Law

Deirdre McGowan

Head of Law, School of Social Sciences, Law, and Education

About:

Dr McGowan is head of the Discipline of Law at Technological University Dublin. A graduate of UCD, she practised as a solicitor in Ireland for than a decade, was an adjudicator with the Residential Tenancies Board for four years and earned a PhD in Law from Maynooth University in 2015. Dr McGowan has previously taught at Maynooth University and Technological University of the Shannon. At TU Dublin she teaches Family Law, Law for Social Care Managers and Research Methods in Law.

An expert in Family Law, Dr McGowan has discussed related issues in the media, including on Virgin Media TV News and RTE Radio and Television. She has been a guest on The Fifth Court podcast and appeared in the RTE documentary No Country for Women (2019).

In 2024, Dr McGowan was awarded honorary lifetime membership of the Irish Association of Law Teachers in recognition of her contribution to the Association and its mission. She was President of the Association in 2019, secretary in 2018 and membership secretary from 2020-2022.

Research Interests

Dr McGowan’s research focuses on Family Law, and in particular the regulation of adult relationships. In 2023, she collaborated with Dr Maebh Harding on Family Law in Context (Clarus 2023) an accessible textbook that takes a practical approach to Family Law in Ireland. She has also published peer-reviewed articles in national and international journals and edited collections. These address issues including mediation in divorce cases, identity rights, the historical context of family law, and the distribution of assets on divorce.

A full list of Dr McGowan’s publications is available here: https://researchprofiles.tudublin.ie/en/persons/deirdre-mcgowan-2

PhD Supervision

Dr McGowan is currently supervising the following PhD research:

Caoimhe Hough, ‘Gender and Judging in Ireland’ 2025.

Méabh Browne, ‘No Easy Divorce? Legal Pathways to Divorce in Ireland’ (Funded by Irish Research Council) (2023-2027)

She is open to proposals for supervision in the areas of Family Law and Feminist approaches to Law.

Academic and professional qualifications

BCL (Hons), University College Dublin (1990)

Irish qualified solicitor (1994)

Doctor of Philosophy, Maynooth University (2015)

Professional experience

Solicitor at M J O’Connor & Company, Wexford (1998 – 2001)

Solicitor at Mary Cowhey & Company, Maynooth (2003 – 2010)

Lecturer, Contract Law and Company Law, Maynooth University (2013 – 2014)

Adjudicator at Private Residential Tenancies Board (2014 - 2018)

Lecturer, Land Law, Equity, Constitutional Law, Athlone Institute of Technology (2014)

Director, North Kildare Citizens Information Service Limited (2004 – 2016)

Assistant Lecturer, Dublin Institute of Technology (2015-2016)

Assistant Head of School of Languages, Law & Social Sciences, TU Dublin (2016- present)

President, Irish Association of Law Teachers (2019)

Membership Secretary, Irish Association of Law Teachers (2020,2021)

Publications

Maebh Harding and Deirdre McGowan (eds) Family Law in Context (2023, Clarus Press)

Deirdre McGowan “Foucault and the Limits of Identity Rights” in Jill Marshall, Personal Identity at the European Court of Human Rights, Routledge 2022.

Contributor, Mairead Enright and Aoife O’Donoghue (eds) Rights and the Mother and Baby Homes Report: Reaching Different Findings available here:

Deirdre McGowan, 'The Gendered Properties of Marriage Law' in Peter Dunne and Lynsay Black (eds), 'Law and Gender in Modern Ireland: Critique and Reform (Bloomsbury 2019)

Deirdre McGowan, 'Reframing the mediation debate in Irish all-issues divorce disputes: from mediation vs. litigation to mediation and litigation' (2018) 40 (2) Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law. A pre-publication version is available here: https://arrow.dit.ie/aaschlawart/33

Deirdre McGowan, 'Class, criminality and marriage breakdown in post-independence Ireland' in Niamh Howlin & Kevin Costello (eds) Law and the Family in Ireland 1800-1950 (Palgrave 2017).

Deirdre McGowan, ‘Commentary on Flynn v Power’ in Julie McCandless, Aoife O’Donoghue and Mairead Enright (eds), Northern/Irish Feminist Judgments (Hart Publishing, 2017).

Deirdre McGowan, “Governed by Marriage Law: An Irish Genealogy” (2016) 25 (3) Social and Legal Studies 311 - 331.

Deirdre McGowan, "The Normalising Power of Marriage Law: An Irish Genealogy 1945 – 2010" (Maynooth University 2015).

Deirdre McGowan, "Impeding Free Movement with Marriage Law: The Civil Registration (Amendment) Act 2014" 2016(19)2 Irish Journal of Family Law 3

Research Interests

Family Law, feminist legal theory.