The other five people appointed to the Council of State by the president are: Fionnuala Ní Aoláin; Kathleen Lynch; Donncha O’Connell; Conor O’Mahony and Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh.
Professor Fionniuala Ní Aoláin is an international law and human rights expert and is currently Professor of Law at QUB.
She has held visiting positions at a number of universities, including Harvard Law School, Yale University, Princeton University and the Geneva Academy in Switzerland.
Kathleen Lynch is a sociologist and Professor of Equality Studies (Emerita) at University College Dublin (UCD) where she has also held a Senior Lectureship in Education.
She also served as a member of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission.
Conor O’Mahony is Professor of Law and Dean of the School of Law at University College Cork and his teaching and research focuses on constitutional law and children’s rights.
Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh is a former president of the University of Galway, the Irish county from which President Connolly is from.
Donncha O’Connell is an Established Professor of Law at University of Galway and served two terms as a Commissioner of the Law Reform Commission.
He was also a member of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland and a board member of the Legal Aid Board.
