Biography
Máire O’ Reilly (M.Soc.Sc.) is a full time lecturer in the Department of Applied Arts, Waterford Institute of Technology since 2002. Previously, she was a Research Officer in the Department of Applied Social Studies and the Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, University College Cork. Máire currently lectures Social Policy and Social Research Methods on a range of Level 8 programmes and on the MA Social Studies. She is currently dissertation co-ordinator on the BA (Hons) Social Science and progamme leader on the BA (Hons) ASSSC. She also supervises both undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations. She was previously joint co-ordinator of the Centre for Social & Family Research.
Máire has lectured in the Department of Applied Arts since 2002 on a number of programmes, including the BA (Hons) ASSSC, BA (Hons) ECS, BA (Hons) Crminial Justice. BA (Hons) Social Science and the MA Social Studies. Máire's lectures Irish Social Policy, Comparatvie Social Policy and Social Research Methods.
Máire has extensive experience as a social researcher with considerable expertise in quantitative and qualitative research methods. In particular, Máire has worked on several commissioned research projects focussing on matters affecting children’s lives. The ethcial and methodological implications of such research is one of Máire’s key research and teaching interests. She is co-author of Keeping Children Safe, Child Abuse, Child Protection & the Promotion of Welfare (2002) and Listening to Children, Children’s Stories of Domestic Violence (2007). She was also principal researcher on a number of research projects including; An evaluation of Parent-held Child Records, Investigating the Need for a Missing Children’s Helpline and Establishing the impact on quality of life of distance from paediatric oncology services. These projects involved large scale quantitative and qualitative data collection and analyses with large samples of key professionals working with children, their families and the children themselves. Research findings were presented at national and international conferences. Currently, after a research sabbatical, Máire is planning to conduct PhD research in the area of child protection.