From the 6th of February to the 10th I took part in the look into law Transition Year programme with the Bar of Ireland that my school provided for me. I enjoyed my week in Dublin, it was a great learning experience and gave me an insight into the profession that is law.

My first day at the programme I wasn’t nervous but impressed by the bar building and how professional it was on the inside. I checked in at the lobby and was given my lanyard that would be around my neck for the remainder of the week, I was brought upstairs to the room that me and the other 99 people would have to meet at every morning I was assigned to the blue group and was put into my group of 5 where I was the only boy.

We started the day by being introduced to our morning barrister Alan, every morning we would walk to the criminal courts of justice and watched out barrister in court. During these visits to the CCJ I witnessed two murder trials, a assault on a guard trial and numerous other interesting trials. I also visited the four courts a lot throughout the week, for the first few times I was amazed by the four courts, the architecture, the history and the importance of the building whilst there I viewed trials in the Supreme Court, the high court and master court.

One of the highlights of my week was the tour of the kings inn, it as well as the four courts had a lot of history and there had been a lot of movies filmed around the grounds of the building. Over time I started to befriend the girls in my group and it made the well more enjoyable. We got a talk from an experienced judge and she told us the importance of the role and how that it’s now possible to go back to practising as a barrister after you have made the change into a judge. My evening barristers Jeffrey and Barra brought us to all the tours and talks throughout the week and I couldn’t have asked for better teachers they were funny, smart and they thought me a lot of interesting things about barristers and about law, they also brought me and my group into the law library that only barristers have access to and they made me and the rest of my group feel important.

At the Of the week we prepared for our mock trial this was really fun experience for both me and my piers. The actual mock trial was in green Street court house which is no longer in an interview use and I enjoyed this building because there was a lot of history there and many republicans where sentenced to death there. The mock trials where in total were 4 hours long and it was like watching tv or a movie, endless entertainment, sometimes the court was completely silent when the case was getting interesting and other times everyone in the court was roaring laughing at the case, I was a jury member and when the trial was finished me and the others gave our final decision on the case. We then assembled back at the bar for our award ceremony. I felt very lucky to receive a talk from the chief of justice Susan Denham, one interesting thing she’s told us was that when she became a judge there was only one other female in law which was Mary Robinson. I received my certificate and shook Susan’s hand which was a great honour, that wrapped up my week, the week I will never forget and I’m extremely grateful to have taken part.