Contact details:

E-mail: eoin.omahony.2010@nuim.ie
Blog: http://53degrees.wordpress.com/about/

Biography:

Eoin graduated from University College Dublin in 1994 with an Honours degree in Sociology and Social Policy. He went on to complete a Masters in Social Science (by research) in UCD, graduating in 1996. During those two years, he gained teaching experience in UCD, TCD, NCI and the Dublin Institute for Adult Education. From 1999 until 2001, he worked at the Irish Council for International Students and in 2000, established FAQs Research. FAQs Research was a research company and consultancy for Dublin's community and voluntary sector. In 2003, Eoin closed his company and worked at South Dublin County Council as a social inclusion analyst for three years. Since 2006, Eoin has been the social researcher for the Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference. He is doing a doctoral degree (on a part-time basis) under the supervision of Prof Mark Boyle and Dr Ronan Foley.

Thesis Title:

Places of the religious and the secular: an investigation of what makes the public sphere in Ireland public.

Description of Project: Stemming from Kong's (2001) call for the establishment of geographies of religion and Talal Asad's (2003) work on the grammar of secularism, the thesis investigates Catholic religious practice and performance and accounts for how these are embodied in particular places and constituted in the public realm. This is achieved through an examination of a selection of Dublin's Marian statues, acts of Irish pilgrimage and the discursive formation of Irish primary education policy. Furthermore the thesis evaluates accounts of being religious and being secular in this public realm.

Presentations:

Departmental presentation 2010; Conference of Irish Geographers 2009 and 2010; Annual Meeting of the AAG 2012; 6th annual Geography of Religion Colloquium, Lucerne 2011; 7th annual Geography of Religion Colloquium, Gottingen 2012; Annual Conference of the Sociological Association of Ireland 1994 - 1997 & 2007 - 2009; New Religious Movements, Maynooth 2009; Renewing the European Catholic Social Conscience, Oxford 2010.

Teaching experience:

As tutor and senior tutor at UCD's Department of Sociology, I taught research methods with a particular emphasis on using SPSS. I also taught research methods, the A-level sociology syllabus to adults and social theory at UCD, TCD and NCI.

Research: I have written and co-written several policy-based research projects since 2000 including Ireland's first survey of the experiences of racism amongst ethnic minorities (Amnesty, 2001), South Dublin county and poverty profiles (SDCC, 2005), policing in marginalised communities (for Dr Aogan Mulcahy, 2003-4), attitudes to religious education amongst parents of primary school-going children (IBC, 2008) and a review of Trócaire’s work among Catholic parishes (Trócaire, 2009).

Membership of Professional Bodies:

• Geographical Society of Ireland.