Course Outline
This course is open to Law graduates, or graduates who hold other legal qualifications, or whose degree contains a substantial component of law, with a very high standard of Irish at second level education (A in Leaving Cert Honours Examination or B2 TEG) and Law Graduates who have taken Irish language modules at third level. This course aims to revive and build on the student's previous Irish language experience to the extent that students are brought to a high standard (C1 TEG) during the course of the degree. The course offers students a specialised training in European Law, alongside gaining in-depth Irish language skills. Students spend part of the course in UCC and part of it on an intensive residential Gaeltacht week long course in the Waterford Gaeltacht, allowing students to immerse themselves in the language. Students graduate with a desirable qualification that is seen as a strategic combined language and law need in Europe.
The MA in Irish Language and European Law will be run by the Department of Modern Irish in collaboration with the School of Law. This collaboration builds on an existing and highly productive arrangement between the two disciplines.
Part 1 of this course consists of two semesters at UCC, starting in September and finishing in May. During the two semesters students complete 60 credits in total. 25 credits are taken in core modules. 35 credits are taken in elective modules, with 25 credits allocated to a selection of law modules and 10 credits allocated to a selection of language modules.
Part 2 of this course consists of a 15 credit intensive and fully-subsidised residential Gaeltacht course over the summer months, and a 15 credit research project on a subject combining a joint Irish-language and Law topic.
The intensive Gaeltacht module will be a feature of the course that will exploit an active and growing strategic outreach engagement between UCC and the Irish-speaking areas in its hinterland, and serve to enhance the student experience of Irish as a living, European language. The intensive residential courses to be conducted over a week at Coláiste na Rinne, in the heart of the Waterford Gaeltacht, will be crucial to the course objective of the transition in the standard of Irish of the students from B2 to C1 in Teastas Eorpach na Gaeilge (TEG).
The course will benefit Law graduates by bringing their standard and qualifications to level 9 overall, and will fast-track these graduates into new employment opportunities by enabling them to annexe linguistic ability in Irish to their primary degree in Law. It will also enable them to begin adding a third language to their portfolio, should they chose to do so. Graduates will then be well placed to apply for positions within the European Commission and European Parliament, the strategic need for which has been identified by the Higher Education Authority, which is funding this programme. The programme will also prepare graduates for work in either of the legal professions as bilingual lawyers or advocates.
Why Choose This Course
This course offers intensive training in spoken and written Irish to holders of legal degrees or other legal qualifications (solicitors, barristers), or degrees that include a significant element of law, and enhances those qualifications with a tailored suite of course modules in European Law. The course builds on the formal status of the Irish language within the European Commission and European Parliament, and particularly on the removal of the derogation by 2021 from the full use of Irish, thereby exploiting employment opportunities at both national and European level.
Comment
Course Practicalities
The MA in Irish Language and European Law is taken full-time over 12 months. Part 1 within the first two semesters, Part 2 in the third semester. Conventional lecture hours of one per week per module will apply to the core and elective modules. The language modules also carry tutorial and conversation classes. The intensive residential Gaeltacht module (GA6027) consists of a week long course in the third semester.
1. Written examinations in the case of the core and elective modules, with the Irish-language modules incorporating continuous assessment and oral components.
2. The 15-credit intensive Gaeltacht course (GA6027) will be assessed by in-class examinations.
3. The 15-credit research project (GA6028) will be assessed jointly by representatives of the Department of Modern Irish and School of Law.
Staff of the Department of Modern Irish:
Dr Pádraig Ó Macháin
Dr Seán Ua Súilleabháin
Ms. Mairead Ni Loingsigh
Staff of the School of Law:
Dr Seán Ó Conaill