The Bank of Ireland Finance Student Awards November 2023
At a ceremony in late November, Sutherland School of Law honoured twenty-eight outstanding law students at the Bank of Ireland Finance Awards. We were awarding prize winners from the 2022/2023 academic year and also took the opportunity to award medals to top students from 2020/2021. Medals had not been awarded to these students due to the prevailing circumstances of the covid pandemic and we were very pleased to have the opportunity to address this omission.
Senator Michael McDowell SC presented each of the students with their medals in front of an audience of students, their parents and members of staff from the School of Law. Former Minister for Justice and Attorney General, Senator McDowell is an Adjunct Professor of Sutherland School of Law and we were very pleased to welcome him to the school for the prize giving.
The award ceremony has run since 1976 and was originally sponsored by Bank of Ireland with Bank of Ireland Finance taking over in 2021. Previous prize winners have included, Síofra O’Leary, President of the European Court of Human Rights, Attorney General, Mr Rossa Fanning, Mr Justice David Barniville, President of the High Court, Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly of the Supreme Court, Professor Deirdre Curtin of the European University Institute of Florence, Professor Gráinne de Búrca of New York University and Ms Aedamar Comiskey, Senior Partner and Chair of Linklaters.
The stage 1 prize is awarded for the Tort Essay and for the past 42 years this has been adjudicated by senior members of the judiciary. This year we were honoured to have Ms Justice Marie Baker of the Supreme Court undertake the task on our behalf. The prizes for Stage 2, 3 & 4 are awarded to the top students for their overall performance across all law programmes in that particular year. The twenty-eight outstanding students who were awarded medals are outlined below and photographs of those who attended on the evening.
2022-2023 Winners
Level I Tort Essay: First Place (Gold Medal) Liza Guezenec, Second Place (Silver Medal) Marc Bracken, Third Place (Bronze Medal) Cara McCaul.
Stage II: First Place (Gold Medal) Hernan Perez McKay, Shared second Place (Silver Medals) - Aoife Devlin and Sarah O'Reilly.
Stage III: First Place (Gold Medal) Mark O'Rourke, Second Place (Silver Medal) Christina Colgan, Third Place (Bronze Medal) Simon Conran.
Stage IV: First Place (Gold Medal) Caitriona Hosford, Shared Second Place (Silver Medals) - Sadhbh Ní Ghráda, Robert O’Sullivan, Molly McHugh and Roisin O'Donovan.
2020-2021 Winners
Level I Tort Essay: First Place (Gold Medal) Patrick Ryan, Second Place (Silver Medal) Benjamin Wyant, Third Place (Bronze Medal) Ciara Coughlan.
Stage II: First Place (Gold Medal) Ciara Coughlan, Second Place (Silver Medal) Eimear McMahon, Third Place (Bronze Medal) Patrick Ryan.
Stage III: First Place (Gold Medal) Emily Cahill, Second Place (Silver Medal) Jessica Commins, Third Place (Bronze Medal) Ben McDonald.
Stage IV: First Place (Gold Medal) Kevin O'Connor, Second Place (Silver Medal) Elizabeth Higgins, Shared Third Place (Bronze Medals) - Maryia Amelyanchuk, Rory Clarke and Sean Desmond.
2022-2023 Stage IV Gold Medal winner, Caitriona Hosford
2022-2023 Stage IV Silver Medal winners - Sadhbh Ní Ghráda and Robert O’Sullivan
2022-2023 Stage IV Silver Medal winners - Molly McHugh and Roisin O'Donovan
2022-2023 Stage III Gold Medal winner, Mark O’Rourke
2022-2023 Stage III Silver Medal winner, Christina Colgan and Bronze Medal winner, Simon Conran
2022-2023 Stage II Silver Medal winner, Sarah O’Reilly
2022 – 2023 Tort Silver Medal winner, Marc Bracken, and Bronze Medal winner, Cara McCaul
2020-2021 Stage IV Gold Medal winner, Kevin O’Connor
2020-2021 Stage IV Silver Medal winner, Elizabeth Higgins
2020-2021 Stage IV Bronze Medal winners, Maryia Amelyanchuk and Sean Desmond
2020 – 2021 Dual winner Patrick Ryan - Gold Medal for the Tort Essay and Bronze Medal for Stage II