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An Interview with Sharon Pia Hickey

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This week’s interview is with one of our former interns from last summer, Sharon Pia Hickey.

Describe your background.

 

I spent the summer of 2010 in Washington DC as part of the Washington Ireland Program. This program is designed to select the brightest young minds in Ireland and bring them to DC for a summer in order to build their professional skills and to aid peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland. Through this program, I was given the incredible opportunity to intern in the Global Legal Research Center of the Law Library under the fantastic guidance of Stephen Clarke, Senior Foreign Law Specialist.

 

What is your academic/professional history?

 

Sharon Pia Hickey (center right) standing with several members of the Library of Congress staff in front of a wood paneled wall with gold letters spelling, "The Law Library of Congress" in a circle in the background.
Sharon Pia Hickey, center right, with Library of Congress Staff

I am currently studying law at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. At Maynooth, I have been involved in various student activities such as creating the first departmental newsletter, The Golden Thread, setting up moot courts, and working as an editor for our university’s upcoming law journal, the Irish Law Journal. I have also been selected by my university to study abroad this year, 2010-2011, at the Boston College Law School. After my year in Boston, I will return to Ireland and complete the final year of my law degree.

 

Why did you want to work at the Law Library?

 

As a law student, having access to the greatest collection of law books and legal minds was a dream come true. I have always been very interested in legal research and I knew that an internship in the Law Library would provide me with an opportunity to research many diverse topics, which it certainly did.

 

 

Was there a particular special project that you worked on?

 

While interning in the Law Library, I was given the chance to research my pet topic of gender equality in the Irish Constitution. Not only did I have access to the most incredible resources to assist with my research, but I was also given the fantastic opportunity to speak about this topic at the Library’s Power Lunch Series and had an article of mine, entitled “Ireland: EU Divorce Plan Rejected,” published on the Global Legal Monitor. I am, in fact, continuing with the research that I started in the Library as I am now interning in The Women and Public Policy Program of Harvard University.

 

What was the most interesting fact that you learned about the Law Library?

 

I learned that the Law Library holds records of many crucial documents, which can prove to be very useful. For example, after the disaster in Haiti, the country’s governmental documents were all destroyed. However, the Law Library had an intact copy of all of Haiti’s laws and was able to help rebuild their legal system.

 

What’s something most of your former co-workers don’t know about you?

 

In my spare time I am a soprano and have sung in Ireland’s National Concert Hall on more than one occasion!

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