Dr Thamil Venthan Ananthavinayagan is a University of Galway alumnus who has had an illustrious career in the area of human rights. Currently, he is Assistant Principal and Senior Legal Researcher at the Irish Department of Justice, as well as a Lecturer at Maynooth University.
Dr Ananthavinayagan explains how he came to be in Galway, what influenced his human rights work, and his trajectory after leaving University of Galway. He also tells us about the warm – and surprising – welcome he received when arriving in Galway as a stranger, why Galway spoke to him during his stay, and his enduring fondness for the City of Tribes and its people.
Thamil Venthan Ananthavinayagan (TVA): I vividly remember the day I arrived in Galway – an event in my life which introduced me to Irish culture and the Galwegian community spirit. My mother told me to fly from my home city in Germany, Bonn, via London to Ireland, so that I could receive my uncle’s blessing before I continued my PhD journey. Coming from a Tamil culture, this is important as we need to obtain blessings from our elders before major life events. My uncle bought me all sorts of groceries when I had arrived that Friday, insisting: “Nephew, Ireland is a deeply Catholic country, you won’t be able to buy anything on a Sunday there.” I trusted him.
I arrived on a dark, rainy Saturday evening in October of 2013. When I landed at Shannon, I took the bus for my first ever journey to Galway. I remember thinking, this bus ride is never ending. Even so, the bus did indeed arrive, and a friendly female taxi driver picked me up from the station in Galway City to cart me to my future house in Dangan. On the way, I asked her where the nearest supermarket was, which I planned to go to on Monday, as I assumed I would have to wait.
She replied: “Why Monday, son?”
I responded: “Well, Ireland is a Catholic country so …”
She sighed and answered with a profound sentence: “Ah, greed has poisoned our hearts. Everything is open here on a Sunday. We don’t rest, we always think about money.” The next thing she did was stop at a Centra. She idled the taxi metre, went into the shop, and came out with a white plastic bag. We then continued to drive to my new house. When we got there, she gave me the white bag of groceries. Surprised, I told her that I need to pay her for the groceries, which she refused.
I told her: “Well, I will pay for the taxi ride.”
To this she replied: “No, son. You’re home in Galway, now you’re part of the Tribes. Welcome to Galway.”
I think this moment really defined what Ireland is and who the Galwegians are: people of struggle who understand struggle. People who value community and who want to help. People who seek to create an inclusive Ireland. My PhD, to that end, set me up for my academic career, and the kindness of Galwegians certainly carried me through completing the PhD.
TVA: I think I became a human rights lawyer because of my father. My father was a Tamil freedom fighter back in Sri Lanka, who fought for the rights of the oppressed Tamils against the Sinhala government. To put it in an Irish perspective, he was the Tamil version of Michael Collins. He was the freedom icon to Tamils. During his imprisonment of 7 years, he was brutally tortured – knowing this, I had asked him why he had given up his privileged life as civil engineer, his background coming from a highly esteemed family. His answer was: “There are certain moments, my son, when you have to do the right thing. If you see injustice, then you don’t look away, you speak up and fight for people when they struggle.”
He was a lawyer without a law degree. I suppose I wanted to fulfil his dream.
I studied law in Germany, where I was born, and worked as a lawyer in refugee and tenancy law, but I also worked in the political sphere for politicians in Düsseldorf and Berlin. I pursued an LLM at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. When Michael O’Flaherty, the then-Director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights, advertised a PhD position in Galway, I applied. The rest, then, became history.
TVA: After the PhD, I was “head-hunted” by a private university in Dublin to be a Senior Lecturer in 2017, and I later worked across all the major universities in Dublin. I also worked as a panel member at the International Protection Office, with responsibility for interviewing asylum applicants in Ireland. I published my PhD with Springer, part of the publishing entity Springer Nature. The PhD dealt with the United Nations human rights machinery, using Sri Lanka as a case study. I also went on to publish a range of other peer-reviewed articles and chapters with Springer.
During the pandemic, I found I needed to make some big decisions – I wanted to continue my academic career, but not within its current context at that time. A position came up at the University of Nottingham, and I applied. I started at the University of Nottingham in 2021 and worked there until 2023. I taught a variety of courses, organised various human rights events, mentored, and held other extra-curricular positions for the School of Law. I was even voted to the Senate of the University of Nottingham, and I won the Lord Dearing Award, an award for learning and teaching excellence. Around this time, I was also promoted to Assistant Professor.
Toward the end of the academic year of 2022–2023, it became evident that my wife didn’t want to move to the United Kingdom. She was working with the Irish civil service, and she encouraged me to apply for a senior civil service role in the Department of Justice, namely Assistant Principal and Senior Legal Researcher. While delighted to be successful, I was very sad to leave something I love, that being teaching and the intellectual engagement with students. In August 2023 I started with the Irish civil service, and ultimately felt it was the right thing to do. I was also offered a guest professorship at a university in Torino, Italy, and an Adjunct Professor role at Woxsen University in India, which I accepted. Since October 2024, I have also been a Lecturer at Maynooth University, a position I was recruited for directly by the Dean of the School of Law. In this way, I find myself fulfilling a role in direct service to Ireland, but I also have the opportunity to pursue my academic passion.
I’ve now lived 11 years in this country, and I consider Ireland home. I feel it is my duty to serve the state as a civil servant. The motto of the Department of Justice is: “Safe, fair and inclusive Ireland.” I think that resonated with me on many levels, and it reminded me strongly of arriving that first day in Galway. I’m pleased to contribute to a country which allows people to find their safe haven in an inclusive Ireland.
TVA: My father always told me: “It is not a shame to fall, it is a shame if you don’t get up.” Pursuing a PhD, or any studies, especially when you are away from home, is not easy. You will think of giving up on many occasions. But, if you are on a similar journey, my wife and I came here and overcame our difficulties – amongst the Galwegian people, any challenge will be easy to overcome. Students and researchers in Galway are blessed – the kindness of the people and their history is an inspiration.
