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Dr. Damien Brennan

Associate Professor (School of Nursing & Midwifery)
DOLIER STREET - SCHOOL OF NURSING
      
Profile Photo

Dr. Damien Brennan

Associate Professor (School of Nursing & Midwifery)
DOLIER STREET - SCHOOL OF NURSING

 dbrennan@tcd.ie

 3531896 3114


Prof Damien Brennan is an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing & Midwifery at Trinity College Dublin, and elected Head of School since 2024. His academic career spans nursing and sociology, combining clinical expertise with sociological analysis to explore how societies organise, experience and reform systems of care. His research has made a significant contribution to unpacking Ireland"s historical reliance on institutional confinement, while advancing contemporary debates on care capacity within families and communities in post-institutional society. Prof Brennan"s research has attracted funding from major national organisations and has influenced academic, public and policy discourse on care provision in Ireland. With an emphasis on real world impact, Prof Brennan is a Principal Investigator on family care provision, within the longitudinal study on ageing and intellectual disabilities (IDS-Tilda https://www.tcd.ie/tcaid/research/idstilda.php). He communicates his research through media, public lectures, and policy engagement, ensuring that scholarship meaningfully shapes societal understanding and reform of care systems. Prior to entering academia, Prof Brennan practised as a psychiatric nurse and nurse tutor, gaining extensive experience across mental health and social care services both in Ireland and developing countries. Today, he leads the top nursing school in Ireland and the European Union, comprised of a multidisciplinary academic community of over 140 staff and 1,700 students. In this progressive leadership role, Prof Brennan fosters collaboration across healthcare research, education, and practice at local, national, and international levels. Prof Brennan is committed to a clear purpose - ensuring that nursing education, research and practice positively impact on people's lived experiences of birth, illness, disability, and end-of-life care.
  Aetiology of mental illness   Ageing   Ageing & Intellectual Disability Issues   Ageing, Health and Intellectual Disability   Development studies   Development, prevention and treatment of mental disease or disorder   Family Centred Care   Gender issues, gender studies   Health and Social Care Legislation and Policy   Health Care Policy   Health Disparities   Health status and inequalities   Informal Carers   INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES   Intellectual Disability   Leadership in nursing   Mental health nursing   Mental health promotion   Nurse Education   Nursing Education   OLDER PERSONS   Patterns of health   Psychiatry   Psychology of Aging   Social Theory   Sociological influences on health   Sociology of illness and health
Project Title
 Study to Inform a Competency Framework for Designated Officers in Adult Safeguarding
From
1 Nov 2025
To
31 Jul 2026
Summary
The overall aim is to co-produce an evidence-informed competency framework for Designated Officers in adult safeguarding that enhances role clarity, strengthens consistency of practice, and supports the implementation of HSE safeguarding reform.
Funding Agency
Health Service Executive
Programme
HSE National Safeguarding Office
Project Type
Educational
Person Months
9
Project Title
 The Social Contract for Care Provision in Ireland
From
2021
To
2022
Summary
This research initiative entails a collaborative research process with Family Carers Ireland with the aim of establishing conceptual clarity regarding the social contract for care giving within domestic settings in Ireland.
Funding Agency
Irish Research Council
Programme
New Foundations
Project Type
Family Carers Ireland - Concept Development
Project Title
 A participatory action research pilot study to enhance long term care planning for older people with an Intellectual Disability (ID) in Ireland and their families.
From
2017
To
2018
Summary
The development, implementation, and evaluation of a pilot intervention to address families' future care planning to support older people with an ID to age in a place of their choosing. This participatory action research approach will involve family members and care recipients from the outset to identify challenges and facilitators for the development and implementation of future care planning at a family level with a view to devising best practice guidance for this specific transition planning. This will enable the development of a long term care planning model/tool for Older People with an ID. In addition, this participatory action research process engages important questions relating to demographic changes, social inclusion and care provision in contemporary Irish society so as to inform social policy at a national level and link practice and policy at a regional and local level.
Funding Agency
Irish Research Council
Programme
Research for Policy and Society
Person Months
24
Project Title
 IDS-TILDA Longitudinal Study on Ageing and Intellectual Disabilities
From
2015
To
2018
Summary
Co-applicant to the IDS-TILDA (Wave 3). This is a longitudinal study researching ageing in Ireland among people with an intellectual disability aged 40 and over.
Funding Agency
Health Research Board & Department of Health
Programme
IDS-TILDA (Family Care)
Project Type
Longitudinal
Person Months
36
Project Title
 The development of measurements of caring capacity in domestic / home settings
From
November 2017
To
July 2018
Summary
To provide conceptual capacity and a methodological approach to enable the measurement of caring capacity within home / domestic / family settings
Funding Agency
Enterprise Ireland
Programme
H2020- Proposal Preparation Support
Project Type
Methodological Framework
Person Months
9

Page 1 of 3
Details Date
Irish Universities Alliance (IUA) Representative | National Integrated Professional Collaborative Network of Nursing and Midwifery Leaders Group 2025
Irish Universities Alliance (IUA) Member | National Integrated Professional Collaborative Network of Nursing and Midwifery Leaders Group 2026
Project Lead | Collaborative project with Family Carers Ireland, funded by the IRC 2021-2022
Board Member | Greystones Family Resource Centre 2019-2021
Presenter & Contributor | Round Table for HSE National Clinical Programme for People with Disability & TCAID 26 January 2022
Member | Delegation to Present to Oireachtas Sub Committee on Ageing and ID 2015
Member | International Election Observer Register (European Commission Election Observation Mission) 2000 - 2022
Member | Observer of Albanian General Elections (2001) | Selected as Observer for Pakistani Elections Mission (Election monitoring mission withdrawn prior to deployment) | International Election Observer Register (European Commission Election Observation Mission) 2001
Member | Numerous External Interview Panels 2002-To Date
Peer Reviewer | Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine 2012-2022
Peer Reviewer | Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities 2014-2022
Peer Reviewer | Journal of Nurse Management 2005-2022
External Examiner | BSc (Hons) Nursing, Dundalk Institute of Technology 2009-2012
External Examiner | BSc (Hons) Nursing, Athlone Institute of Technology 2002-2006
Subject Lead (Sociology) | Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (Contributor to new NMBI Standards and Requirements for Nurse Registration Programmes) 2016
Executive Committee Member | Sociological Association of Ireland 2005 - 2011
Invited Contributor | Mary Raftery Journalism Fund Seminar | Are you sitting Comfortably? | Irish Film Institute & Broadcasting Authority of Ireland & RTÉ 2015
Invited Contributor | Mary Raftery Journalism Fund | Roundtable on Documentary Film Making Ethics | Screening of Behind the Walls Documentary | Irish Film Institute & Broadcasting Authority of Ireland & RTÉ 2015
Invited Speaker | Law Society of Ireland (Are our prisons becoming twenty-first Century asylums for the mentally ill) 17th November 2010
Invited Speaker | The Association of Irish Mental Health Nurse Managers 8th April 2006
Details Date From Date To
World Health Organisation (WHO) Disability Health Equity Network 2026 2028
International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (UK): MEMBER 2016 To Date
COST Action 22159 European Histories of Healthcare | Working Group 5: MEMBER 2025 2027
Nursing and Midwifery Board Ireland (Bord Altranais agus Cnáimhseachais na hÉireann): REGISTERED PSYCHIATRIC NURSE 1992 To Date
Nursing and Midwifery Board Ireland (Bord Altranais agus Cnáimhseachais na hÉireann: REGISTERED NURSE TUTOR 2000 To Date
European Sociological Association (Paris): MEMBER 2010 To Date
Sociological Association of Ireland (SAI): MEMBER 2003 To Date
Damien Brennan & Ciara Henderson, Who Cares? Negotiating & Renegotiating Care for Adults with Intellectual Disabilities - an Evaluation of Irish Disability Policy, THE CONF 2026 (Trinity Health and Education International Research Conference), Ireland, 4-5 March 2026, 2026, Conference Paper, PUBLISHED  URL
Brennan, Damien, Moriarty, Elaine & Henderson, Ciara, Voluntary Gravedigging, Power and Agency in Rural Ireland, Death & Power, Centre for Death & Society (CDAS), 17 - 19 June 2026, CDAS | University of Bath, 2026, Conference Paper, PUBLISHED  URL
Brennan, Damien & Henderson, Ciara, Memory, Identity, and the Afterlife of Asylum Nursing in Post Institutional Ireland, Society for the Social History of Medicine (SSHM), University of Leeds (SSHM Theme In/Out), 30 Jun - 3 Jul 2026, University of Leeds, 2026, Conference Paper, PUBLISHED  URL
Brennan Damien, Digging for our Own: Voluntary Gravedigging and Collective Agency in Rural Ireland, Rural Futures, Dingle, Co Kerry, 8-10 June 2026, University of Sacred Heart, Pennsylvania, 2026, Conference Paper, PUBLISHED  URL
Brennan, Damien; Moriarty, Elaine; Hendeson, Ciara, Voluntary Gravedigging and the Creeping Death of Tradition in Rural Ireland, 27th Cemeteries Colloquium, University of York, UK, 8 May 2026, 2026, Conference Paper, PUBLISHED  URL
Brennan Damien, D'Eath Maureen, McCarron Mary, McCallion Philip, Henderson Ciara, Trinity College Dublin, 'A Question of Choice? The Provision of Care for Adults with Intellectual Disabilities', Ireland, Geary Institute, University College Dublin, 2026, -, Notes: [Life expectancy of people with intellectual disabilities (ID) has steadily improved, and with this progression in longevity, there is an increased need for health and social resources. This presents a specific challenge for policymakers seeking to provide life-long care for adults with ID. Researchers at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) have documented the changing health, social, and care needs of this vulnerable population highlighting the importance of planning for diverse living arrangements across the lifespan (McCarron et al., 2011; Brennan et al., 2018, 2025; McCausland et al., 2021; Sheerin et al., 2022; Burke et al., 2023). The evidence supports individualised solutions oriented around choice for both adults with ID and the families who care for them.], Digital research resource production, PUBLISHED  URL
Brennan, D., McCallion, P., McCarron, M., & D"Eath, M, Keeping it in the Family: The proposed and rejected Irish Constitutional amendment on family caregiving - Insights from the IDS-TILDA Carers Study., Transforming Care Conference, Helsinki, Finland, 25 - 27 June 2025, 2025, Conference Paper, PUBLISHED  URL
Brennan, D., McIlgorm, M., Kenna, R., Reflections of the Role of Senior Leadership, THE CONF 2025 (Trinity Health and Education International Research Conference), School of Nursing & Midwifery, 24 D'Olier Street, Dublin 2, 5 - 6 March 2025, Trinity College Dublin, 2025, Conference Paper, PUBLISHED  URL
Brennan, D, Long-Term Family Caregiving Sustainability with Ireland: Learning from the IDS-TILDA Carers Study. Healthcare in times of crisis: adaptive responses and global innovations., THE CONF 2025 (Trinity Health and Education International Research Conference), Trinity College Dublin, 5-6 March 2025, Trinity College Dublin, 2025, Notes: [Oral Presentation], Conference Paper, PUBLISHED  URL
Brennan, D., McCarron, M., McCallion, P. & D'eath, M., Keeping it in the Family: The rejection of Irish Constitutional amendment on familycaregiving - Insights from a Carers Study, THE CONF 2025 (Trinity Health and Education International Research Conference), Trinity College Dublin (Theme: Healthcare in times of crisis: resilience at home and abroad), 4th - 6th March 2025, Trinity College Dublin, 2025, Conference Paper, PUBLISHED  URL
  

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Breslin, Niall; Brennan, Damien (contributor), 'All That Remains with Niall Breslin', Ireland, RTÉ One (National TV), 2026, -, Notes: [Niall sets out to remember more than 1,300 people buried in unmarked graves in the grounds of the former St Loman's psychiatric hospital in his native Mullingar], Broadcast, PUBLISHED
Little, James; Brennan, Damien (contributor), 'Screening Coercive Confinement Ireland's Institutions in Word and Image', Dublin, Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI), 2026, -, Exhibition, PUBLISHED
Brennan, Cianán, Older adults with intellectual disabilities face exclusion, TDs and senators to hear, 2026, -, Miscellaneous, PUBLISHED
Damien Brennan, Gender and the Asylum: Mental Hospital Confinement in Ireland 1800 - 2025, DU History and TCD Women's Health Society, TCD, 23 October 2025, 2025, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED
Kitty Holland, `He was kept locked in a room with a leg-shackle until the 1980s: Stories from Ireland's state-run asylums, 2025, -, Miscellaneous, PUBLISHED
, People with intellectual disability in limbo as families shun talks on future Irish, 2017, -, Miscellaneous, PUBLISHED
Damien Brennan, Mental Health and Happiness in Ireland, Trinity Week Symposium, Trinity College, 9th April, 2014, Trinity College, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED
Damien Brennan, Time for Those Damaged by the Asylum System to Tell Their Stories, 2014, -, Miscellaneous, PUBLISHED
Brennan, Damien, 'The Right Hook', NewsTalk Radio, 2013, -, Broadcast, PUBLISHED
Marian Finucane; Damien Brennan, 'Marian Finucane Radio Show', Sunday Morning Radio, Ireland, RTE, 2013, -, Broadcast, PUBLISHED

  


Page 1 of 2
Award Date
Speaker - Best Collaborative Event 2025 | Dublin University History Society & Women's Health Society November 2025
Masters in Arts (j.o.) | Trinity College Dublin November 2006
Dean of Health Sciences Innovation in Teaching Award 2024/2025 2025
RESEARCH WITH SOCIAL IMPACT Collectively, my research explores how societies organise, experience and reform systems of care. Through frontline experience as a registered psychiatric nurse, and aid worker in refugee camps, my research is fuelled by lived experience. Combining clinically grounded research with sociological analysis, my work considers the optimal provision of care across the lifespan, from birth to death, and the questions of who, where and how care should be provided. These contributions were recently recognised by my peers, through election as a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin, in 2026. Tangible examples of my sustained effort in progressing this field include roles as Co-Applicant, and PI of the Family Carers study, nested within IDS-TILDA, a global-leading, HRB-funded longitudinal study of ageing with an intellectual disability (ID) " also among the longest-running studies of care globally. Wave 6, just complete, demonstrates the interconnected challenges relating to long term care, ageing, and declining health. This reflects related studies funded by the Irish Research Council and National Disability Authority on long-term care, for which I was PI. Cumulatively, this policy-oriented research has defined a societal challenge around care provision and an ageing population, informing parliamentary briefings to the Oireachtas to address care capacity within communities and families. As such my research "serves society, making positive and lasting change through the advancement of knowledge and discovery" which directly aligns to and advances the Trinity Strategic Plan 2025"2030 Thrive. In parallel, I made a unique contribution to unpacking Ireland's historical reliance on institutional confinement. My monograph, Irish Insanity 1800"2000 (2014), mapped a 200-year process establishing Ireland's uniquely high rate of mental hospital residency " prompting new scholarly conversations about the responsibilities of families and communities in post-institutional society, and rethinking how care is organised and valued in Irish society. PROGRESSIVE RESEARCH FOCUS With overall responsibility for the research management of the School (as per Statutes - Schedule 2), in my role as Head of School I embrace a purpose-driven approach to research leadership. Fostering a collaborative environment in which researchers can flourish, since 2024 when I took the helm as Head of School, the School of Nursing & Midwifery has become a global research leader. The School ranked FIRST in Ireland, FIRST in the EU, and TENTH in the WORLD for NURSING as ranked by 2026 QS World University Rankings. Achieving the highest rankings for any subject in any HEI on the island of Ireland, this is also the highest QS ranking ever for the School, moving from 26th in 2024, 20th in 2025, to 10th in 2026 CITATIONS INCREASED: (overall **%) from **** to ***** in 2024-2025 and *** to **** in 2025-2026 RESEARCH FUNDING APPLICATIONS VALUE or NUMBER: (overall **%) Increased from **** to ***** in 2024-2025 and *** to **** in 2025-2026 RESEARCH FUNDING SECURED: VALUE or NUMBER (overall **%) **** to ***** in 2024-2025 and *** to **** in 2025-2026