Irish Law Students Association Honors James P. Cullen
April 30, 2009
On Thursday evening, April 23, the Irish Law Students Association held a benefit at Hurley's, West 48th Street, to raise funds for the Joseph Doherty Civil Rights Fellowship. The fellowship funds CUNY Law students working in the area of Civil and Human Rights. The event honored civil rights lawyer James P. Cullen with the "Advocate for Justice Award." In 1980, Mr. Cullen became the founding president of the Brehon Law Society, working closely with the late Paul O'Dwyer and other civil rights attorneys in a number of high profile cases. Mr. Cullen was a critical force in President Barack Obama signing executive orders banning torture and in the closing of Guantanamo Bay.
The event was very well attended by Brehon members from Manhattan, the Bronx and Nassau counties as well as many alums. Mary Nevins, alums Marty Glennon and Sean Crowley were on hand (founders of the Joseph Doherty Fellowship in 1996 along with alums Kevin Love and Sean Schaefer). Mary Boresz Pike, Joe Doherty's attorney, could not be present but a statement was read expressing how grateful she and Joe were that the fellowship is still in existence and that it has such wide-spread support.
Over the years, ILSA fellowships have enabled students to work in the Legal Resource Center in Durban, South Africa; the Innocence Project, Civil Rights Bureau of the N.Y. State Attorney; New York Association for New Americans, Centro Presente; the Lawyers Alliance for Justice in Ireland, and the Brooklyn Defender's Services, just to name a few.
The ILSA students are asking that ILSA alums contact Mary Nevins Costa, Advisor to the Irish Association, to provide contact information for future events.
(Pictured) Brehon members, ILSA members & Alums; (1st row, l-r) Ben Flavin, Robyn Enes, Charles Scholl, Mary Nevins Costa, Rebecca Sorro, Jessica Luzzi, Tony Tate; (2nd row, l-r) Melissa Kelly, Ryan Dooley, Marty Glennon, Sean Crowley, Robert Dunnes (President of Nassau Brehons), Steve McCabe, James P. Cullen & Sean Downes
