Conor O'Mahony
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conorom.bsky.social
Conor O'Mahony
@conorom.bsky.social
1.1K followers 150 following 130 posts
Dean of the School of Law, University College Cork. Teaching and researching constitutional law and children's rights. Father of two. Sports fan. Hillwalker and cyclist.

https://research.ucc.ie/profiles/B012/[email protected]
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conorom.bsky.social
Conor O'Mahony @conorom.bsky.social · Nov 17
Trying to (re)build my following a bit before abandoning the other place entirely, so I'm going to post a few samples of my work to show what I'm about. Hopefully this will make connections with others with similar interests.

First up: constitutional protection of children's rights.
Cover page of 2019 article in Human Rights Law Review Cover page of article currently in press with the International Journal of Constitutional Law Cover page of 2008 article in Public Law
Reposted by Conor O'Mahony
robertsaunders.bsky.social
Just a jaw-dropping paragraph in Trevor Phillips's column for The Times.

This is a policy that, by his own account, has left parents of a particular race too frightened to walk their children to school.

And that's the example he chooses of the "vigour" we "need".
www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
"Second, we need to enforce the policy with a vigour that has reduced flows at America’s southern borders by 90 per cent, and in Denmark by 95 per cent. Crucial to the Trump programme is an aggressive policy of removals, including snatching suspected illegals off the street. One friend tells me Latino parents are now so afraid to be seen out and about that the other parents have a rota to walk the Latino children to and from school. It is hard to imagine that taking place in Britain."
November 24, 2025 at 10:52 PM
Reposted by Conor O'Mahony
theimeu.bsky.social
Over the past 2 years there have been at least 21 cases of Israeli settlers, living illegally on stolen Palestinian land, killing Palestinians with zero consequences.

Thousands of these settlers have been armed by the Israeli military.
B’Tselem: Settlers unpunished for 21 killings in West Bank ‘ethnic cleansing'
With West Bank death toll since October 2023 topping 1,000, Palestinians say ‘death is inevitable’
www.middleeasteye.net
November 25, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Reposted by Conor O'Mahony
colinmurray.bsky.social
Really important decision for the rights of gay people, who are EU citizens, moving around the EU and seeking to ensure their marriage in one Member State is recognised in another. Notably more weight placed on citizenship rights than in the AG Opinion:

curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/...
November 25, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Reposted by Conor O'Mahony
joenoonan.bsky.social
Time in Cork is always relative. #AboutNine
November 24, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Reposted by Conor O'Mahony
micchiato.bsky.social
Nothing but crickets from the Obama’s on the troubling things their former speechwriter keeps saying about hiding the Gaza genocide. This is exactly the reasoning Moms for Liberty used when they argued against teaching children the history of slavery and Jim Crow and for banning library books.
November 23, 2025 at 5:34 AM
Reposted by Conor O'Mahony
mcfaulmike.bsky.social
I’ve been in a room with Putin. He calls Ukrainians “Russians with accents.” His real fear isn’t NATO expansion, it’s democracy expansion. It shatters his entire argument for dictatorship at home. Because if Ukrainians embrace freedom, Russians may demand the same.
November 21, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Reposted by Conor O'Mahony
seanrainford.bsky.social
In this forthcoming comparative paper, I argue that India's basic structure doctrine and the finality of referendums in Ireland both play an equivalent constitutional role of taking 'final say sovereignty' away from politicians.
Pre-publication draft: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Pre-publication draft, forthcoming in International Journal of Constitutional Law Constitutional Amendment and the Final Say in Ireland and India Seán Rainford Irish and Indian approaches to constitutional amendment would appear to be chalk and cheese: Irish courts insist that the people have an unfettered right to amend tbe Constitution through referendum in any way they wish; Indian courts have beld since 1973 that Parliament cannot amend the Constitution's 'basic structure'. They thus occupy opposite poles in the form, scope, and judicial oversight of constitutional amendment pomers. However, this paper argues that when the historical context of each amendment regime is understood, a functional equivalence can be observed between the finality of referendum results in Ireland and the Indian basic structure doctrine. Before these arrangements, 'final say sovereignty' - the position of unaccountability or finality within a constitution - was held by each country's parliament and often used for authoritarian ends. The finality of the referendum in Ireland and the Indian judiciary's basic structure review power both deny parliament final say sovereignty by bolding this power themselves; in both cases, the transference of this kind of sovereignty proved decisive for consolidating law-bound government. However, the essential diferences between a referendum process and a judicial power to review amendments cannot be overlooked, and these create distinct approaches to constitutional identity. The effects of final say sovereignty for a constitution will be different depending on who wields it.
November 19, 2025 at 10:17 AM
Reposted by Conor O'Mahony
jakemgrumbach.bsky.social
I'm struck by this clip of former Obama speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz saying Holocaust education has backfired in part because people Palestinians as victims: "They think the lesson of the Holocaust is…you fight the big powerful people hurting the weak people."

www.reddit.com/r/JewsOfCons...
From the JewsOfConscience community on Reddit: Former Obama speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz speaking to the Jewish Federation and lamenting that young people are learning the wrong lessons from Holocaust e...
Explore this post and more from the JewsOfConscience community
www.reddit.com
November 18, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Reposted by Conor O'Mahony
daithig.bsky.social
Peadar was vocally behind the "spoil the vote" campaign, but I guess it's mature to be writing "hang traitors" on the ballot and colouring in a handbag.
richardgallagher.bsky.social Richard Gallagher @richardgallagher.bsky.social · 14d
Incredible that it’s always the parties that you could count their youth vote on your fingers that have this position.
November 15, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Reposted by Conor O'Mahony
joenoonan.bsky.social
Chart from the excellent Tripe & Drisheen compares planning permissions granted and units commenced.

Judicial oversight is not the problem here.

See more at link tripeanddrisheen.substack.com/p/the-friday...
Chart from the excellent Tripe & Drisheen compares planning permissions granted and units commenced.
November 14, 2025 at 8:34 AM
Reposted by Conor O'Mahony
lawucc.bsky.social
The Youth Climate Justice project UCC, funded by ERC research child and youth leadership on the climate.
They recently spoke to children & youth who attend/or have tried to attend #COP and have produced an article in the Intl Journal of Children's Rights
bit.ly/49b5DFS
November 12, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Reposted by Conor O'Mahony
mjsdc.bsky.social
New: The Supreme Court DENIES Kim Davis' request to overturn Obergefell, the marriage equality decision. No noted dissents. www.supremecourt.gov/orders/court...
DAVIS, KIM V. ERMOLD, DAVID, ET AL. The motion of Foundation for Moral Law for leave to file a brief as amicus curiae out of time is denied. The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied.
November 10, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Reposted by Conor O'Mahony
cathalmalone.bsky.social
The Government's new stated aim is to make it so unattractive for lawyers to take good cases against the State that they will stop. Not bad cases. Good ones. Successful ones. This new rule only applies if you *win* your case. Doesn't that worry anyone slightly?

m.independent.ie/irish-news/o...
Objectors will be on the hook to pay six-figure legal costs under judicial reviews clampdown
Objectors will have to foot six-figure legal bills for successful judicial review cases in a new move being brought to the Cabinet to speed up the supply of infrastructure and housing.
m.independent.ie
November 9, 2025 at 10:48 AM
Reposted by Conor O'Mahony
wesleymorgan.bsky.social
The BBC visits an IDF outpost on the eastern edge of Gaza City:

“The Gaza of maps and memories is gone, replaced by a monochrome landscape of rubble stretching flat and still for 180 degrees…there's almost nothing left to orient you here or identify the neighbourhoods.”
Inside Gaza, BBC sees total devastation after two years of war
With endless rubble and destroyed streets as far as the eye can see, any plans for Gaza's future are a far cry from where it is today, writes Lucy Williamson.
www.bbc.com
November 6, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Reposted by Conor O'Mahony
irishexaminer.bsky.social
Colin Sheridan: Israel's 'ceasefire' a placatory piece of theatre that continues its genocide
American power projecting itself is always clothed in peace, democracy, and rights, but always enforcing the very opposite, writes Colin Sheridan 
dlvr.it
November 5, 2025 at 6:51 AM
conorom.bsky.social
Excellent piece by Emma O'Kelly on the latest state of play regarding the role of religion in Irish primary schools

www.rte.ie/news/analysi...
Need for wider change over ethos of schools clear
As the Department of Education rolls out a national survey of pre and primary school parents it will want to avoid at all costs a repeat of the fiasco of 2019, when attempts to gauge the views of pare...
www.rte.ie
November 4, 2025 at 7:45 AM
Reposted by Conor O'Mahony
aldunne.bsky.social
It's upsetting to see a chart like this. A radical overhaul of Ireland's approach to road safety is needed, centred on education, enforcement, and design

#spéirgorm
EU Commission chart showing the changes in annual road deaths from 2019 to 2024. All countries are showing improvement except Estonia (+33%), Ireland (+22%) and Spain (+2%)
November 3, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Reposted by Conor O'Mahony
anneapplebaum.bsky.social
A horrific mass murder is unfolding in Sudan, where no one can see it. The RSF are murdering civilians in El Fasher, having finally defeated the Sudanese army forces holding out in the city. The BBC has managed to speak to some who escaped

www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7fC...
Sudanese survivors of el-Fasher siege tell the BBC about RSF brutality | BBC News
YouTube video by BBC News
www.youtube.com
November 1, 2025 at 7:14 AM
Reposted by Conor O'Mahony
nkalamb.bsky.social
Israel murdered at least 46 children in Gaza yesterday because of the *unexplained* death of a *soldier* in Rafah.

And this is not understood by the US et al to have violated the ‘ceasefire.’
Death toll from latest Israeli attacks on Gaza rises to 104 The Ministry of Health in Gaza reports that Israeli attacks across Gaza since last night have killed at least 104 Palestinians, including 46 children, and wounded at least 253. Since the ceasefire was agreed on October 10, at least 211 Palestinians have been killed and 597 wounded in Israeli attacks, while 482 bodies have been recovered, the ministry said. Israel’s war on Gaza has now killed at least 68,643 people and wounded 170,655 since it began in October 2023, according to the ministry’s latest figures.
October 29, 2025 at 11:16 AM
Reposted by Conor O'Mahony
implausibleblog.bsky.social
Richard Burgon, "Israel committed more war crimes last night, including the killing of 35 children. Why aren't these sanctions on Israel like we have sanctions on Russia?"

Hamish Falconer, "We're focused on the ceasefire"
October 29, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Reposted by Conor O'Mahony
nicholasgrossman.bsky.social
Systematic execution of hundreds in a hospital in Darfur, as RSF/Janjaweed take over the city of El Fasher (population ~250k) in Darfur.

That adds to an estimated 150,000+ death toll from fighting, plus many more from famine.

But Sudan is one of those places the outside world cares little about.
Sudan’s paramilitary killed hundreds including hospital patients in Darfur, residents say
Sudan’s paramilitary forces killed hundreds of people including patients in a hospital after they seized el-Fasher city in the western Darfur region over the weekend, according to the UN, displaced re...
www.ctvnews.ca
October 29, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Reposted by Conor O'Mahony
joenoonan.bsky.social
Russian commits crimes against humanity, the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine says – firstly “murder and of forcible transfer of population” and secondly, “deportations and transfers of civilians” from areas occupied by Russian forces, some of whom were tortured. news.un.org/en/story/202...
Russian army committing murder in Ukraine: Independent rights commission
Drones operated by Russian forces have repeatedly attacked Ukrainian civilians, causing deaths, injuries and large-scale destruction, independent UN human rights investigators said on Monday.
news.un.org
October 29, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Reposted by Conor O'Mahony
nanjala.bsky.social
“Ceasefire”.
apnews.com The Associated Press @apnews.com · Oct 29
BREAKING: The Israeli military says the ceasefire in Gaza is back in effect after it carried out heavy airstrikes across the Palestinian territory. The death toll from the overnight strikes climbed to 81, according to hospital officials.
Israeli strikes overnight in Gaza kill at least 60 people, including children, local officials say
Israeli strikes overnight in Gaza have killed at least 60 people, including many children. That's according to local hospital officials on Wednesday.
bit.ly
October 29, 2025 at 10:42 AM
Reposted by Conor O'Mahony
leesaunders72.bsky.social
Icymi.

This is how Israel ceasefires.
October 29, 2025 at 10:02 AM
Reposted by Conor O'Mahony
profpech.bsky.social
Speaking of which: "I do not believe that AI is a solution to time and resource pressures, not least because of the number of mistakes it makes, which mean that any work generated in this matter has to be thoroughly and carefully checked..."

freemovement.org.uk/two-more-imm...
October 29, 2025 at 11:58 AM