Each year on Trinity Monday, fellowships are awarded to academics showing excellence in research and scholarship and to acknowledge a professor’s contribution to academic life and teaching in the College.
Prof Nicole Grimes(left) pictured with new Fellow, Prof Orla Flanagan (right).
Today, 20 April 2026, the following new Fellows were announced from Trinity’s Arts and Humanities Schools:
- Professor Katja Bruisch, School of Histories and Humanities
- Professor David Fennelly, School of Law
- Professor Orla Flanagan, School of Creative Arts
- Professor Kevin Power, School of English
Congratulating the new Fellows, Professor Patrick Geoghegan, Director of the Trinity Long Room Hub said: “Trinity Monday is always an exciting day for the entire College and especially our new Fellows and Scholars. I want to congratulate our new Fellows on this major achievement and recognise the crucial contribution they make to our community, enhancing our national and international reputation.”
Dr. Jane Suzanne Carroll (left) pictured with new Fellow, Prof Katja Bruisch (right).
Honorary Fellows
Honorary fellowships were awarded this year to Professor Cass Sunstein and John Connolly.
Cass Sunstein is currently the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard University and Harvard Law School, and founder and director of the Program on Behavioural Economics and Public Policy at Harvard Law School. Professor Sunstein is author of hundreds of articles and dozens of books across a range of fields, including constitutional law, administrative law, behavioural law and economics. He is one of the most cited legal scholars of all time and has long links with the University through the Law School.
John Connolly is an Irish writer best known for his series of novels starring private detective Charlie Parker. As a graduate of Trinity, Connolly has been devoted to the School of English, and to the College. He has returned on numerous occasions to give classes, particularly to MPhil students, to launch books, and to support the writing of members of the School.
Trinity Monday Memorial Discourse
This year, the Trinity Monday Memorial Discourse commemorates Owen Sheehy-Skeffington (1909-1970) and was delivered by Professor Michael Cronin, F.T.C.D. from the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies.
Last week, 17 April 2026, as part of the year-long celebrations to mark 250 years of modern languages at Trinity College Dublin, four outstanding individuals were awarded with honorary degrees of the university for their exceptional contributions to this field:
- Linguistics and language scholar David Little
- Italian scholar Corinna Salvadori Lonergan
- literary translator Hans-Christian Oeser
- Eda Sagarra, Trinity's first female Chair of German