Our Board of Directors
Sheila Nunan (Chairperson)
Deirdre Kenny (NI)
Lorelei Harris
Richard McBride (NI)
Kim Mawhinney (NI)
Stephen Sexton (NI)
Siobhán Ní Éanaigh
Jimmy Fay (NI)
Fergus Finlay
Sheila Nunan
Chairperson of the Board of Directors.
Appointed 5 September 2022.
Sheila Nunan has extensive leadership experience in civil society organisations. Sheila was President of ICTU and General Secretary of INTO, the largest teaching union on the island of Ireland representing members North and South between 2009-2019. She was a member of the negotiating team on all national Public Service Pay Agreements between 2010-2019. She serves on the Governing Body of Maynooth University, the National College of Ireland, Early Childhood Ireland and the Institute of International and European Affairs. Sheila is also a Director and Chair of Comhar Linn INTO Credit Union. As a former teacher and Principal, she worked on intercultural projects, Traveller education projects, was a member of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), and the DES Task Force of Gender Equality in Higher Education. Sheila is a graduate of UCD and St. Patrick's College Drumcondra.
Deirdre Kenny
Chairperson Audit and Risk Committee
Appointed 06/2019
Originally from Dublin and a graduate of UCD, Deirdre came to Northern Ireland in 1973 to work as a Careers Officer working in secondary level schools across NI but retired as a Senior Civil Servant having served as Director of Health Development, Director of Corporate Services and Director of Road Safety and Vehicle Regulation across several NI departments. She has worked in areas as diverse as public health, tourism, north/south issues, economic development, employment schemes for young people and the long term unemployed, personnel/ human resources, road safety and emergency planning.
She is currently a member of the Board of Libraries NI.
Deirdre has a strong interest in the arts having been involved in amateur drama for many years. She is currently involved with a Belfast based group of creative writers and through her past work with the Belfast Picture Borrowing Group, provided support to local artists. Since retiring she has become an enthusiastic (if indifferent) water colourist.
Richard McBride
Appointed 06/2017. Reappointed for a second five year term 4 June 2022.
Richard McBride was born and brought up in Derry~Londonderry. He read law at Trinity College Dublin and obtained his master’s degree from University College London. He is currently researching for a PhD in Irish legal history at Queen’s University Belfast and has been a member of the Irish Legal History Society since 1990. He has practised as a solicitor in England and Wales since 1995, specialising in real estate finance and general finance. He is also admitted to practise in Ireland and Northern Ireland. His work has taken him to private practise and in-house roles in Belfast, Dublin, Frankfurt and London and he is now an independent legal consultant He has a keen interest in opera and is a member of the Board of Northern Ireland Opera.
Kim Mawhinney
Member of the House and Collections Committee
Appointed 06/2018
Kim is Head of Art at the National Museums NI and she is currently Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Craft NI. Throughout her career Kim has curated, juried, and selected exhibitions, lectured and written about the history and development of museums and art curation, and the accessibility of art collections.
Stephen Sexton
Appointed 12/2018
Stephen Sexton lives in Belfast where he teaches at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry, at Queen's University, Belfast. A first book will be published by Penguin in 2019. His pamphlet, Oils, published by The Emma Press in 2014, was the Poetry Book Society’s Winter Pamphlet Choice. Poems have been published in Granta, Poetry London, and Best British Poetry 2015. He was the winner of the 2016 National Poetry Competition and the recipient of an ACES award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. He received an Eric Gregory Award in 2018.
Lorelei Harris
Member of the Editorial Subgroup (strategy and policies) and search committee
Appointed 10/2021
Originally from South Africa, Lorelei Harris is an independent cultural producer and consultant who has lived in Ireland since 1979. She has previously worked as Head of Arts and Cultural Strategy for RTÉ and as Editor of Arts, Features and Drama for RTÉ Radio 1. In addition to creating and commissioning numerous ground breaking formats and series, she initiated and headed up RTÉ Road to the Rising (2015) and RTÉ Reflecting the Rising (2016), both large scale public events commemorating the Easter Rising.
Lorelei has had a long association with the European Broadcasting Union, serving as Chair of the Radio Features Committee and as a member of the Culture Group. She is also an internationally and nationally awarded documentary and feature maker. Lorelei is currently on the Board of Kilkenny Arts Festival and a member of the Content Committee of the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI). She is also a member of the judging panel of the Irish Times Theatre Awards (2020).
Siobhán Ní Éanaigh
Appointed 06/2022
A Dubliner, Siobhán studied architecture at UCD (IRL), UVA (USA), RMIT(AUS). A skilled architect and design thinker with decades of professional experience in Ireland and mainland Europe including with the IBA Berlin’84/87. A founding partner / director (recently retired) of McGarry Ní Éanaigh Architects with strengths of high quality public sector architecture - the practice work being nominated for the 2010 OECD Compendium of Exemplary Educational Facilities, its design for Smithfield Public Space winning the inaugural joint CCCB European Prize for Urban Public Space, in 2017 an international UIA Medal for Coláiste Ailigh and the RIAI Architecture Award for Education / Learning in 2014, 2015, 2021, 2022. A previous Board Member of An Chomhairle Éalaíon / The Arts Council of Ireland, she has been awarded an EU Research Fellowship and a PhD in Architecture and Design. A national / international competition jury member, she has taught / lectured / examined in schools of architecture at home and abroad.
Jimmy Fay
Appointed 06/2022
Jimmy Fay is the Executive Producer and Artistic Director of the Lyric Theatre, Belfast. He set up his own production company, Bedrock Productions in 1993 of which he was Artistic Director until 2013. The mission for Bedrock was to produce work unfamiliar to Irish audiences from international and local playwrights. Among the many productions Bedrock produced were Irish premiers of Blasted by Sarah Kane, Faraway and The Skriker by Caryl Churchill, Quay West and Roberto Zucco by Bernard Marie Koltes, Deep Space by Alex Johnston, wideboy gospel by Ken Harmon and Shooting Gallery by Des Bishop and Arthur Riordan.Through Bedrock he co-founded the Dublin Fringe Festival and was the first director of the festival.
Jimmy is a former acting Literary Manager of the Abbey Theatre.
As a Freelance Theatre Director Jimmy has worked with Bickerstaffe Theatre Company; Theatre Royal, Plymouth; Bush Theatre, London; Landmark Productions, Dublin; Waterford Youth Drama; National Youth Drama, Ireland; Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh; Tinderbox Theatre, Belfast; Arambe Productions; Lyric Theatre, Belfast; Abbey Theatre, Dublin; Olympia Theatre, Gaiety Theatre, Project Arts Centre, Dublin; New Theatre, Dublin; Smock Alley, Dublin; Atlantic Theatre, New York; Arad State Theatre and the Sibiu Festival, Romania.
He has been nominated for the Best Director Irish Times several times and won it for his production of Saved by Edward Bond at the Peacock Theatre.
Of the many productions Jimmy has directed he is most fond of East by Steven Berkoff, Blasted by Sarah Kane, Faraway by Caryl Churchill, Electroshock, a Theatre of Cruelty Season with Bedrock productions; At Swim Two Birds by Flann O’Brian adapted by Alex Johnston, Saved by Edward Bond, True West by Sam Shepard, Quietly by Owen McCafferty at the Peacock Theatre; Breaking Dad by Paul Howard for Landmark Productions, The School for Scandal by R.B. Sheridan, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht, The Risen People by James Plunkett at the Abbey; Pentecost by Stewart Parker, Double Cross by Tom Kilroy for the Lyric Theatre.
Fergus Finlay
Appointed 03/2023
Fergus Finlay is a retired CEO of Barnardos, Ireland’s largest children’s charity, having worked in this position for 13 years. For around twenty years prior to that he was employed as Senior Adviser to the Labour Party. He was one of the drafters of the Downing Street Declaration and was centrally involved in the election of President Mary Robinson. He also served as a Director of Wilson Hartnell Public Relations. He is the author of four best-selling books.
He has been a life-long campaigner for the rights of people with disabilities and is currently chair of a government task force to implement a comprehensive employment strategy for people with disabilities. For ten years he has also worked as Chair of the Dolphin House Regeneration Board. He is also Chair of Lakers in Bray, a highly successful club and service provider for young people and adults with an intellectual disability, and is a member of the Charities Regulatory Authority. He broadcasts regularly on radio and television and contributes a weekly column to the Irish Examiner. Fergus Finlay was awarded a Human Rights Award by the French Embassy in Dublin in 2013 to recognise the work of Barnardos with Ireland’s children. He was also honoured by UCC as an Outstanding Alumnus in 2016.
Committee Members, External
Rita McNamee Audit and Risk Committee Finance Manager, Libraries NI
Orla Tomany Audit and Risk Committee
Our In-House Team
The Tyrone Guthrie Centre provides residential work space for local, national, and international artists. Our in-house team, led by a Resident Director, and a long-standing and committed team who provide a quiet, efficient, and homely atmosphere that enables artists to engage fully with a range of facilities, and to focus on their work.
To contact our in-house team, please see details on the contact tab.
Ingrid Adams, Manager;
Mary Clerkin, Senior Administrator;
Martina Beagan, Finance Officer;
Lavina McAdoo, Chef; Teresa Rudden, Housekeeper; Esther Hall, Housekeeper; Maryalice Lynch, Housekeeper; Sylvia Fawcett, Housekeeper; Joan Reilly, Housekeeper; Antoinette Ceelen, Chef (part time); Janice McCaul, Chef (part time), Gerry McFarland, Maintenance (part time).
