The most honest common entry arrangement in the country. Four streams, and you pick yours in September after you arrive, with a few weeks to change your mind. If you are undecided there is even a code that says so.
Maynooth puts it plainly: MH502 is one degree with pathways in first year, so it can be entered only once on a CAO application. You choose a stream when you start in September, and you can change your mind during the first few weeks provided you meet the entry requirements for the stream you are moving to.
And if you are undecided, there is a code for that. Maynooth offers OPC, open choice to all degree streams. You apply without naming one and decide after admission. Worth knowing, because students routinely name a stream on a form purely because the form asked them to, and then feel committed to it.
Compare this to UCD's DN600, where the option is studied from Stage 1 and the mechanism for choosing it is not even published. Maynooth is the clearer of the two if a student wants law but is not sure what to pair it with.
A clean half and half split. The Law half is identical whichever stream you choose, so a student who switches in October has lost nothing on that side.
| Module | Credits | Semester |
|---|---|---|
LW151 Law of Torts | 5 | 1 |
LW152 Contract Law | 5 | 1 |
LW153 Introduction to Legal Research | 2.5 | 1 |
LW155 Introduction to Law | 2.5 | 1 |
LW156 Introduction to Law 2 | 2.5 | 2 |
LW157 Criminal Law | 5 | 2 |
LW158 Constitutional Law | 5 | 2 |
LW177 Professional Skills for New Law Students | 2.5 | 2 |
Torts, contract, criminal and constitutional law are the four foundations of any qualifying law degree, and Maynooth front-loads all of them into first year rather than spreading them across two.
Maynooth publishes codes, credits and semesters but not descriptors we could read. What follows describes each subject as it is taught on any Irish law degree, so treat it as orientation rather than as the syllabus. The credits and semesters are Maynooth's own and are exact.
Torts, contract, criminal and constitutional. Maynooth puts all four in first year rather than spreading them over two, which is a heavier start than most law degrees and a more complete one.
LW151Civil wrongs outside contract. Negligence and duty of care, nuisance, defamation, and who pays when a person is injured or a reputation damaged. The law behind most personal injury and professional negligence work.
LW152When a promise becomes legally binding. Offer and acceptance, consideration, the terms of an agreement, when a contract can be undone, and what follows when somebody breaks one. The foundation of commercial practice.
LW157What makes conduct a crime: the act and the state of mind behind it, the main offences against the person and against property, and the defences. The subject that most students arrive expecting law to be.
LW158Bunreacht na hEireann. How the State is structured, the separation of powers between the Oireachtas, the Government and the courts, and the fundamental rights the Constitution protects and how judges have interpreted them.
Four modules at 2.5 credits each rather than two at five. Small, and they are the part that decides whether second year goes well.
LW155Where law comes from, how the Irish legal system is put together, and the vocabulary you need before the substantive subjects make sense.
LW156The continuation, in the second semester.
LW153Finding the law: cases, legislation, databases and citation. Dull to describe and the single most useful thing in first year.
LW177Writing, arguing and presenting as a lawyer does. The bridge between being able to find the law and being able to use it.
AC151AC152AC160EC101Introduction to Accounting and Microeconomics 1 in the first semester, then Financial Accounting I and Fundamentals of Finance and Accounting in the second. Real accounting from the start rather than business studies with numbers in it, which is why the Maths requirement is there.
MN151MN154MN155MN156Business Models and Marketing, and Introduction to Managing Innovation, then Organisational Behaviour and Management, and Introduction to Business Ethics. Broader and less numerical than the accounting stream, and the ethics module sits unusually early.
LW166LW165Exploring Criminology in the first semester and Introduction to Criminal Justice in the second. Only 15 credits, because this stream also carries an Arts subject or Critical Skills alongside. Criminology is about why crime happens and what society does about it, which is a different question from what the criminal law says.
Everything in italics above is our description of the subject, not Maynooth's. The codes, titles, credits and semesters come from the Maynooth course finder and are exact. The university will give you the official module descriptors, and they are worth reading before you settle on a stream in September.
All four are qualifying law degrees, so all four lead to the professional route through the King's Inns or Blackhall Place. The stream decides what you are good at besides law.
Corporate and commercial practice, tax, insolvency, forensic accounting, and the combined route towards both legal and accountancy qualifications. The most commercially targeted of the four.
| First year, the other 30 credits | Credits | Semester |
|---|---|---|
AC151 Introduction to Accounting | 7.5 | 1 |
EC101 Microeconomics 1 | 7.5 | 1 |
AC152 Financial Accounting I | 7.5 | 2 |
AC160 Fundamentals of Finance and Accounting | 7.5 | 2 |
Needs O4/H7 Maths. All four modules compulsory.
In-house legal and compliance roles, commercial practice, regulation, and management in regulated industries. Broader and less numerical than the accounting stream.
| First year, the other 30 credits | Credits | Semester |
|---|---|---|
MN151 Business Models and Marketing | 7.5 | 1 |
MN154 Introduction to Managing Innovation | 7.5 | 1 |
MN155 Organisational Behaviour and Management | 7.5 | 2 |
MN156 Introduction to Business Ethics | 7.5 | 2 |
Needs O4/H7 Maths. All four modules compulsory.
Criminal practice, the probation and prison services, An Garda Siochana, victim support, policy and criminal justice research. The stream for somebody drawn to the criminal side rather than the commercial.
The split is different here: 30 credits of Law, 15 credits of Criminology, and one Arts subject, or Critical Skills. So this stream carries a third element the other two do not.
| Criminology modules | Credits | Semester |
|---|---|---|
LW166 Exploring Criminology | 7.5 | 1 |
LW165 Introduction to Criminal Justice | 7.5 | 2 |
No additional Maths requirement.
The widest of the four. 30 credits of Law with two subjects chosen from the BA subject groups, excluding Law itself. Leads wherever the arts subjects lead, with a qualifying law degree underneath: public service, journalism, human rights, policy, or practice.
Critical Skills is available in first year only. The full list of BA subjects available to pair with Law is not published on the LWD page and should be checked with the university.
Maynooth runs subject talks in early September, before modules are locked. In the 2025 cycle those were the Tuesday and Wednesday of the first week. Go to the ones for streams you are unsure about.
The stream is set when you register your qualification, subjects and modules online. There is also compulsory in-person orientation and document verification.
Maynooth states you can, once you meet the requirements for the new stream. For a change into semester two there is a formal route: the R9 First Year Subject Change Request Form, which in the last published cycle was open until mid February.
The autumn deadline is the gap. Maynooth says the first few weeks but does not publish a date we could confirm. Since the Law half is identical across streams, a late switch is less costly than it sounds, but ask for the date at orientation rather than assuming there is room.
The Maths requirement is the one hard gate. O4/H7 Maths is required for both the Accounting and Business streams. A student without it can take MH502 and can take Criminology or Arts, but not those two, and no amount of changing your mind in October alters that.
Ask at the open day: what is the actual deadline in the autumn to change stream, which Arts subjects can be paired with Law on LWD, and should I apply through OPC if I am undecided.
Checked against Maynooth University on 24 August 2026. Sources: the MH502 options page, the open choice OPC page, the course pages for Law and Accounting, Law and Business, Law and Criminology and Law and Arts, the Maynooth course finder qualification records, and the Maynooth first year registration page. Module codes, credits and semesters come from the course finder records and are the most complete first year data of any code in this series. Two things are marked as not found above: the autumn deadline for changing stream, and the list of Arts subjects available on LWD.