John Quinn trained as a teacher
and worked in that profession for a decade. After a number of years as an
editor, John joined RTÉ and delivered some of RTÉ’s finest programmes. His
radio work resulted not only in national awards and international acclaim, but
also led to important publications. Following the untimely death of his wife
Olive, John produced a deeply moving personal documentary. The books that
followed are equally powerful. John is a
much loved, award winning writer. Common threads shine through all his work. He
believes in the importance of building up our human community in peace and
civility.
Omagh-born Martina Devlin is a
journalist and author. In 2012 she won the Royal Society of Literature’s VS
Pritchett Prize for a short story. Her books include “Banksters”, co-authored
with RTE’s David Murphy, “Ship of Dreams” a novel about the Titanic, and a
memoir, “The Hollow Heart.” She writes a weekly current affairs column for the
Irish Independent and was named 2011 columnist of the year by the National
Newspapers of Ireland. She has also won a Hennessy Literary Award, was
shortlisted twice for the Irish Book of the Year awards, and was
writer-in-residence at the Princess Grace Irish Library in Monaco.
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Founder of Kanchi and The Ability
Awards, Caroline Casey is driving societal change aimed at a complete reframing
of disability. Caroline’s vision for Kanchi is to create an inclusive world for
people with disabilities by engaging the business and media worlds on their own
terms. The first Irish person to be
appointed a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, Caroline is also an
Ashoka Fellow, an Eisenhower Fellow, and holds an honorary doctorate from
National University Ireland. She travels the globe presenting at prestigious
events. Caroline is visually impaired – however, she has never experienced this
as a limitation.
Róisín Ingle is an Irish Times
journalist and author. Collected together for the first time in her book
“Pieces of Me: A Life-in-Progress”, Roisin Ingle's weekly columns from The
Irish Times Magazine display her disarmingly open style, always humorous, often
deeply affecting. She muses on life, love, and everything in between. The columns are accompanied by new writings
in which she reflects on the death of her father, her failed marriage, her
unlikely path into journalism, and her long-standing love affair with Borza's
fish and chips. Roisin lives in Dublin with her boyfriend and their two
daughters. She believes all the best families are slightly dysfunctional.
Dr Leeann Lane, a graduate of UCC
and Boston College, is Head of Irish Studies and Head of the School of
Humanities at Mater Dei Institute of Education, Dublin. She has published on
George Russell, on the children's novelist Patricia Lynch and is writer of one
of our 100 Books with a Difference, “Rosamond Jacob: Third Person Singular”. A
course writer and tutor of a history module on a distance education Bachelor of
Arts programme, Dr Lane was recently nominated to the Advisory Group on
Centenary Commemorations. She is currently working on a study of single women
in the early Free State period and is a committee member of the Women's History
Association of Ireland.
Baroness Nuala O’Loan DBE, MRIA
is a member of the UK House of Lords and Chair of the Governing Authority of
NUI Maynooth. Ireland's Roving
Ambassador for Conflict Resolution and Special Envoy to Timor Leste, she also
works with the International Contact Group Basque in Spain. As Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, she
was responsible for investigating the police. She has chaired and served on
public bodies in areas as diverse as the European Union, Health, Transport,
Policing, Human Rights and Energy. Her writing on justice, policing, and faith
has been influential and she speaks regularly across the world. She has acted in an advisory capacity to
government agencies responsible for policing and police accountability, in
Africa, Asia, India, Europe and North and South America. She is the wife of Declan O'Loan MLA and they
have 5 sons.
Úna-Minh Kavanagh was adopted
from Vietnam by a Kerry woman and has been living in Ireland since she was six
weeks old. The 22 year old, who has a degree in Irish and Journalism, now works
as a journalist up in Dublin. Throughout the years she’s been the subject of
racial abuse both verbal and physical because of how she looks. She hopes that
by speaking out about her experiences, people will acknowledge that this still
happens in Ireland and that something might be done about it.
Reverend Elizabeth Hewitt was
ordained in 1983 to the Methodist Church in Ireland. She was officially
welcomed as the Minister of the Methodist Church’s Adare and Ballingrane
Circuit in July 2011 and is Convener for Inter-Church Relations for the
Methodist Church in Ireland. She served as Superintendent of Glenavy and Moira
Circuit and as Chaplain in the Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice. Reverend
Hewitt worked with CRUSE Bereavement Care on a project entitled “Remember your
Child.”
Dr Eibhear Walshe is a senior
lecturer in the Department of Modern English at University College Cork. His
biography “Kate O’Brien: A Writing Life” was published in 2006 and he edited
“Elizabeth Bowen: Visions and Revisions” in 2008. He was a section editor for “The
Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing: Volume 4”; a contributor to “The New
Dictionary of Biography” and guest edited “The Irish Review” in 2000. His other
publications include a range of edited collections. He has completed a study of Wilde and Modern
Ireland. His memoir, “Cissie’s Abattoir” was published in 2009 and he has just
completed his first novel.
John Joe Nevin was born in June
1989. He is a native of Mullingar, Co
Westmeath. He attended Scoil Mhuire Christian Brothers School and is a member
of the Traveller community. He won a gold medal in the bantamweight division in
the European Amateur Championships in June 2013 when he outclassed Mykola
Butsenko from Belarus.
He won the Irish National Championships
and qualified for the 2008 Summer Olympics at age 18 and four years later
qualified for the 2012 Olympics where he won a won a silver medal. In the semi-final
he defeated the reigning bantamweight world champion Lazaro Alvarez from Cuba.
He is currently the number one ranked amateur bantamweight boxer in the world. He boxes out of the Cavan Boxing Club under
Coach Brian McKeown.
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