University College Dublin

Congratulations to researchers from the UCD College of Social Sciences and Law following the 2025 Research Impact Awards.

Special congratulations to Prof Orla Doyle, overall winner for Preparing for Life, alongside awardees and finalists across the College.

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They also informed Ireland’s National Home Visiting Programme. With Tusla’s support, PFL has been rolled out to ten additional communities nationwide.

Preparing for Life (PFL)’s findings informed First 5: A Whole-of-Government Strategy for Babies, Young Children and their Families, and contributed to government investment of over €40 million in childhood and family support initiatives.

By age 14, children in the high-support group showed better cognitive functioning, working memory, attention, and health outcomes. The results demonstrate that early, sustained support for parents can permanently alter life trajectories.

Beginning in 2008, 233 pregnant women within disadvantaged Dublin communities were randomly assigned to either a low- or high-support group. Both received basic developmental supports, but the high-support group participated in home visits, baby massage classes, and group parenting sessions.

Children from disadvantaged backgrounds face higher risks of poor health, education, and employment. As the brain is particularly malleable from pregnancy to age three, early intervention is crucial.

For 18 years, Professor Doyle has carried out one of Ireland’s longest-running randomised controlled trials, a prenatal-to-school-entry programme developed in disadvantaged Dublin communities to reduce inequalities in child development.

‘Preparing for Life: changing children’s lives through early parenting support’ is led by Professor Orla Doyle from the UCD School of Economics and the UCD Geary Institute for Public Policy.

Parenting support project that informed national policy wins 2025 UCD Research Impact Competition

🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒🏆 A project promoting enhanced parenting support within disadvantaged communities has won the 2025 UCD Research Impact Case Study Competition.

👏 @orladoyle.bsky.social @ucdgearyinst.bsky.social

“Éamon’s mission throughout his distinguished career was, in his own words, ‘to challenge, inform and stimulate dialogue about the formative events in the shaping of Ireland today’, and the foundation is deeply committed to honouring that mission and Éamon’s rich legacy.”

“It is an honour to serve as patron of the Éamon Phoenix Foundation, especially at a time when the communication and sharing of evidence-led historical understanding is more vital than ever,” said Professor Ferriter, UCD School of History.

In his new role, Professor Ferriter will support this mission to promote mutual understanding and reconciliation through the study of history.

He succeeds Dr Martin Mansergh, who served as patron until his death in September 2025.

The foundation works to preserve and expand access to the late historian's writings and broadcasts, and to develop educational initiatives focused on Ireland’s contested past.

👨‍🎓🇮🇪 UCD Professor Diarmaid Ferriter has been named the patron of the Dr Éamon Phoenix Foundation, a charity dedicated to preserving and developing the legacy of Dr Éamon Phoenix.

Elusive otter captured on camera by UCD researcher after five-year wait

Read the full story at the link below:
www.ucd.ie/newsandopini...

Snapshot Europe is a wildlife camera-trap exercise carried by researchers all across Europe.

The images captured as part of the project are uploaded to a Europe-wide wildlife monitoring dataset to help guide important decisions around conservation.

Dr Adam Smith, a postdoctoral researcher at the UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science, established and is the project lead for Snapshot Europe’s Wicklow subproject.

📸🦦Elusive otter captured on camera by UCD researcher after five-year wait

After five years of waiting, an otter has been captured on camera in Wicklow as part of a project led by a UCD researcher.

@ucdwildlife.bsky.social

History made as UCD FC claims four-in-a-row Harding Cup title

The Harding Cup is an intervarsity men’s football competition organised by the Irish Universities Football Union (IUFU) and traditionally contested by first-year and developing squads. www.ucd.ie/newsandopini...

The win marks the first time a team has secured four Harding Cup titles in a row since the competition was established in 1970 by the late Dr Tony O’Neill.

🏆👨‍🎓 Incredible scenes! The Students make history as UCD FC claims a record-breaking four-in-a-row Harding Cup title, following a 3–2 victory over University College Cork.

Black and white photo: Sheep flock, Co. Wicklow. Photographer: Maurice Curtin, 1936, NFC B014.10.00002

In the first UCD Library #CulturalHeritage Collections blog post of 2026 Ailbe Van Der Heide of @bealoideasucd.bsky.social describes the folklore and traditions surrounding sheep.

Read: ucdculturalheritagecollections.com/2026/01/29/t...

@ucdarchives.bsky.social @ucdscoilglcb.bsky.social

RIBA Gold Medal: Alum Níall McLaughlin awarded one of architecture’s most prestigious honours RIBA Gold Medal: Alum Níall McLaughlin awarded one of architecture’s most prestigious honours

www.ucd.ie/apep/newsand...

RIBA Gold Medal: Alum Níall McLaughlin awarded one of architecture’s most prestigious honours

Full story: www.ucd.ie/newsandopini...

“We are grateful to our teachers, who passed on the spirit, and our students, who continually question and transform it. As a small studio, we have grown and learned together."

Accepting the award, McLaughlin said his team and himself viewed “architecture as a continuity of practice across generations”.

Approved personally by the King of the United Kingdom, the Royal Gold Medal is bestowed on those recognised for having had a significant impact on advancing architecture.

Noting McLaughlin's long-standing influence across architectural practice and pedagogy, it cited that his career of more than three decades reflected a consistent engagement with the cultural, environmental, and social dimensions of architecture.

And in 2015, Sheila O'Donnell and John Tuomey, who were professors at the UCD School of Architecture at the time, received the honour.

This is the third time that architecture graduates from UCD have won a RIBA Royal Gold Medal.

In 2019, Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara were named as recipients, becoming the only female partnership to have won the prestigious award in its 171-year history.