John O'Donnell honoured with UCD Law Alumni Award 2024
John O’Donnell SC with Deborah Obarisiagbon (Law with Politics student) and Professor Orla Feely, President of UCD.
The annual UCD Alumni Awards, held in October 2024, honoured John O’Donnell with the UCD Alumni Award in Law, recognising his career in law and literary achievements alike. The awards brought together exceptional members of UCD's global alumni network, celebrating their invaluable contributions across fields such as business, law, culture, healthcare, and the arts.
John graduated in 1980 with a BCL from UCD, later earning a Master’s in Law from Cambridge. Known for his expertise in civil and corporate litigation, John became a Senior Counsel in 2001. His book Examinerships is considered the leading text on corporate insolvency and rescue law in Ireland.
Beyond his legal achievements, John has excelled in literature, winning the Hennessy Award for Poetry and the Hennessy Award for Emerging Fiction, the Irish National Poetry Prize, New Irish Writing Awards for Poetry and Fiction, the Ireland Funds prize and the RTÉ Francis McManus Short Story Award. He has published five poetry collections. His first short story collection Almost the Same Blue was a Sunday Independent Book of the Year. Rainbow Baby, an RTÉ radio play, won a New York Festivals Radio Award. His documentary about the 1979 Fastnet disaster, ‘Back To The Rock’, was broadcast on RTÉ’s Doc On One. An Irish Writers’ Centre Novel Fair winner in 2024, his debut novel Second Skin is forthcoming, as is a new short story collection. John has been a member of the board of Poetry Ireland, and has served on the board of the Arts Council. At the awards ceremony John spoke fondly and with great humour about his time studying law in UCD.
John O’Donnell accepting his award with MC Pat Kenny and Professor Orla Feely in the background
Professor Imelda Maher, John O’Donnell SC and Professor Laurent Pech, Dean of Law
The nine awardees at this year’s ceremony included Dr Emma Donoghue, celebrated writer (Arts and Humanities), Aengus Kelly, CEO of AerCap (Business), Dr Clíodhna Lyons, Director, Advanced Product Strategy & Planning (Engineering & Architecture), Dr Patrick Boland, pioneering orthopaedic surgeon (Health and Agricultural Sciences), John O’Donnell SC, Barrister, poet, and author (Law), Dr Patricia Scanlon, Ireland’s AI Ambassador (Research, Innovation and Impact), Paul Gillen, cybersecurity trailblazer (Science), Dr Martín von Hildebrand, Hero of the Amazon and defender of Indigenous rights, (Social Sciences, Ciara Mageean, Athlete (Sport).
John O’Donnell is the eleventh recipient of the UCD Alumni Award for Law. Nominations for the award are sought from our alumni and stakeholders and we encourage you to get involved with the annual selection process by emailing alumnicommunications@ucd.ie with suggestions for future awardees. The distinguished alumni who have been received this award over the past ten years, are as follows:
UCD Alumni Award for Law
2014 (opens in a new window)Maeve O’Rourke
2015 (opens in a new window)Miriam O’Callaghan
2016 (opens in a new window)Benjamin Cleary
2017 (opens in a new window)Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC
2018 (opens in a new window)Vincent Keaveny CBE
2019 (opens in a new window)Colin Ryan
2020 (opens in a new window)Sally Hayden
2021 (opens in a new window)Fiona McEntee
2022 (opens in a new window)Bill Shipsey SC