Re: Chosing Masters in Finance (MBS vs MSc)?
For my two cents I'd go for Trinity's new course. The course spec is more interesting. The person running it is a guy named Brian Lucey, he has written some pretty interesting papers on behavioural finance. The fact that it's a new course shouldn't take away from it. It actually seems to bring some new modules to it that are cutting edge and job specific e.g. financial informatics, data analysis, behavioural finance along with the more regular modules.
In addition to this, the modules are being taught in block format, two weeks equity & bond valuation then move onto the next module. I would have loved to have done a course in this manner. The MSc covers way more than the MBS including your Financial Information Analysis and Corporate Finance which should be your basics in an MBS.
If you check out the postgraduate section on boards.ie you'll see some discussion on this, including input from Mr.Lucey.
Finishing my exams in my MSc tomorrow in UL (another great course). If I was starting again, the Trinity course would have been given some serious consideration (along with DCU's Financial & Capital Markets). I wouldn't have considered Smurfit, and not because of the MSc/MBS difference.
The other thing to consider is the timetable of the course. I think it's different to regular full-time courses to facilitate part-time students but am not 100% on this.