Dr Kathryn Hayes – MODERATOR
Kathryn Hayes is Associate Professor and Course Director of the BA in Journalism and Digital Communication at the University of Limerick since 2016. A working journalist with twenty years experience in print, online and broadcast journalism for national and regional media organisations, and Limerick correspondent for ‘The Irish Times’ newspaper 2003 – 2016.

Áine Fitzgerald
Áine is an award-winning journalist and editor. In 2022 she became the first female to be appointed to the role of editor in the Limerick Leader’s 133-year history. Born and raised in Kilmallock, Áine completed a Bachelor of Arts Degree at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, majoring in Media and Irish, followed by a Master’s in Journalism in NUIG.

Gillian Devlin
Gillian Devlin is Head of News at Live95.

Maureen Browne
Journalist
A veteran journalist, Maureen is proprietor of Hartcliffe Communications, a media, management and public affairs consultancy. She is also a health analyst and commentator, managing editor of ‘The Consultant’ (official journal of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association), editor ‘Health Manager’ (official journal of the Health Management Institute of Ireland and editor of the ‘Clinical Care Journal’. She is also an adjudicator of the Irish Medical Times Irish Healthcare Awards 2024.

Susan Daly
Susan Daly is Managing Editor of Journal Media, which includes ‘The Journal’ news publication, ‘The Journal FactCheck’, ‘The Journal Investigates’, and sportswriting publication ‘The42’. She sits on the steering group of Media Literacy Ireland and the advisory group of the Institute for Future Media Democracy and Society in DCU. Susan has worked in the news industry for over 25 years, beginning in ‘The Echo’ in Cork, working her way to the newsdesk in ‘The Irish Daily Star’ and later in the ‘Irish Independent’, before becoming Editor of ‘The Journal’ in 2011. A graduate of UCC, she also studied as a Fellow of the Sulzberger Journalism Program in Columbia, New York

Rev Nóirín Ní Riain — MUSICAL INTERLUDE
Nóirín is an Interfaith Minister (One Spirit Interfaith Seminary), an internationally acclaimed spiritual singer, theologian, writer, musicologist and celtic spirituality expert. Ní Riain performs weddings, naming ceremonies, concerts, lectures and gives workshops all over the world. She lives near Glenstal Abbey, Limerick.

Dr Susan Halvey
Susan is a lecturer in Critical and Contextual Studies, Limerick School of Art & Design: TUS. She graduated from LSAD with a BA in Fine Art Painting before qualifying as an Art & Design Teacher. After spending some time teaching in Valladolid, Spain, she went on to study for a Masters in History of Art at Goldsmiths, University of London. In 2018, Susan completed a PhD in Education at the University of Limerick. The research explored the experiences of the Visual Arts Practice PhD in Ireland.

Sean Connolly
Sean Connolly has taught at the University of Ulster and Queen’s University, Belfast, where he was Professor of Irish History from 1996 to 2017. His most recent book is On Every Tide: The Making and Unmaking of the Irish World (2022) He also edited the Oxford Companion to Irish History (1998).

Tim O’Connor
Tim O’Connor is a former senior diplomat of the Irish Foreign Service (1979–2007) and a former Secretary General (Chief of Staff) to the President of Ireland (2007–2010). Most of his career was spent working on the Northern Ireland Peace Process. He was a member of the Irish government talks team for the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. He was Consul General of Ireland to New York from 2005–2007. Since retirement, Tim has combined running his advisory business with several voluntary positions; he is also currently the Government of Ireland Representative on the Independent Reporting Commission on Paramilitarism in NI. Tim holds four honorary doctorates and was appointed Honorary Professor of Practice at Queens University in 2022.

Pat Hayes — MODERATOR
Pat Hayes is a historian and current Chair of Bruff Heritage Group.

Larry Donnelly
Larry Donnelly is a Boston born and educated attorney who is a lecturer and Director of Clinical Legal Education in the School of Law at the University of Galway. From a prominent Boston Irish political family, and formerly active in politics and government in Massachusetts, he is now a frequent media commentator on politics, current affairs and law in Ireland and the US. He is also a regular political columnist with ‘The Journal.ie’, ‘The Irish Post’ and ‘Boston Irish’ magazine. His memoir, ‘The Bostonian: Life in a Boston Irish Political Family’, was published by Gill Books in 2021.

Dr Scott Lucas
Scott Lucas is Professor of International Politics at the Clinton Institute, University College Dublin, Professor Emeritus of International Politics at the University of Birmingham and editor-in-chief of ‘EA Worldview.’ He is a specialist in American politics, US and British foreign policy and international affairs, including the Middle East and Iran, Europe and Asia.
Scott worked as a journalist in the US from the age of 16. He wrote for newspapers including ‘The Guardian’ and ‘The Independent’ and was an essayist for ‘The New Statesman’ before he founded ‘EA Worldview’ in November 2008. He is prominent in international radio, TV and electronic sites as a leading political analyst, working with outlets such as RTÉ, BBC, Sky, Al Jazeera English, France 24 English, Deutsche Welle, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Poland’s TVP World, Pakistan’s PTV World, Indian channels such as NDTV and WION, Dublin Newstalk and Virgin Media News.
Scott was born in Alabama in the US. He moved to the UK at age twenty-one and lived there for almost forty years before relocating to Wicklow this year. He is a long-suffering Leeds Utd supporter, a member of Red Sox Nation and a devotee of great music from The Chicks to David Bowie and The Pogues to Aimee Mann.

Stephen O’Byrnes — MODERATOR
Stephen was news analysis editor of the ‘Irish Independent’, a founder of the Progressive Democrats in the 1980s with Des O’Malley, Mary Harney, Michael McDowell and Pat Cox. He served as assistant Government Press Secretary in the historic Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats government 1989–1992. Author of a history of the Fine Gael party under Garret Fitzgerald.