Dr Sinéad Ring

    Law

    Associate Professor

    New House
    209
    (01) 4747776

    Biography

    Dr Ring is an Associate Professor in Law at the School of Law and Criminology. 

    Dr Ring's research explores legal and institutional responses to sexual violence. She is the author of numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and is lead author of Child Sexual Abuse Reported by Adult Survivors: Legal Responses in England and Wales, Ireland and Australia (Routledge, 2022; 2024).  Head of Abuse Law at Slater and Gordon, Richard Scorer, described the book as "a key text for academics and practitioners in this field."  In 2020 Dr Ring was appointed by the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee TD for a statutory five year term to the Sentencing Guidelines and Information Committee of the Judicial Council. 

    In 2019 Dr Ring co-authored the Framework for Consent in Irish Higher Education Institutions. https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/678fee-framework-for-consent-in-higher-education-institutions-safe which sets out a new vision of how Irish HEIs can combat sexual violence and harassment against students. Dr Ring continues this work with the Higher Education Authority and at Maynooth University where she chairs the University's Consent Framework Implementation Group.

    Dr Ring is a member of the editorial board of the leading international journal, Social and Legal Studies.

    Dr Ring teaches The Law of Evidence and  Gender Sexuality and Law to undergraduates.  She designed the first and only postgraduate law course on questions of justice for historical gendered human rights abuses. Historical Gendered Violence and the State is available to all MA and LLM students. 

    Dr Ring has supervised numerous postgraduate students:  including Dr Antonia Porter ("Prosecuting Domestic Abuse in England and Wales: Feminism, Neoliberalism and the Survivor's Voice" (2018) and Dr Aravinda Kosaraju, "Attrition in Cases involving Child Sexual Exploitation in England". She is currently supervising four PhD students: 

    Chloë Cass, "Left Out in the Cold: The Vulnerable Plaintiff in the Civil System" (funded by The Irish Research Council)

     
    Kate Duffy, "Ireland's Surveillance Society: How Surveillance Practices Contributed to the Gendered Oppression of Irish Women." (with Dr Ciara Bracken-Roche). (funded by the School of Law and Criminology's Doctoral Scholarship)

    Kim McLoughlin,"Exploring Responses to Sexual Violence in Ireland though the Lens of Narrative Activism". (with Claire Hamilton) 

    Sinéad Smart, "Does the Gender of the Judge affect Sentencing in Cases of Rape?"  (with Claire Hamilton) 

    Dr Ring welcomes potential research students in sexual violence and the law; law and gender; feminist legal studies; criminal law; the law of evidence and criminal justice. 

    Sinéad is happy to answer media queries about criminal law and evidence, criminal justice and sexual violence. 


    She is a  graduate of University College Cork (BCL (Law and German), LLM (Criminal Justice) and PhD. Her doctoral studies were funded by the Irish Research Council. Prior to joining Maynooth, Dr Ring was a Senior Lecturer and Co-Director of Graduate Studies at Kent Law School, University of Kent at Canterbury. She has also taught at University of Galway and University College Cork, and has held visiting positions at Osgoode Hall, Harvard Law School, Melbourne Law School and University of Technology, Sydney.

    Research Interests

    Sinéad’s research explores how law creates social, cultural and political meanings about historical child sexual abuse for victim-survivors, perpetrators, institutional actors, and society. Using insights from psychology, political theory and criminology, her work unpacks law’s discursive power (in civil and criminal law and in commissions of inquiry), and imagines better legal responses to historical child sexual abuse.  Sinéad’s research on historical child sexual abuse has been funded by the Irish Research Council and the Socio Legal Studies Association. She has published in numerous international journals including The International Journal of Evidence and Proof and Social and Legal Studiesand edited collections.  

    Sinéad is also interested in legal responses to sexual violence against adults. The first strand of this work is around the role of law in the production of knowledge about sexual violence. She has published on the admission of counselling and therapeutic records in rape trials, and on the notion of consent to sexual intercourse in Irish law. The second strand of this work relates to the role of employment and anti-discrimination law in combatting sexual misconduct in higher education. At the University of Kent Sinéad was instrumental in the design of institution-wide policies on responding to and preventing sexual violence against students, and in successfully bidding for Higher Education Funding Council for England funds to support implementation of these polices. In November 2018 Sinéad was appointed by Minister for Higher Education Mary Mitchell O’Connor, T.D. to the Expert Advisory Group on Ending Sexual Violence and Harassment in Irish Higher Education Institutions. The group’s report, Safe, Respectful, Supportive and Positive. Ending Sexual Violence and Harassment in Irish Higher Education Institutionswas published in April 2019 and is available online here. The Report provides a framework for sectoral change to foster positive institutional cultures of respect, dignity and integrity that are effective in tackling sexual misconduct.  Sinéad is an editorial board member of feminists@law, an online open access journal of feminist legal scholarship (available online here).  

    Sinéad is happy to supervise research students working in the following areas: institutional violence and the State; sexual violence and the law; law and gender; feminist legal studies; criminal law; evidence law and criminal justice.       

    Research Projects

    Title Role Description Start date End date Amount
    Sexual Experience Evidence and the Rape Trial PI This project will be submitted under strand 1a of the New Foundations Scheme 16/12/2022 15/09/2023 11999
    Thematic Analysis of Universities' Procedures on Sexual Harassment and Sexual Violence involving Students and Staff. Principal Investigator This project is a research tool for Dr Ring to use in her ongoing work in relation to institutional responses to sexual violence and sexual harassment in higher education institutions. The researcher will perform a thematic analysis of the policies and procedures identified in VP EDI funded project. 01/02/2022 28/02/2022 527
    Comparative Examination of University and HEI Policies and Procedures on Sexual Harassment and Sexual Violence involving Students and Staff Principal Investigator The project seeks to support Dr Ring’s work in identifying areas of best practice for the evolving area of policies and procedures relating to the handling of complaints relating to sexual violence and sexual harassment involving students at universities. Creating innovative and trauma-informed procedures for responding to complaints of sexual violence and harassment against staff and students is a key objective of Maynooth University’s work around creating a more equal and inclusive campus, and furthers its work in relation to implementing sectoral level guidance in this area. Specifically it will involve: 1. -identifying relevant policies and procedures, through internet searches and focused email contact with relevant university personnel. 2. -creating a searchable database of these policies and procedures using Excel, which will be saved on MU One Drive for use by Dr Ring and colleagues in the EDI office. 3. - identifying relevant academic texts on the topic, primarily using institutional research databases and creating a database of these texts. 4. - writing up a literature review of the key academic texts on this topic. 01/01/2022 31/03/2022 1318
    Transitional Justice Processes as Archives of Collective Memory. The Case of Institutional Child Abuse. Principal Investigator Scholars have long been sceptical of the ability of transitional justice mechanisms such as truth commissions to establish a historical record of contested pasts (Arendt; Turner). This project seeks to engage with that literature by exploring what it might mean to think about legal processes dealing with historical violence as institutional archives of collective memory. Located at the intersection of transitional justice, the law of evidence, memory studies and critical archival studies, this project seeks to understand the Canadian experience of reckoning with revelations of abuse of children in Indian residential schools and to identify lessons for Ireland. Institutional abuse of children entered the public discourse in Ireland earnest in the 1990s when people began speaking about their experiences. The State was forced to respond following the outcry provoked by the States of Fear documentary (Raftery) which exposed systematic abuse of children in the former industrial and reformatory school system. In May 1999, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern apologised for the State and its citizens’ “collective failure to intervene, to detect their pain, to come to their rescue,” and promised to learn the lessons of the past. These promises took legal form with the creation of a statutory Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse in 2000 and a Residential Institutions Redress Board in 2002. During the course their work, the Commission and the Redress Board received the testimonies of 15,367 survivors. The Commission’s final report found that sexual abuse was endemic in boys’ industrial schools and that there was pervasive neglect, physical and emotional abuse against boys and girls. It also found that the State failed to protect children in industrial and reformatory Schools. However, despite their significant findings, they have been criticised for failing to achieve full truth recovery or accountability (McAlinden; Pine et al). The State has yet to act on the first recommendation of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse: that a memorial to survivors of institutional abuse be created. It is not clear what will happen to the testimony of survivors who participated in these processes. This project seeks to answer the question of what comes next, now that the Commission and the Redress Board have concluded their vital work? How might the Irish State, and Irish society, begin the process of fostering a collective memory of historical institutional abuse? How might the State create new epistemic frames for hearing the experiences of survivors and for facilitating survivors in communicating their experiences of abuse - and of survival and healing - are fully articulated in all of their complexity? How do we bear witness to our dark past so that it is never repeated? The project forges a new path of scholarship to imagine the afterlives of transitional justice processes to deal with institutional child abuse. It investigates whether these processes can be understood as institutional archives of collective memory, that have reparative and truth-telling functions extending beyond the conclusion of the formal legal process. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada documented the impacts of the Indian residential schools system on Indigenous students and their families. It found that a cultural genocide had been perpetrated through the system and that sexual, emotional and physical abuse was widespread. Building on my previous work on epistemic justice the project will explore the ways in which Canada, has listened to survivors (testimonial justice) and provided appropriate frameworks within which survivors can be heard (hermeneutical justice), including giving voice to marginalised experiences and subjugated knowledges, such as those concerning the intersection of racialised identities and institutional abuse. In particular this research will map the legal landscape surrounding the preservation of testimony. Survivors gave evidence to the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission on an absolutely confidential basis, meaning that their testimony could not be opened to scholars or the public. However, in 2017 the Supreme Court of Canada held, in the case of Canada (Attorney General) v La Fontaine [2017] 2 SCR 205, that survivors could choose to deposit their testimony to the Commission with an archive in the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. This Centre is based at the University of Manitoba and the University of Ottawa. A key question for this project is how La Fontaine is being interpreted by lawyers and archivists in Canada, and how lawyers are working with archivists and survivor-activists to navigate issues of sourcing, privacy, redaction, archiving and access, as well how the archive of survivor testimony is presented to the wider public. A visit to the Law Faculty at Ottawa and to the archives of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation will allow me to interview relevant academic and practitioner lawyers and activist-survivors. Professor Cameron has promised to provide introductions to these stakeholders. I will also consult the archives and libraries of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at Ottawa and Manitoba. While some of these archives are online, key scholarly and legal texts are not. This research will make an important contribution to transitional justice scholarship on institutional abuse and to the emerging field of law and archive studies (Genovese et al). It will open up new interdisciplinary conversations about how the Irish State can recognise and honour the experiences of institutional abuse survivors and educate present and future generations about this painful chapter in our history. References Arendt, H. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. Penguin, 2009. Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. Final Report. Government Publications, 2009. Genovese, A. et al, The Court as Archive. ANU Press, 2019. McAlinden, A M. “An Inconvenient Truth: Barriers to Truth Recovery in the Aftermath of Institutional Child Abuse in Ireland.” Legal Studies 3 (2013): 189-214. Pine, E et al. “Re-Reading the Ryan Report. Witnessing Via Close and Distant Reading.” Eire-Ireland: A Journal of Irish Studies 52.1-2 (2017): 198-215. Raftery, M. States of Fear. Radió Teilifís Éireann, 1999. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future. 2015. Turner, C. Violence, Law and the Impossibility of Transitional Justice. Routledge, 2017. 01/11/2021 31/03/2022 2500
    Transitional Justice and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Principal Investigator 01/01/2021 31/12/2022 1000
    The Prosecution of Historical Child Sexual Abuse in Ireland. Principal Investigator 48000
    Violence against Wo/men on Campus Project. University of Kent Co-Investigator https://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/documents/commons-committees/women-and-equalities/Correspondence/180706-Office-for-Students-Sexual-harassment-higher-education.pdf 01/06/2017 31/05/2017 50000
    Is Redemption Possible Here? Law and Non-Recent Child Sexual Abuse. Principal Investigator 01/01/2017 31/12/2018 2500
    Wilful Ignorance? Exploring the Irish State's Failure to Protect Children From Sexual Abuse 1950-1990 Principal Investigator This study will investigate the Irish State’s engagement with child sexual abuse from 1950-1990. Until recently child sexual abuse victims in Ireland who sought to report were not believed. In the 1990s a change in public awareness and attitudes towards victims led to unprecedented numbers of prosecutions for sexual abuse dating back decades. The frame of the project is complicity; how to talk about the blame, if any, to be attributed to criminal justice actors who turned a blind eye to abuse. It will explore how child abuse was understood by the State, as evidenced by a range of documentary sources relating to policy formation and implementation, legislative initiatives, social work, medical and legal texts and reports of inquiries. Feminist critiques of criminal law will be employed to investigate tensions between perceptions of child sexual abuse as constituting a ‘real harm’ that needs to be dealt with by criminal law, and perceptions of it as a matter of morality that should be dealt with by the Catholic Church. Particular attention will be paid to evidence of deference by the police to the Church. The research builds on Sinéad’s doctorate, part of which documented and explored victims’ testimony to Irish courts on how their contemporaneous attempts to report were frustrated by figures of State authority: police officers, social workers and teachers. The courts have erased these stories and have blamed the delay on individual defendants (Ring: 2013). They have not acknowledged the State’s failure over decades to protect victims, but have decided that officials were ignorant of sexual abuse. This narrative of ignorance persists, despite the findings of tribunals of inquiry that the State covered up and ignored abuse in institutional settings (Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Sexual Abuse (2009); Report of the Commission of Investigation into the Dublin Archdiocese (2011)), and a public apology by the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) to victims on behalf of the State. This study interrogates the narrative of ignorance by locating it in the context of State actors’ understanding of sexual abuse. The insights gained from this research will inform academic and public debates on the State’s relationship to the past and on how to enforce the criminal law on sexual abuse. 01/11/2016 01/06/2017 1767
    Porter PhD. Prosecuting Domestic Violence in England and Wales PhD supervisor 01/09/2014 30/07/2018 50000
    Law and Society Conference Principal Investigator Funding for Law and Society Association Conference, USA> 01/05/2011 01/07/2011 1000
    Research Visit at Harvard Law School Principal Investigator 01/03/2010 01/08/2010 1500
    PhD Project Year 1. Due Process and Historic Child Sexual Abuse Principal Investigator 01/10/2007 30/09/2008 24000
    Left Out in The Cold. The Vulnerable Plaintiff in the Irish Civil System - Chloe Cass PI 01/09/2023 01/09/2025 61000

    Book

    Year Publication
    2022 Ring S.; Gleeson K.; Stevenson K. (2022) Child Sexual Abuse Reported by Adult Survivors: Legal Responses in England and Wales, Ireland and Australia. [DOI]

    Peer Reviewed Journal

    Year Publication
    2023 Lynsey Black and Sinéad Ring (2023) 'Historical Gendered Institutional Violence: A Research Agenda for Criminologists'. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 39 (1):17-37. [Link] [DOI] [Full-Text]
    2022 Sinéad Ring (2022) 'Applications to halt the trial of charges of non-recent child sexual abuse. The People (D.P.P.) v. C.Ce [2019] I.E.S.C. 94'. Irish Supreme Court Review, 3 . [Link] [Full-Text]
    2021 Kate Gleeson; Sinéad Ring (2021) 'Confronting the past and changing the future? Public inquiries into institutional child abuse, Ireland and Australia'. Griffith Law Review, 29 (1):109-133. [DOI] [Full-Text]
    2020 Mairead Enright; Sinéad Ring (2020) 'State Legal Responses to Historical Institutional Abuse: Shame, Sovereignty, and Epistemic Injustice'. Eire-Ireland; a journal of Irish studies, 55 (1 & 2):68-100. [Link] [DOI] [Full-Text]
    2017 Sinéad Ring (2017) 'Trauma and the construction of suffering in Irish historical child sexual abuse prosecutions'. International Journal For Crime, Justice And Social Democracy, 6 (3):88-103. [DOI] [Full-Text]
    2017 Sinéad Ring (2017) 'The Victim of Historical Child Sexual Abuse in the Irish Courts 1999–2006'. Social and Legal Studies, 26 (5):562-580. [DOI] [Full-Text]
    2015 Sinéad Ring (2015) '“Sexual Offence Complainants and Credibility: Why Virginity Testing is Pointless. R v L [2015] EWCA Crim 741.”'. Journal of Criminal Law, 79 (6):385-388. [Link] https://doi.org/10.1177/0022018315619268 [Full-Text]
    2015 Enright, M., Conway, V., De Londras, F. , Fletcher, R., McGuinness, S., Ui Chonnachtaigh, S., McDonnell, N. Murray, C., Ring, S., Donnelly, M. (2015) 'Abortion Law in Ireland: A Model for Change'. Feminists at Law, 5 (1):1-32. https://doi.org/10.22024/UniKent/03/fal.173 [Full-Text]
    2015 Enright, M. ; Conway, V.; De Londras, F.; Fletcher, R.; McGuinness, S.; Ui Chonnachtaigh, S.; McDonnell, N.; Murray, C.; Ring, S. and Donnelly, M. (2015) 'General Scheme of Access to Abortion Bill”'. Feminists at Law, 5 (1):18-50. [Link] https://doi.org/10.22024/UniKent/03/fal.174 [Full-Text]
    2014 Ring, Sinéad (2014) 'Analysing 'Fairness in Context' in Historic Child Sexual Abuse Prohibition Applications'. Irish Criminal Law Journal, 23 (4):132-141. [Full-Text]
    2012 Ring, Sinéad (2012) 'Due Process and the Admission of Expert Evidence on Recovered Memory in Historic Child Sexual Abuse Cases: Lessons from America'. International Journal of Evidence and Proof, 16 (1). https://doi.org/10.1350/ijep.2012.16.1.392 [Full-Text]
    2009 Ring, Sinéad (2009) 'Beyond the Reach of Justice? Complainant Delay in Historic Child Sexual Abuse Cases and the Right to a Fair Trial.”'. Judicial Studies Institute Journal, 2 :162-203. [Link] [Full-Text]

    Book Chapter

    Year Publication
    2022 Máiréad Enright and Sinéad Ring (2022) 'State Legal Responses to Historical Institutional Abuse: Shame, Sovereignty and Epistemic Injustice' In: Redress: Ireland and Justice in Transition. Dublin : UCD Press. [Link]
    2019 Ring S.; Enright M. (2019) 'State shame, sovereignty, and legal responses to historical institutional abuse' In: Philosophical Perspectives on Contemporary Ireland.
    2018 Sinéad Ring (2018) '‘Our most precious possession of all.’ The Survivor of Historical Child Sexual Abuse as the Ideal Victim?”' In: Revisiting the Ideal Victim Concept. Developments in Critical Victimology. Bristol : Bristol University Press. [Link]
    2018 Sinéad Ring (2018) 'On ‘delay’ and ‘duration’. Law’s Temporal Orders in Historical Child Sexual Abuse Cases' In: Law and Time. London : Routledge. [Link] https://www.routledge.com/Law-and-Time/Beynon-Jones-Grabham/p/book/9780367665302
    2017 Eilionóir Flynn and Sinéad Ring (2017) 'DPP v C. A Feminist Judgment on Consent in Rape Law' In: Northern/Irish Feminist Judgments. Judges' Troubles and the Gendered Politics of Identity. London : Bloomsbury. [Link]

    Other Journal

    Year Publication
    2014 Sinéad Ring (2014) 'The Pernicious Nature of Rape Myths and how they continue to Affect Rape Prosecutions' Feminists at Law, 4 (1) . [Link] https://doi.org/10.22024/UniKent/03/fal.103
    2009 Sinéad Ring (2009) 'Justice Denied? An Analysis of the Difficulties facing Applicants for Prohibition in Delayed Prosecutions for Child Sexual Abuse' First Law Criminal Law Online, . [Link]
    2006 Sinéad Ring (2006) 'Collateral Challenges to a Declaration of Unconstitutionality: A v Governor of Arbour Hill Prison [2006] IESC 45”' Schools of tomorrow, 14 :245-254. [Full-Text]

    Published Report

    Year Publication
    2020 Tony McMahon and Sinéad Ring (2020) Irish Universities Association Guidance for Universities. How to Respond to Alleged Staff or Student or University Related Sexual Misconduct. Irish Universities Association, . [Link] [Full-Text]
    2019 A. Looney, T. Browne, S. Cahill, L. Crowley, D. McLean, A. Power, P. MacNeela, S. Ring, C. Saidléar, (2019) Safe Respectful, Supportive and Positive. Ending Sexual Violence and Harassment in Irish Higher Education Institutions. Government of Ireland, . [Link] [Full-Text]
    2019 His Honour P. Rook (Chair); A. Rafferty; I. Bing; A. Rothwell; C. Yates; C. Rose; D. Calvert-Smith, D.; G. Akerman; J. Faure Walker; L. Tapper; L. Orrett; M. Lamb; N. Barnard; N. Lankey; P. Carter; V. Baird; S. Ring; T. Dempster, T.; V. Dow; T. Desai, T. (Rapporteur) (2019) Prosecuting Sexual Offences. JUSTICE, . [Link] [Full-Text]
    2006 Sinéad Ring (2006) Prosecution Appeals and Pre-Trial Hearings (LRC 81-2006). Law Reform Commission, . https://publications.lawreform.ie/Portal/External/en-GB/RecordView/Index/36050 [Full-Text]
    2004 Glen Gibbons and Sinead Ring (2004) A Fiscal Prosecutor and a Revenue Court (LRC 2004). Law Reform Commission, . https://publications.lawreform.ie/Portal/External/en-GB/RecordView/Index/35306 [Full-Text]

    Conference Publication

    Year Publication
    2009 Sinéad Ring (2009) Perspectives on Sex Offending: the Victim and the Offender Allegations of Sex Offending and the Rights of the Accused [Link]

    Conference Contribution

    Year Publication
    2023 Sinéad Ring (2023) Taking Survivors Seriously: What Practitioners can Learn from the Law's Engagement with Adults Reporting Childhood Sexual Abuse International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect Online international webinar, .
    2023 Sinéad Ring (2023) Conference on Redress for Child Abuse Association of Personal Injury Lawyers London, .
    2022 Sinéad Ring (2022) Christie's Ideal Victim and The Survivor of Non-Recent Child Sexual Abuse Lecture to Critical Victimology MA University of Limerick, 29/11/2022-29/11/2022.
    2021 Sinéad Ring (2021) Current Developments in the law and policy on sexual violence Presentation to Irish Prison Service Smithfield, .
    2021 Sinéad Ring (2021) Reflections on Irish Universities' Implemention of the Consent Framework Invited keynote for event on the National Consent Framework organised by NUIG Vice President for Equality Diversity and Inclusion Prof Ann Scott NUI Galway, .
    2020 Sinéad Ring (2020) Legal Responses to Historical Child Sexual Abuse International Women's Day Spotlight on Gender, Feminist and Sexuality Research at Maynooth University Maynooth University, .
    2020 Sinéad Ring (2020) Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment in Irish Universities University of Birmingham Gender Research Group Virtual, .
    2020 Sinéad Ring (2020) Effective Procedures for Reporting and Investigating Reports of Sexual Misconduct against Students Panel Discussion - Consent at Maynooth University. Virtual Panel with Students Virtual, .
    2020 Sinéad Ring (2020) Discussant Maynooth University International Women's Day Event. Meet the Silence Breaker Laura Madden Maynooth University, 05/03/2020-.
    2019 Sinéad Ring (2019) Public Lecture to Celebrate 20 Anniversary of Brussels School of International Studies Stealthing and the Criminal Law Brussels School of International Studies, .
    2019 Sinéad Ring (2019) Child Abuse Inquiries- Law, Justice, Records and the Creation of Public History Irish Association of Law Teachers Conference Limerick, 22/11/2019-24/11/2019.
    2019 Sinéad Ring (2019) Launch of UCC Bystander Intervention Programme Launch of UCC Bystander Intervention programme University College Cork, .
    2018 Sinéad Ring (2018) #MeToo and the Rape Shield in Evidence Law Dublin City University International Workshop on Law of Evidence and Criminal Procedure Dublin City University, .
    2018 Sinéad Ring (2018) The 20th Century as the Children's Century Historical Child Sexual Abuse and Trauma and the Nation's Duty to Remember University of Warwick, .
    2018 Sinéad Ring (2018) Dublin Honours Magdalenes Event at Mansion House Dublin Mansion House, .
    2018 Máiréad Enright and Sinéad Ring (2018) Exploring the notion of shame in legal and political responses to historical gender based violence.” NUI Galway Research Seminar Series NUI Galway, .
    2018 Sinéad Ring (2018) Understanding New Rape Cultures Universities Efforts to end Sexual Violence against Students University College Dublin, .
    2018 Sinead Ring (2018) Resisting the Harms of ‘Innocence’ through Memories: an alternative histo- ry of child sexual abuse in Ireland Irish Conference of Historians. Sex Sexuality and Reproduction. Historical Perspectives University College Cork, 26/04/2018-28/04/2018.
    2018 Máiread Enright and Sinéad Ring (2018) “Shame, Sovereignty and Irish Legal Responses to Historical State Violence” Boston College International Conference on Transitional Justice, Truth-telling, and the Legacy of Institutional Abus Boston, USA, .
    2017 Sinead Ring (2017) “Historical Child Sexual Abuse Inquiries and the Nation's Duty to Remember: Reflections from Ireland. Conference: Is there a Democratic Deficit in Archives? Northumbria University: Archival Accountability Gap- Is Is There a Democratic Deficit in Archives? Northumbria University, 24/01/2017-26/01/2017. [Full-Text]
    2016 Sinead Ring (2016) State Complicity in Historic Child Sexual Abuse in Ireland University of Technology Sydney Faculty of Law Seminar Series Sydney Australia, .
    2016 Sinéad Ring and Clíona Saidléar (2016) Rape survivors access to abortion Abortion: the unfinished revolution Belfast, .
    2016 Sinéad Ring and Gethin Rees (2016) The Co-Production and Destabilisation of Rape Trauma Syndrome Institute for Advanced Legal Studies Workshop. Valuing Expertise: Legal, Normative and Social Dimensions Institute for Advanced Legal Studies, 20/09/2016-20/09/2016.
    2016 Sinéad Ring and Clíona Saidléar (2016) “Access to Abortion and the Needs of Survivors of Sexual Violence in Ireland” University of Ulster: Abortion and Reproductive Justice - the Unfinished Revolution II University of Ulster, 02/06/2016-02/06/2016.
    2015 Sinéad Ring (2015) Is Redemption Possible Here? Developing an Ethics of Memory for Historical Childhood Sexual Abuse in ireland Melbourne Law School Research Series Melbourne, Australia, .
    2015 Sinead Ring (2015) Researching Child Sexual Abuse in the Archives”, School of Law and Government, Dublin City University, Ireland, 11 November, 2015. chives”, School of Law and Government, Dublin City University, Irelan School of Law and Government, Dublin City University Dublin City University, .
    2015 Sinéad Ring (2015) Expert Evidence under the Microscope Trauma as a Legal Category University of Southampton, .
    2015 Sinéad Ring (2015) The Juridification of Trauma in Delayed Child Sexual Abuse Prosecutions Institute for Criminal Justice Research, University of Southampton. Expert Evidence under the Microscope Institute for Criminal Justice Research, University of Southampton, 22/11/2014-.
    2015 Sinead Ring (2015) The EU Victims' Directive and Adult Victims of Childhood Sexual Abuse University of Limerick Conference on the EU Victims' Directive University of Limerick, 11/09/2017-.
    2013 Sinéad Ring (2013) North South Criminology Conference Trauma in Historical Child Sexual Abuse Prosecutions University College Cork, .
    2011 Sinead Ring (2011) Expert Evidence on Recovered Memory in Historic Child Sexual Abuse Cases Law and Society Association Conference San Francisco, .
    2010 Sinead Ring (2010) Repressed Memory Syndrome and the Role of Experts in Historic Child Sexual Abuse Prosecutions Harvard Law School Graduate Workshop Boston, 09/04/2010-.
    2010 Sinead Ring (2010) Constitutional Due Process and Reliability Determinations Regarding Expert Testimony on Recovered Memories of Child Sexual Abuse Irish Association of Law Teachers Conference Limerick, .
    2009 Sinead Ring (2009) Feminist Constructions of Credibility; Is a Complainant Always a Victim? Sibéal Gender and Women's Studies Network, UCD UCD, .
    2009 Sinead Ring (2009) When is a Victim a Feminist's Victim? Society of Legal Scholars Conference Keele, .
    2009 Sinead Ring (2009) The Incorporation of Victims' Experiences in Historic Child Sexual Abuse Prosecutions Socio Legal Studies Association Leicester, .
    2008 Sinead Ring (2008) Recalibrating the Scales of Justice North-South Criminology Conference DIT, .
    2008 Sinead Ring (2008) Balance, Delay and Due Process: How Balancing talk Affects Due Process in Delayed Prosecutions for Child Sexual Abuse Criminal Justice in Crisis, University of Aberdeen Aberdeen, .
    2006 Sinead Ring (2006) Justice in Transition: Where to now for judicial sentencing discretion? European Society of Criminology Annual Conference Tuebingen, .

    Book Review

    Year Publication
    2010 Ring, Sinéad (2010) General Principles of Law in the Decisions of International Criminal Courts and Tribunals by Raimondo, Fabian.”. Netherlands: [Book Review] [Link]

    Editorial

    Year Publication
    2013 Sarah Keenan and Sinéad Ring (2013) A Response to the LSE Event “Is Rape Different?”. [Editorial] [Link] https://doi.org/10.22024/UniKent/03/fal.80

    Consultancy

    Year Publication
    2022 Sinéad Ring (2022) Extraction of Victims' Digital Data in Sexual Offences Investigations. [Consultancy]

    Policy Contribution

    Year Publication
    2020 Sinéad Ring (2020) In-person presentation to Minister for Higher and Further Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris T.D. Developing Appropriate Policies and Procedures to Respond to Sexual Misconduct in Higher Education Institutions. [Policy Contribution]
    2019 Eileen Molloy and Sinéad Ring (2019) Submission to the Oireachtas Committee on the Retention of Records Bill 2019. [Policy Contribution] [Link]
    2019 Máiread Enright; Maeve O'Rourke and Sinéad Ring (2019) Submission to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills on the Retention of Records Bill 2019. [Policy Contribution] [Link]
    2019 C. O' Mahony, F Logue, M O'Rourke, J. Gallen, E. Daly, M. Enright, S. Ring, R. McMahon, L. Cahillane (2019) Legal Opinion. Opinion on the application of the Irish Constitution and EU General Data Protection Regulation to the Adoption (Information and Tracing) Bill 2016 and the Government’s ‘Options for Consideration’ dated 5th November 2019. [Policy Contribution] [Link] [Full-Text]
    2019 Vicky Conway and Sinéad Ring (2019) Submission to Department of Justice's Review of Part 4 of the Sexual Offences Act 2017. [Policy Contribution]
    2016 Enright, M. ; Conway, V.; De Londras, F.; Fletcher, R.; McGuinness, S.; Ui Chonnachtaigh, S.; McDonnell, N.; Murray, C.; Ring, S. and Donnelly, M. (2016) Submission to the Citizens’ Assembly of Ireland Regarding a Proposed Model Law on Abortion. [Policy Contribution] [Link] https://2016-2018.citizensassembly.ie/en/Submissions/Eighth-Amendment-of-the-Constitution/Submissions-Received/
    2013 Helen Carr, Per Laleng, Rosemary Hunter, Sinead Ring, Elaine Sherratt, Richard Warren, Lucy Welsh , Sheona York (2013) Proposed Reforms of Legal Aid in the UK. Response to Consultation by Kent Law School. Kent: [Policy Contribution] [Link]

    Invited Lectures

    Year Publication
    2022 Sinéad Ring (2022) State Shame, Sovereignty and Legal Responses to Historical Institutional Abuse. [Invited Lectures]
    2014 Sinead Ring (2014) Universidad de Castilla la Mancha. Feminist Activism and Scholarship in the UK in 2014. [Invited Lectures]

    Invited Seminars

    Year Publication
    2022 Sinéad Ring (2022) Maynooth Sparks event: Legal Responses to historical Child Sexual Absue. [Invited Seminars]
    2015 Sinéad Ring (2015) Historical Child Sexual Abuse and an Ethics of Memory. [Invited Seminars]
    2015 Sinead Ring (2015) Interrogating the Irish State's Wilful Ignorance on Child Sexual Abuse in the Past. Dublin: [Invited Seminars]

    Magazine Article

    Year Publication
    2017 Sinéad Ring, De Elizabeth (2017) Switzerland Court determined 'stealthing' is not rape. [Magazine Article] [Link]

    Magazine Article

    Year Publication
    2020 Sinéad Ring and Lisa Connell (2020) Dáil Passes controversial bill sealing Mother and Baby Homes records for 30 years. [Magazine Article] [Link]

    Blog

    Year Publication
    2018 Sinéad Ring (2018) Disclosure failures erode confidence in criminal justice. [Blog] [Link]
    2015 Sinéad Ring (2015) The Irish Marriage Referendum. [Blog] [Link]
    2015 Sinead Ring (2015) Idealism, Nationalism and the Betrayal of Irish Children. [Blog] [Link] [Full-Text]
    2013 Sinead Ring (2013) Proposed Reforms of Legal Aid in the UK. [Blog] [Link]
    2010 Sinéad Ring (2010) New Garda Sex Offences Unit to be Established. [Blog] [Link] [Full-Text]
    2010 Sinéad Ring (2010) Cardinal Brady and the Civil Action Taken by alleged victim of Brendan Smyth. [Blog] [Link] [Full-Text]
    2010 Sinéad Ring (2010) HSE Dublin North East Region and complaints of child abuse. [Blog] [Link]
    2010 Sinéad Ring (2010) Carlin v DPP: Prosecutorial Discretion and the Decision (not) to Prosecute. [Blog] [Link] [Full-Text]
    2009 Sinéad Ring (2009) The Safety of Sex Workers. [Blog] [Link]
    2009 Sinéad Ring (2009) Implementation of the Ryan Report and Children in Care. [Blog] [Link] [Full-Text]
    2009 Sinéad Ring (2009) LRC Report on Criminal Defences. [Blog] [Link]

    Newspaper Articles

    Year Publication
    2022 Sinéad Ring, Cate McCurry (2022) Consent Defence in Rape will be Changed. [Newspaper Articles] https://www.pressreader.com/ireland/irish-daily-mirror/20220813/282209424635901
    2021 Sinéad Ring, (2021) We can't say it is too difficult. Could criminal investigations into Ireland's mother and baby homes happen?. [Newspaper Articles] [Link]
    2020 Sinéad Ring, Kara Fox (2020) reland’s mother and baby home survivors have spent decades fighting for the truth. They can finally see an end in sight. [Newspaper Articles] https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/30/europe/ireland-mother-baby-homes-commission-intl/index.html
    2019 Sinéad Ring, Lizzie Deane (2019) Abused All Over Again. [Newspaper Articles] [Link]
    2017 Sinéad Ring, Noel Baker (2017) Ireland tolerated abuse of children says expert. [Newspaper Articles] [Link]
    2010 Sinead Ring (2010) Representations of Justice in Sexual Abuse Cases. London: [Newspaper Articles] [Link] https://www.theguardian.com/law/2010/may/11/guidance-trial-judges-sexual-abuse-cases [Full-Text]

    Radio Presentation

    Year Publication
    2019 Sinéad Ring (2019) Morning Ireland Interview: Committee to discuss proposed legislation on records of redress bodies. Dublin: [Radio Presentation] [Link]
    2019 Sinead Ring (2019) Today with Seán O'Rourke: Retention of Records. Dublin: [Radio Presentation] [Link]
    2016 Sinéad Ring (2016) Sexual Consent and the Law. [Radio Presentation] [Link]
    2018 Sinéad Ring (2018) The Abortion Referendum in Ireland. Kent: [Radio Presentation]

    Video recording / TV

    Year Publication
    2011 Sinéad Ring (2011) The Criminal Law (Defence of the Dwelling) Bill. [Video recording / TV] [Link]

    Working Paper

    Year Publication
    2011 Sinead Ring (2011) The Rule of Law and Historic Child Sexual Abuse Prosecutions. NUI Galway Working Papers Series. [Working Paper]

    Podcast

    Year Publication
    2020 Vicky Conway, Osgur Breatnach, Sinéad Ring (2020) Policed in Ireland The Sallins Train Robbery. Dublin: [Podcast] [Link]

    Published Interview

    Year Publication
    2020 Cara Fox, Sinéad Ring (2020) CNN: Ireland's mother and baby home survivors have spent decades fighting for the truth. They can finally see an end in sight. www.cnn.com: [Published Interview] [Link]

    Other Publication

    Year Publication
    2021 Sinéad Ring (2021) The Importance of Effective Policies and Procedures on Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment.
    2021 Sinéad Ring (2021) Disclosures and Responsibility to Support, Investigate and to Act.
    2017 Sinéad Ring (2017) Thinking about Consent.
    2015 Sinead Ring (2015) Prosecuting Clerical Child Sexual Abuse in Ireland.
    Certain data included herein are derived from the © Web of Science (2025) of Clarivate. All rights reserved.

    Professional Associations

    Description Function From / To
    Socio Legal Studies Association Member -
    Irish Penal Reform Trust Member -
    Irish Council for Civil Liberties Member -
    Association for Criminal Justice Research and Development member -

    Honors and Awards

    Date Title Awarding Body
    01/10/2003 College Scholar University College Cork
    01/10/2007 Faculty of Law Doctoral Scholarship University College Cork
    01/10/2008 Doctoral Scholarship Irish Research Council for the Humanities and the Social Science

    Committees

    Committee Function From / To
    Sentencing Guidelines and Information Committee of the Judicial Council Member 01/07/2020 - 30/06/2025
    Feminists at Law Journal Editorial Board Member 07/01/2013 -
    Higher Education Authority Expert Advisory Group on Ending Sexual Violence and Harassment Member 01/02/2021 -
    Department of Law Research Committee Member 01/10/2019 -
    Expert Committee on Consent Framework Member 01/10/2018 - 01/04/2019

    Employment

    Employer Position From / To
    University College Cork Part-Time Lecturer -
    University of Kent 07/01/2013 - 31/08/2019
    National University of Ireland Galway Lecturer 01/09/2010 - 30/06/2012
    Maynooth University 01/09/2019 -

    Education

    Start date Institution Qualification Subject
    NUI Galway PG Certificate in Teaching and Learning Teaching and Learning at Third Level
    University College Cork PhD Law
    University College Cork LLM (Criminal Justice) Law and Criminal Justice
    University College Cork BCL (Law and German) Law and German

    Languages

    Language Reading Writing Speaking
    German Functional Functional Functional

    Consultancy

    Client Description
    University College Cork Reviewer of LLM (Criminal Justice) Programme for the Law Department

    Editorial / Academic Reviews

    Amount Role From / To
    Feminists at Law Member of the Editorial Board -
    Social and Legal Studies Member of the Editorial Board -

    Teaching Interests

    Sinéad teaches Criminal Law I and II ,  The Law of Evidence,  Gender Sexuality and Law (Undergrad and Postgraduate courses),  Historical Gendered Violence and the State.

    She is happy to supervise research students working in the following areas: institutional violence and the State; sexual violence and the law; law and gender; feminist legal studies; criminal law; evidence law and criminal justice.  

    Current Students

    Student Name Degree Supervision
    MS K. DUFFY RESEARCH PH.D. (10)
    MS C. CASS RESEARCH PH.D. (10)

    Recent Students

    Graduation date Name Degree
    2019 Antonia Porter PhD
    2017 Aravinda Kosaraju PhD

    External Collaborators

    Name Role Country
    Professor Kim Stevenson Co-author United Kingdom
    Mairead Enright Co-Author United Kingdom
    Dr Kate Gleeson Co-Author Australia