SDG 10 : Reduced Inequalities

Understanding Travellers’ experiences of policing, courts and prisons is important to identifying barriers to equal access to justice. University of Limerick’s (UL) Irish Travellers’ Access to Justice (ITAJ) project examined these experiences and developed recommendations for improvement.

The Irish Travellers' Access to Justice (ITAJ) project examined Travellers' experiences across the criminal justice system, including policing, courts and prisons. Its findings highlighted issues including racial profiling and identified recommendations for improving access to justice.

The research had already become an important part of national discussion by 2024, when it formed a central pillar of the evidence used by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community in its report on Travellers' experiences of the justice system. The Committee extensively referenced both the ITAJ findings and evidence presented by the research team.

That policy reach continued in 2025. In February, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O'Flaherty published a memorandum on the human rights situation of Travellers in Ireland that referenced ITAJ findings extensively. Two of his recommendations to the Irish State reflected key recommendations from the project: the creation of an independent complaints system across the criminal justice system and the introduction of an ethnic identifier.

In September 2025, the ITAJ team was invited to present its findings to members of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. Their presentation, Understanding Traveller experiences of justice, explored how Travellers experience court proceedings, highlighted good practice identified through the research and prompted reflection on individual practices.

For children who have had little contact with universities, higher education and research can feel distant from their own lives. K4C-4-Kids brings the research process directly to children aged 11 to 13 in two Limerick primary schools in areas of socio-economic disadvantage.

Run by University of Limerick’s (UL) community engagement unit, UL Engage, the programme introduces pupils to each stage of the research process and supports them to develop independent projects based on their own interests. Children also meet researchers and learn about research as a career.

K4C-4-Kids began as a pilot in one Limerick primary school in 2022 and now runs annually from February to May in St Mary's National School and Our Lady of Lourdes National School. The programme was developed in collaboration with the Project and Public Engagement Officer at the Synthesis and Solid-State Pharmaceutical Centre (SSPC) Research Centre, Taighde Éireann, and forms part of the UNESCO-sponsored Knowledge for Change global consortium.

Alongside introducing children to research, the programme aims to help pupils see higher education as an option for their future and develop skills that can support their transition to and retention in secondary school.

For more than a decade, University of Limerick (UL) researchers Professors Amanda Haynes and Jennifer Schweppe have combined sociological and legal research to inform responses to hate crime in Ireland. In December 2025, they received UL’s Outstanding Research Collaboration Award in recognition of their research partnership.

As co-directors of UL's European Centre for the Study of Hate, Haynes and Schweppe worked with organisations and networks including Doras, the Coalition Against Hate Crime and the Working Group on Hate Crime. Their research findings were translated into recommendations that informed advocacy and policymaking around the development of dedicated hate crime legislation.

That work contributed to the development and enactment of the Criminal Justice (Hate Offences) Act, Ireland's first dedicated hate crime legislation. Its practical value has also been recognised outside the University: Donnah Vuma of Doras described the research as “instrumental and invaluable” to the organisation's victim-support and advocacy work, while Ivana Bacik TD said it had “really impacted” her work as a legislator and had been “extremely useful” in developing the legislation.

In December 2025, Haynes and Schweppe received UL's Outstanding Research Collaboration Award in recognition of their decade-long research partnership.

Sending photographs, downloading an app or calling family overseas can become difficult when someone is unfamiliar with digital technology. UL’s Hi Digital partnership brings student volunteers and older adults together to work through these everyday tasks.

Established in 2024, the collaboration involves UL’s Student Volunteering Office and Access Campus, ALONE and the Vodafone Foundation. By December 2025, the pilot had reached more than 100 older people, with UL student volunteers and Transition Year students supporting weekly gatherings and drop-in cafés during the academic year and summer.

Sessions were tailored to participants’ interests, including using smartphones, sending emails, accessing online services and setting up WhatsApp groups. A Thursday morning drop-in café at Access Campus offered ongoing help with technical questions.

Participants from Patrickswell Active Retirement Group described learning to transfer photographs, manage pop-ups and use online shopping. They called the experience positive and looked forward to putting their learning into practice.

During 2025, Rethink Ireland funding was secured to expand the initiative, known as Deonach Digiteach or Digital Volunteer, with University of Galway, Atlantic Technological University and Student Volunteer Ireland.