Gene Carolan awarded the NUI EJ Phelan Fellowship in International LawGene Carolan—a PhD candidate in International Law and Peace Studies at Maynooth University Department of Law—was recently awarded the NUI EJ Phelan Fellowship in International Law at a ceremony at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham.
The EJ Phelan Fellowship lends financial support and prestige to a doctoral candidate of proven academic excellence at an advanced stage of their studies in International Law. The Fellowship is intended to support research projects that will produce a substantial contribution to existing knowledge.
Edward J Phelan was an Irish pioneer of international law, having served as a delegate to the negotiations of the Treaty of Versailles (which brought an end to the First World War), and as Director-General of the International Labour Office during the course of the Second World War. The Fellowship in his name is funded by a special bequest from the late EJ Phelan and his wife, and was first awarded by the National University of Ireland in 2002. This is the first time that the Maynooth University has received the award.
Having previously been awarded a Maynooth University Scholarship in the name of John & Pat Hume (whose contribution to peace-making on the island of Ireland needs no introduction), Gene found it particularly pertinent to lend EJ Phelan’s name to his research, which grapples with the same challenges of peace and conflict that Phelan himself faced in his career as an international public servant.
Gene’s doctoral thesis is proceeding under the supervision of Dr. John Reynolds, who is himself a previous recipient of the EJ Phelan Fellowship. His research critically evaluates the protracted peace processes in the Sudan, the Philippines and Sierra Leone with a view to identifying the legal mechanisms that contribute to peace agreement stability.
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He lectures on Legal Research Methods at undergraduate level at Maynooth University Department of Law.