Dr Michelle Farrell

From left, Prof. Louis Wolcher, Michelle Farrell, myself and Dr. Kathleen Cavanaugh.

Michelle Farrell successfully defended her doctoral thesis, entitled 'On Torture', at the Irish Centre for Human Rights this afternoon. The external examiner was Prof. Louis Wolcher, of the University of Washington, and I was the internal examiner. The thesis was supervised by Dr. Kathleen Cavanaugh. Some months ago, Michelle was awarded the prestigious Phelan Fellowship in International Law by the National University of Ireland. As a result, she is based in the Irish Centre for a period of two years, where she participates as a member of the faculty.
Congratulations, Michelle.
Michelle began her studies at the Irish Centre for Human Rights as a student on the LLM programme. I think Michelle must be about the thirtieth of our students to complete a doctorate, but I must confess that I have now lost track of the exact number!
The thesis itself is highly publishable, and we hope to see it in print with a major publisher soon.