Three Trinity alumni obtain Fulbright awards for 2025/6 – News & Occasions

Posted on: 25 July 2025

Three former Trinity College Dublin college students – Dr Dean McHugh, Abigail Moriarty and Ronan McGurrin (pictured above) – had been amongst 18 individuals to obtain Fulbright Irish Awards for 2025-26 this week. 

The awardees had been introduced by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht, and the Embassy of the United States of America in Dublin. 

The Fulbright programme in Ireland has awarded grants to greater than 2,500 Irish and American residents since 1957.  

Candidates from throughout Ireland are chosen to analysis, research and train with main consultants at high establishments throughout the U.S. in disciplines starting from enterprise, legislation, well being and expertise to tradition, heritage, the humanities, and the Irish language.  

From August 2025 to August 2026, they are going to attend establishments starting from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Kansas to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Maxine Greene Institute, and the University of Colorado Boulder.  

Awardees will analysis, innovate and collaborate throughout a numerous vary of fields together with multimedia arts, philosophy, medication, agriculture, training, artwork historical past, AI expertise in medication, AI expertise in training, visible arts, and well being.   

Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistants (FLTAs) will train the Irish language and attend Irish language Immersion weekends on the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, College of Our Lady of the Elms, University of Montana, and the University of Notre Dame.  

U.S. Ambassador to Ireland, Edward S. Walsh, stated: “The Fulbright Program plays a crucial role in strengthening ties between the United States and Ireland. Through educational and cultural exchanges, Fulbright awardees work toward fostering mutual understanding and finding solutions to global issues, ensuring that our extraordinary transatlantic relationship continues to flourish. I congratulate this year’s awardees on their success.”    

More on the awardees: Dr Dean McHugh is a postdoctoral fellow on the University of Edinburgh. He accomplished a PhD and MSc at University of Amsterdam’s Institute for Logic, Language and Computation, and a BA in philosophy at Trinity College Dublin. 

 His analysis offers with how we clarify; what it means to say, for instance, “I visited Ellis Island because there is a new exhibit there”, and its connection to hypothetical reasoning—questioning, say, “if they hadn’t installed the exhibit…”. His work combines insights from philosophy, linguistics, logic, and cognitive science. Dean can be based mostly on the New York University division of philosophy, supervised by Kit Fine. His venture, “The meaning of ‘Why’”, combines his work on explanations with Fine’s experience on how we purpose with different potentialities. He will take a look at the venture’s outcomes on circumstances the place hypothetical reasoning performs a central function, inspecting how we reply questions corresponding to, “why were they fired/denied treatment/…?”.”   

Ronan McGurrin is an Irish diplomat and certified barrister. He accomplished his undergraduate Law and Political Science Degree at Trinity College Dublin. As a diplomat, he has served within the Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (worldwide arms management) Unit in Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and as Deputy Head of Mission on the Embassy of Ireland in Nigeria. As a Fulbright Irish Student Awardee, Ronan will pursue the Master of Laws (LL.M.) program at Harvard Law School, specializing in disarmament and worldwide safety. 

Abigail Moriarty is a graduate of European Studies from Trinity College Dublin. While learning in Trinity, she sat as Eagarthóir Gaeilge on the University Times for 2 years. Abigail taught rookies Irish courses at Gael Linn and labored as a member of Trinity’s Student Union Rannóg an Aistriúcháin. She is a local of County Kerry, the place she first got here to understand the richness of Irish tradition and Gaelic video games. While within the U.S., Abigail appears ahead to sharing her information and enthusiasm with these on the University of Montana as a Fulbright FLTA Awardee. 

ENDS