Volume 8 Issue 1 Foreword by Dr Caoimhín MacMaoláin [Page

By Dr Caomhín MacMaoláin, Head of the Law School, Trinity College Dublin

Welcome back! Two words that have been a long time coming. It is great that you are back. And it is set to get even better!

I know that there was much disappointment at the overall quantity of personal teaching initially delivered. There were a number of good reasons behind this. TCD took the decision shortly before the semester commenced, that it would put the health of students and staff above all other considerations. Social distancing of one metre would have to be maintained as a key feature of this policy. I believe that it has worked as well as could be expected in the circumstances.

Our Fresh year students have suffered most heavily as the result of this decision. Classrooms and lecture theatres are simply not large enough to accommodate everybody, taking account of social distancing. We have provided extra lectures where we can. Seminars will continue to be run face to face.

This is not the ideal University experience, a fact that we all appreciate. We will continue to do everything that we can in the management of the Law School and College to ensure that opportunities for the usual teaching and learning are maximised wherever possible.

As we all know, this Covid pandemic was, in general, unforeseen. It and its consequences were unpredicted. As I write this foreword, the news media are reporting that positive cases and hospitalisations due to the virus remain stubbornly high. There is even talk of delaying the lifting of some restrictions until some time after October 22. And it is this date, in particular, that we as a Law School and a College community have had etched in our minds for the past few months. This was due to be the date on which most things could get back to their ’normal’, pre-pandemic state. Sadly, we can not put on a full schedule of face to face activities for this semester, even after this date. To do this would require that every school in College tear up their timetables and restart from scratch after reading week. All of the teaching rooms in College would have to be reallocated. This isn’t possible, but we will do everything that we can within these limitations. We do sincerely hope that all teaching will be in-person and in-full for the second semester of this academic year and a near-full sense of normality, learning and enjoyment of College life can be properly resumed.

Compensating somewhat for this, is the fact that the student law societies have some fantastic plans for events throughout this coming year. I can not disclose what these are, but their initial planning and ambition demonstrate that there will be many opportunities for all law students to have great experiences, despite the restrictions of the pandemic. The Law School is also pressing ahead with the Student Colloquium, valedictory evening, graduations and a host of other (usual and new) events to be announced throughout the year. Again, these will become more commonplace during the second semester and, to a lesser extent, during the second half of the first semester, assuming that public health progress continues.

Having recently taken up my new position as Head of the Law School, I am eager for the dust to settle on these outstanding covid-related issues, so that we can together create the space to implement any changes that our Law School may need. I have sought out the opinions of students on what we could do differently and I have received some very progressive, ingenious and readily-implementable suggestions. I hope that we see many

of these come to fruition.

The past eighteen months have been fraught with sadness, inconvenience, loneliness and constraint. With hope, we can enter this new academic year with the promise of better days, ready to move on to face down the other significant personal and Global challenges of this era. As lawyers, we are well placed to make positive contributions to our student body and to the college as a whole. If we do so, the credit in large part will go to you, our students, the life-blood of the university.