsky.social on 19 Jun 2026. Submit abstracts to [email protected] by Fri 6 Feb @legalhumanities.bsky.social @sophiedoherty.bsky.social @dkennytcd.bsky.social @drelenacooper.bsky.social 👇

Exciting news: the Law and Humanities Roundtables comes to Trinity College Dublin next summer!

Is the legal world really too complicated for any abstraction? @dkennytcd.bsky.social argues so in his new book 'Pragmatism, Law and Literature' tinyurl.com/yc5spfh3 as reviewed for us by @adamhanna.bsky.social - Find Adam Hanna's review here: doi.org/10.1080/1752...

This is going to be an excellent event with speakers including @maireadenright.bsky.social @conorkelly.bsky.social @dkennytcd.bsky.social @aileenkavanagh.bsky.social @aileenmcharg.bsky.social @danielwincott.bsky.social @profnicolamcewen.bsky.social 📢

Great seminar yesterday at @tricondublin.bsky.social @tlrhub.bsky.social to mark the 10th anniversary of the Marriage Equality Referendum in Ireland. Special thanks to Katherine Zappone for her fascinating talk and conversation with Profs @aileenkavanagh.bsky.social & @dkennytcd.bsky.social

Great to partner with the Irish Jurisprudence Society for an excellent constitutional theory seminar with Prof Lawrence Sager @utexaslaw.bsky.social, with comments by @dkennytcd.bsky.social & @aileenkavanagh.bsky.social, chaired by @conorcrummey.bsky.social

On May 1st, @tricondublin.bsky.social members Prof @dkennytcd.bsky.social and Dr Róisín Costello will speak at this legal humanities symposium on Antigone and Ireland at the @abbeytheatre.bsky.social

Wonderful, sunny Trinity Monday celebrating our newest Fellow Andrea Milligan FTCD and some of our terrific new scholars.

@blueprincegame.bsky.social hi! Cutscenes don’t play on steamdeck - just hang on a test screen until you slip them - any suggestions?

The legal humanities are a global phenomenon. Read why the IHA now has an established working group in this area from our WG Co-Chair @adamhanna.bsky.social @ucc.ie www.irishhumanities.com/blog/the-leg...

Antigone and Ireland: A Symposium in the Legal Humanities Details and tickets (free) at the Abbey Theatre link below. (Full programme at their embedded Eventbrite ticket link.) www.abbeytheatre.ie/whats-on/ant...

@cado.bsky.social I was just listening to this week’s episode and when you mentioned the banana game, I yelled “GORRILAS.BAS”! Is this it? My sisters and I used to play it constantly on our pre-windows DOS machine. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorilla...

Crowdsource request - does anyone have access to a document known as “The Blank of Ireland”, apparently an Irish Freeman on the Land legal manual (like The Freeman Guide, which I have) of the early 2010s? I cannot find a copy, several links I found were dead.

I spoke to @mrkocnnll.bsky.social at @tlrhub.bsky.social last month about difficult men, big second acts, the spectre of the author in non-fiction writing, and his very exciting new book project. Recording available at the link below. www.tcd.ie/trinitylongr...

This year I’m channelling Samuel Beckett when, in 1984, the Times asked him for his new year hopes and resolutions and he responded with the following telegram: “RESOLUTIONS: ZERO. HOPES: ZERO. BECKETT”.

Last day at school for a while! (One photo is from last year but hopefully no one minds)

Such a pleasure to get to comment on a fascinating research project on citizens’ assemblies being conducted by two of my former classmates from different institutions!

Excited to talk with @mrkocnnll.bsky.social about his work later today at @tlrhub.bsky.social. There is no real reason that I am doing this—rather than someone more qualified—other than I really enjoy conversation with Mark, so I asked if I could. Come along and enjoy conversation with him too!

Vacancy with us at TCD Law School for Assistant Professor in Intellectual Property Law - applications open until noon, Thursday, 5 December. Details available from jobs.tcd.ie. Happy to field any informal queries!

An honour to speak to Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh KC—who delivered one of the most powerful pieces of advocacy I have ever heard in the ICJ case between South Africa and Israel—about law, human rights, and, when you see injustice in the world, deciding to do something about it. Thanks Gavin for the photo!

Just finished presenting a new draft paper about Ireland’s two failed referendums on family & care in March 2024 and what they might mean. It will change following great comments from @democracytalk.bsky.social and others, but draft here—all thoughts are welcome! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

@tricondublin.bsky.social has arrived on Bluesky! Follow us for updates about TriCON events and scholarship. Good to see some TriCON members already here incl @aileenkavanagh.bsky.social @mikebecker.bsky.social @dkennytcd.bsky.social @suryaroy.bsky.social & @orandoyle.bsky.social

I had such fun with this paper. I have put it on the back burner for now, as I think it might fit nicely into a future book project… Thanks @lpcprof.bsky.social for sharing!

Full house for our undergraduate Law graduation. Neville Cox, Registrar and Professor of Law & Morality, begins with a really lovely address explaining the significance of commencement before we move on to award degrees to some extraordinary students. Proud of every one of them!

I’ve been thinking a lot about Richard Rorty’s 1998 prediction about the rise of an American strongman. The return of “jocular contempt for women” is particularly striking given the appalling outpouring on Twitter since Wednesday.

Tomorrow in the Trinity Long Room Hub at 4pm, I will be speaking about why lawyers should read literature to keep us human. All welcome in person, and it’s streaming here, as part of the Arts and Humanities Research Festival this week. www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxZW...

Need to remember to post here more, so: my book—Pragmatism, Law, and Literature—is now out! 20% off the (ludicrous) hardcover price&more affordable ebook with this code, with a more affordable paperback to follow! See if your university library might get a copy! www.routledge.com/Pragmatism-L...

In professional news, and presumably because I angered some ancient god, I will this summer be taking over as Head of the School of Law at Trinity College Dublin. Grateful for the support and encouragement of wonderful colleagues in College and beyond!

Superb.

Great to write this post for the ICLRS blog, with PhD researcher Peter McCarthy, tracing a post-colonial religious identity in Ireland shifting across the history of the state. The whole blog series on religion and decolonisation is very worth reading talkabout.iclrs.org/2024/01/11/r...

More from @dkennytcd.bsky.social, exploring the idea of constitutional culture, this time in the context of social rights in Ireland. With reflections on the possibility of cultural change.

Having a discussion this eve at EUI Law about social rights, austerity, & constitutional culture in Ireland, based on new co-authored paper forthcoming in great new issue of the Irish Jurist on topic of crisis. Early draft below papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

For anyone who might be interested, I wrote an explainer about the Irish President using the unusual power to refer a bill for abstract review to the Supreme Court, and what the likely issue with the Bill is. www.thejournal.ie/readme/irish...

Just finished a draft of a short article for a symposium about James Boyd White, one of the founders of contemporary law and literature, discussing how his work helps remind us that law is a deeply human enterprise, and we need to engage with it in a deeply humanistic manner.

Okay, the Spotify algorithm has hit home with this suggestion.