Joan Cronin

RGN, RM, CQSW, (CORU) Dip. in Systemic Psychotherapy (Distinction), LL.M Children’s Rights and Family Law (First Class Honours).  

Joan holds a First Class Honours Masters Degree in Children’s Rights and Family Law from UCC. She is a CORU registered Social Worker, having qualified in 1986. Prior to undertaking social work training, Joan qualified as a registered general nurse and midwife. She qualified in Systemic Psychotherapy in the Clanwilliam Institute and, following accreditation, utilised her Family Therapy training in clinical social work practice.

Joan is co-ordinator of year one of the BSW degree programme and she teaches on three modules, namely:

Introduction to Social Work Theories, Methods and Skills, (SS1202);

Social Justice, Human Rights and Advocacy Approaches to Social Work (SS2228);

Contemporary Issues in Social Work (SS4212).

Joan draws on practice experience in many areas of social work both in Ireland and the UK. She has worked as a Principal Social Worker both in Learning Disability Services and in CAMHS.  

In the late 1980s, Joan was one of the first social workers to work in HIV services in Ireland. In this role, she formed strong alliances between the voluntary and statutory services working in HIV. For many years she worked as a Senior Social Worker in St. James’s Hospital in Dublin. There she carried out research on how to improve the identification of and follow up support for women presenting to Accident and Emergency (A&E) following partner violence. This work led to the national roll out in Irish hospitals on training on partner violence for health care professionals working in A&E departments. 

Collaborative and inter-disciplinary work are central tenets of Joan’s work. She has led research and implementation of projects on women’s health, with Turkish-speaking women in the east end of London. As Social Work Manager, she was instrumental in developing community-led interdisciplinary mental health intervention services for children in Cork and Kerry.

As well as carrying out research in the areas of partner violence, mental health needs of children in state care and interdisciplinary practice, Joan as a law student, was an active member of the Child Law Clinic in UCC where she examined children’s rights to housing under the European Social Charter. 

Joan has been an active board member of Positively Irish Action on Aids (PIAA), Housing and Integrated Living (HAIL) and Cork Aids Alliance. She is currently on the Board of Directors of the Kerry based Social Action Group, of which she was a co-founder as a teenager

I am currently a Lecturer in Social Policy in the School of Applied Social Studies, UCC. My areas of interest include conceptual, theoretical and methodological approaches to social policy, equality, and diversity. My research has focused on comparative social policy, gender, equality, sexual and reproductive health rights, maternity policy and services, criminal justice, migration, gender-based violence and the rights of refugees, asylum seekers, undocumented migrants, Travellers and Roma.

My latest research involves leading a team of Roma peer researchers to develop the Health Strategy for Roma in Cork and Kerry on behalf of TIRC (Tralee International Resource Centre). I am the Principal Researcher on a HEA funded study Access to Post-Primary Teaching (APT): Supporting the Access and Retention of Lower Socio-economic Groups in/to Initial Teacher Education. I am Principal Investigator on Where Have all the Good Nuns Gone? an oral history research project.

I was the Senior Researcher on the Independent Familicide and Domestic Homicide Review (August 2020-April 2021). I was the Co-PI on a Feasibility Study into a Dedicated Support Programme for Traveller Women in the Criminal Justice System (2018-2020). I was the Principal Investigator on Roma in Ireland: A National Needs Assessment (2018) which was a participatory research project with 18 peer researchers from the Roma community and its recommendations have been incorporated into the National Traveller and Roma Integration Strategy (NTRIS). I was Principal Investigator on The Gong Shuttle, a multi-disciplinary research project on the role of free public transport in the prevention of loneliness and isolation in ageing populations, NSW, Australia (2017-2018).

I was a member of the Management Committee of EU COST Action ‘Who Cares in Europe?’ from 2019-2023 and a member of the Action’s Working Group: ‘Marginalised People and the Mixed Economy of Welfare: Entangling European Experiences, 1918-1939’. I am currently a member of EU COST Action 21143 ‘Transnational Family Dynamics (TraFaDy)’.

I was the Principal Investigator on an IRC funded research project The Arts and New Digital Technologies for Peace Building and Reconciliation linked to Equality, Rights and Diversity in partnership with Smashing Times International Centre for the Arts and Equality (2022).

I was the first Chair of Tusla (Child and Family Agency) Independent Research Ethics Committee from 2020 to 2023.

I am a Panellist for the Equality Charter (Gender and Race) at the UK based Advance HE www.advance-he.ac.uk.

I was a Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor at the School of Applied Social Science in UCD from 1995 to 2014. After almost 20 years there, I left as I felt that I needed to move on to grow and develop personally and professionally. I qualified as a Fitness Instructor and a Personal Trainer (ITEC) and spent time working in that capacity on a voluntary basis with the Primary Health Care Workers in Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre in Dublin before taking up employment in research and lecturing in a wide range of settings and across disciplines in Ireland and Australia. From 2017 to 2018 I was Associate Professor in Social Policy at the School of Health and Society, University of Wollongong, NSW; from 2016 to 2017 I was Lecturer in Research Methods on the SPHERE structured PhD Programme at RCSI and Lecturer in Research Methods on the Masters in Social Rights and Social Policy at NUI Maynooth (part-time). I was Associate Lecturer at the Institute of Public Administration from 2018-2019. I was Associate Professor at the Institute of Leadership, RCSI from 2019-2020. From 2019 to 2024, I was a lecturer in St Angela’s College Sligo in the School of Home Economics and in the School of Nursing, Health Sciences and Disability Studies.

I have published ten books which include Maternity Policy in an International Context, risk, rights and welfare regimes (Routledge, 2015); Welcoming the Stranger, Irish Emigrant Welfare in Britain since 1957 (Irish Academic Press, 2015); Key Themes in Social Policy (Routledge, 2013); Motherhood in Ireland; Creation and Context (Mercier, 2004) and Maternity in Ireland: a Woman-centred Perspective (Liffey Press, 2002). I co-edited several books in the UCD Press Social Policy Series, including: Contemporary Irish Social Policy (2005 and 1999); Irish Social Policy in Context (1999); Theorizing Irish Social Policy (2004) and Ageing and Social Policy (2008).

I have supervised PhD and Masters students in many disciplines and on a wide range of topics including: · Migrant Women and Crisis Pregnancy; · Sex Trafficking in Ireland, the UK and Italy; · Concealed; Pregnancies; · Sustainable Development; · Transition to Motherhood and Arts Based Practice; · Trauma and Intimate Violence; · Chronic Fatigue: an Autoethnography; Mental Health Policy in Ireland: An autoethnographic approach.

I have been committed to civic engagement throughout my career. I served as a board member of Wove Women Overcoming Violent Experiences and Smashing Times International Centre for the Arts and Equality. I was the first lay member of the Board of the Irish Episcopal Commission on Emigration (IECE). I was a founder member of En-Hera European Network for the Promotion of the Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights of Refugees and Asylum Seekers. I represented the Women’s Education Research Resource Centre (WERRC) on the Health Panel of the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI). I represented the NWCI on the Kinder Review of Maternity Services and the NEHSE Maternity Services Task Force. I co-founded the Irish Social Policy Association (ISPA).

Fionnuala O'Leary

Fionnuala is Manager of the School of Applied Social Studies, a role that involves working with the Head of School and senior management to drive the strategic development of the School.  Fionnuala is responsible for the school's administrative functions and day-to-day operations.  She has over 20 years experience at management level and holds a Management Diploma from the Institute of Leadership & Management (UK).    

Her role includes:

• Executive responsibilty for the administrative systems that support the School's teaching, learning and research.
• Managing the school's financial and budgetary functions.
• Working with the Head of School on management and operational matters.  
• Responsibility for leading and managing the school's administrative staff.
• Working with the Head of School and Vice-Heads to drive the strategic development of the school.
• Managing local level HR functions such as part-time staff contracts and pay, studentships and scholarships.
• Liaising on behalf of the school with its external stakeholders.
• Chairing the School's Finance Committee.  
• Membership of the School's Executive Management Committee.
• Chairing the School's Risk Register Committee.
• Membership of the College of Arts, Celtic Studies & Social Sciences' Executive Management Committee (2022-2025). 

Phil O'Sullivan

Phil joined the School's administrative staff in 2001 having previously worked in UCC's Careers Service and in the private sector.  She was promoted to Administrative Assistant (Grade V) in 2023.  Phil holds a Diploma in Social Studies from UCC.  

Phil is a very experienced administrator who provides admin. support to the School's social science and social policy programmes.  She is a member of the BSocSc course team. 

Phil's main duties include the following:

Programme Administrator for one undergraduate and two postgraduate programmes in Social Policy.  This involves supporting approximately 380 students per year and the related academic staff teams.

Social Work Placements administration working directly with the Placements Co-Ordinator as well as external Practice Teachers and placement supervisors in social work agencies. Approximately 160 placements are organised and administered each year.

Exams Co-Ordinator for the School with responsibility for organising and administering collection, distribution, tracking and return of a high volume of exam scripts and the subsequent uploading of marks in co-operation with academic colleagues.

Administrative Support and Liaison for Fitness to Practice including membership of the University Fitness to Practice Committee.

Orla McDonald

Orla is a Senior Executive Assistant in the School of Applied Social Studies having joined the school in 2006.   She graduated from UCC with a BA(English & Spanish) in 1997, an MA in Hispanic Studies in 2000 and a BCL in 2015.

Orla is on a Career Break until 28th February, 2024.

Sinead Hanley

Sinead is a part-time Executive Assistant in the School of Applied Social Studies.  She is on long-term leave.

For queries relating to the BSocSc(Youth & Community Work) programme please email Executive Assistant Marian Caulfield at marian.caulfield@ucc.ie.  Thank you.

Margaret O'Leary

Margaret is an Executive Assistant in the School of Applied Social Studies having joined the school's administrative staff in early 2022.  She provides administrative support to the Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) and the Masters of Social Work (MSW)/Postgrad. Dip. in Social Work Studies programmes.  

Margaret graduated from UCC with a BA in History and Spanish in 1989 and a Diploma in Computer Science in 1990.