Earlier this week, I posted about surprising “products” you can find at Belfast,Northern Ireland’s St. George’s Market. 

There are other spots in Belfast that also bring a smile.  Near the law courts are two shops that offer tailoring and “Legal Clothing,”  one, appropriately enough, run by the Suitor family, and the other with the nice chosen name, Law Suit. 

In Avoca, an Irish-family run business with stores in several spots, both in north and south Ireland, I ran across another “sign of the (aging) times.”  Walking past the card collection in the shop in Belfast, I noticed an array of birthday cards, running from age 2 to … 80, 90, and yes, 100! The proportion of the population in Northern Ireland over age 65 is approaching the 20% mark.

Northern Ireland Cards ... from 2 to.... 80, 90, 100

Photo of Katherine C. Pearson Katherine C. Pearson

Katherine C. Pearson is a Professor of Law and the Arthur L. and Sandra S. Piccone Faculty Scholar at Penn State Dickinson Law in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Her scholarship focuses on laws and policies connected to aging and she has frequently included age-related issues…

Katherine C. Pearson is a Professor of Law and the Arthur L. and Sandra S. Piccone Faculty Scholar at Penn State Dickinson Law in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Her scholarship focuses on laws and policies connected to aging and she has frequently included age-related issues in her teaching of courses on contract law, conflicts of law and nonprofit organizations law.  She is a regular speaker for continuing education programs, both for consumers and lawyers, to address cutting edge concerns in consumer protection for older adults.  She is the author of articles and chapters on access to justice, senior living options including continuing care and life plan communities, long-term care financing and filial obligations, and is the co-author of a treatise, The Law of Financial Abuse and Exploitation (Bisel 2011).

She authored chapters for the Research Handbook on Law, Society and Ageing, published in 2024 as part of a series on law and society handbooks offered by international publisher Edward Elgar. She is a 2024-2025 Fulbright Scholar in Canada and was in residence at the University of Ottawa in the Fall of 2024 as the Research Chair in Health Law, Policy and Ethics.  Her earlier experience as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar (based at the Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, and working in Ireland, Portugal, and the U.K. in 2009-10), resulted in publications, including an article with an international, historical perspective on ethical concerns for attorneys representing older adults, entitled “The Lesson of the Irish Family Pub,” published by Stetson Law Review.

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