caroline casey

Businesswoman and activist

Dublin woman Caroline Casey is behind The Valuable 500, the world’s largest CEO collective and business move for disability inclusion. Since it launched in 2019 it has signed up 500 multinational organisations with combined revenue of over $8tn, employing 20m people worldwide to radically transform the business system. The membership includes 36 of the FTSE 100 companies, 46 of the Fortune 500 and 28 of the Nikkei. Recently appointed president of the The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, Caroline also sits on several diversity and inclusion boards including L’Oréal and Sky.

Lisa Chambers

Senator

Former Mayo TD and now senator Lisa Chambers has not let her exit from the Dáil chamber affect her work advocating for essential women’s issues. A mother herself, she spoke openly about having to go through maternity visits alone at the height of Covid19 restrictions and called on her own party colleagues to work to rectify the issue. In September, she introduced a bill to make stalking a standalone criminal offence under Irish law, with a maximum sentence of 10 years.

Ms Chambers said it was important that legislators listened to women and historically in this country we have not been very good at doing that and we have to frame our laws and modernise our laws in response to what victims have been through.”

Aoife Moore

Catherine corless

Historian

As the woman whose work revealed the truth about the deaths and burials of hundreds of children on the former mother and baby home site in Tuam, Co Galway, Catherine Corless has been unrelenting in her demand for justice. It is in large part thanks to her that in February 2022 Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman published the long-awaited Institutional Burials Bill, allowing allow the exhumation and identification of bodies at institutions like that of Tuam. Corless welcomed the news, saying “this was all we were asking, to take those babies out of the chambers of the sewage tank because that is what is there underneath us”.

eve mcdowell and una ring

Activists

In 2021, Una Ring from Cork and Eve McDowell from Sligo were present in the Seanad as Senator Lisa Chambers introduced the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Stalking (Amendment) Bill, which proposed a new crime of stalking be put on the statute book, with a maximum sentence of 10 years. Both victims of stalking, these brave women came together to spearhead a campaign for a change in the law that would make stalking a standalone offence.

Women like Eve McDowell and Una Ring are using the horror of their experiences to improve the lives of others and prevent what happened to them from happening to others”.

Irish Examiner writer Ann Murphy

helen mcentee

Minister for Justice

The first female Minister of Justice Helen McEntee has been clear from the outset that she would use her time as the minister, to bring Irish legislation on sexual violence into the 21st century. This year, she has promised to publish new criminal offences for stalking and non-fatal strangulation in wake of the murder of Ashling Murphy, while her department will now take over refuges, services, and other supports for victims of domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence, in order to make the service more accessible. The Minister for Justice has also vowed to deliver more than 400 refuge beds across the country, as part of a plan to boost domestic violence services. - Aoife Moore

HOLLY CAIRNS

TD

Holly Cairns, who is the only woman elected in all of Cork, alongside 17 men, has been one of the most effective advocates on the opposition benches when it comes to holding the government to account on gender-based violence and refuge services. Not a week goes by without Cairns on her feet, arguing that more must be done to protect women and children fleeing violence at home and criticising the government for the way in which they have adopted the Istanbul Convention, which has seen Ireland short thousands of refuge places of the recommended figure. - Aoife Moore

Prof Linda Doyle

Provost, Trinity College Dublin

Doyle made history in 2021 when she became Trinity College Dublin’s first female Provost in its almost 430 years. Originally from Togher, her father Oliver worked at the Irish Examiner over a decades-long career.She has been dean of research at Trinity and was the founder Director of CONNECT, the Science Foundation Ireland national research centre for Future Networks and Communications. On her appointment, Doyle said she aims for Trinity to be “the most open, productive, and creative place to teach, learn and to do research. I want Trinity to be a public university that is fearless in its pursuit of a deep-rooted fairness.”

Julie O’Leary

Nasc Migrant and Refugee Rights

A former Fine Gael election candidate, Cork woman Julie O’Leary stepped back from politics to take a role as Advocacy Service Manager with Nasc in 2019. Julie holds a degree in law from University College Cork and a BL from the King’s Inns. She is a volunteer with the Free Legal Advice Centres in Cork and has lectured in the School of Law and School of Applied Social Studies in UCC. In 2021 Julie and her team provided support to more than 1,100 people.

dr mary favier

GP

In her role as the Covid adviser to the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) and a member of the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) Kerrywoman Dr Mary Favier was a major part of our pandemic response.

Dr Favier was an active voice during the pandemic both for the public and on Nphet in ensuring that families and the less well-off were heard.”

Irish Examiner Health Correspondent Niamh Griffin

dr mary horgan

President Royal College of Physicians of Ireland

A proud Tralee-woman, she is an infectious diseases consultant at Cork University Hospital and first female president of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in its 368-year history.  A member of Nphet, and a familiar voice on the airways explaining how the virus affects us, why vaccines are not to be feared and the advantages of antigen testing, she was excited to see the public’s knowledge of science increasing as the months passed. “People know what viruses, variants and vaccines are.  People took responsibility for their own health by self-testing, getting vaccinated and mask wearing,” she says. “We will be stronger and better prepared for the next pandemic by learning, supporting and believing in science.” - Niamh Griffin

dr  Niamh Lynch

Paediatrician

As co-founder of the Covid Women’s Voices advocacy group, consultant in paediatrics Niamh Lynch has been a voice for women and families during the pandemic. In July of 2021 Lynch wrote in the Irish Examiner: “We are afraid. We see a fourth wave, way out from the shore; we cannot tell how big it will be, or how hard it will hit, but we fear that on this occasion it will break upon our children.” Through her platform on social media, grown over the last two years, Lynch offers evidence-based information in order to empower families about their own health.

orla O'connor

Director of National Women’s Council (NWC)

With a career spanning in senior management in NGOs for over 25 years, O’Connor is a passionate advocate for women. She has led numerous high level, successful campaigns on a wide range of issues on women’s rights, including social welfare reform, pension reform, Together For Yes, and for the introduction of quality and affordable childcare. She describes violence against women as “an epidemic in Ireland” that has a “devastating” impact on the lives of women, girls, their families, and communities. In February 2022 NWC partnered with Rethink Ireland to launch the Freedom From Fear Fund, which aims to support education and prevention programmes working with girls and boys as well as projects that address the structural causes of and protective factors and risks associated with violence against women.

vicky phelan

Activist

From the moment she stood on the steps of the High Court in April 2018 to deliver a damning assessment of her treatment at the hands of the CervicalCheck programme and the HSE, Vicky Phelan has shaken the foundations of women’s healthcare in Ireland. In refusing to be silenced by a confidentiality clause in her case against a US lab and the HSE, Vicky Phelan blew the lid on a controversy that could have remained under wraps for years. - Sheila Reilly

Rosemarie Maughan

Activist

Rosemarie is a national Traveller accommodation policy officer with the Irish Traveller Movement. Her role is to feed into the development of the national Traveller accommodation policy, monitor its implementation whilst ensuring Travellers and ITM members meaningful participation within this. Last year she wrote in the Irish Examiner that Mincéirí (Traveller) mothers continue to fight an unequal battle for their children’s futures, asking “how can I beat the odds of oppression and ensure my babies don’t become one of the 11% of Mincéirí who die by suicide but instead become one of the 1% who survives the education system making it to third level?”

Siobhán O’Donoghue

Founder of Uplift

Siobhán is the founding director of Uplift, the people-powered campaigning organisation that now has 340,000 people connected across the island of Ireland. She is a qualified nurse and community and youth worker. From 2002 to 2014, Siobhán was the director of the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland. She has also previously worked with Community Work Ireland and Limerick Travellers Development Group.

Sonya lennon

Social entrepreneur

You may know Sonya from her clothing collection and broadcasting career, but she is first and foremost a change-maker. She is a co-founder of WorkEqual, whose mission is an Ireland where everyone’s skills and potential are recognised by a society that champions workplace equality and fair remuneration. She also co-founded LIFT — Leading Ireland’s Future Together which aims to improve the level of personal leadership in Ireland by 2028.

Uruemu Adejinmi

Mayor of Longford

In June 2021 Fianna Fáil councillor Uruemu Adejinmi became the first African-Irish woman to be appointed mayor in Ireland when she was elected as cathaoirleach of the Longford municipal district. Ms Adejinmi came to Longford from Nigeria in 2003 and joined Fianna Fáil in 2016, becoming a local councillor in 2020.

Yemi Adenuga

Fine Gael Councillor

Yemi is Ireland’s first-ever elected Black female public representative and Meath County Council’s first migrant councillor. As well as her political career, Yemi’s family feature on Gogglebox Ireland. Yemi first lived in Dublin when she came to Ireland in 2000 and relocated to Navan in 2004, where she lives with her husband and children.

Angela Dorgan

CEO First Contact Music

As well as her role as CEO of FCM, the Arts Council-funded music organisation for resourcing musicians and the independent music sector in Ireland, Dorgan is CEO of Ireland Music Week and the current chair of the National Campaign for the Arts. This organisation lobbies Government for increased support, funding and recognition of artists, arts workers and arts organisations in Ireland. She has been instrumental in voicing the concerns of the arts community. 

One of the silver linings of the Covid lockdowns is that voices in the Irish cultural world got louder and more organised, properly lobbying for State support. Dorgan has also been at the forefront of this, and will continue to be an important voice in the sphere in the year ahead.”

Irish Examiner Arts Editor Des O’Driscoll

Ann Kelleher

Intel Cork

Ann B Kelleher is executive vice president and general manager of technology development at Intel Corporation. The UCC graduate holds one of the most senior roles in the global technology world. Hailing from Macroom, Ms Kelleher received a bachelor’s degree in 1987 and a master’s degree in 1989 in electrical engineering from UCC. In 1993 she became the first-ever woman to receive a PhD from the National Microelectronics Research Centre (NMRC) which is now a part of the Tyndall National Institute.

Aoife Gowen

Engineer

A leader in her field, Aoife Gowen is a professor in the school of biosystems and food engineering at University College Dublin. Her research area is multidisciplinary, involving applications of spectral imaging and chemometrics to biological systems, including foods, microbes and biomaterials. During her time as a post-doctoral researcher and Marie Curie fellow she investigated the intersection of near-infrared spectroscopy, imaging and chemometrics for the characterisation of biological systems.

Fiona Parfrey

Co-founder, Riley

Graduate of UCC, Parfrey began her career working in social media advertising before moving to Australia where she worked for a start up e-commerce beauty brand , and she says “never looked back”. Returning to Ireland in 2019, Parfrey took the plunge into entrepreneurship with her own business SunDrift, a sustainable outdoor lifestyle brand. She exited the business in 2021 to launch Riley, an eco-friendly period product subscription service with Aine Kilkenny and Lauren Duggan.

Cathy Kearney

Apple

Cathy Kearney is Apple’s vice president of European Operations, based atthe company’s Europe headquarters in Hollyhill, Cork. She leads more than 6,000 employees covering a range of important roles, including distribution of products, logistics, manufacturing and customer support.

Róisín O’Connor

Head chef

Having spent 10 years honing her craft at fine dining and Michelin-starred restaurants across France, the UK and Ireland and the last three as sous chef to Ian Doyle at the Cliff House Hotel, in February of this year Róisín was promoted to head chef of the hotel’s one Michelin-starred restaurant, House.

Dr Monica Peres Oikeh

GP

Born in Nigeria, Monica Peres Oikeh grew up in Dublin’s Blanchardstown and now works in Cork. She is passionate about the promotion of health and educating people about their own health, with a particular interest in women’s health matters. With almost 100,000 social media followers, she uses her platform to share evidence-based information and was a voice of trust and reassurance during the pandemic.

Tara Shine

Environmentalist and activist

Tara Shine is an expert in the field of climate change and climate justice, with a passion for communicating her science and her positive vision for the future. She has advised world leaders, governments and civil society organisations on climate change, environmental policy and development assistance and is co-founder and director of the award-winning sustainability business, Change by Degrees which advises businesses, communities and organisations on sustainability.

In January 2022 she told Nicole Glennon: “I hope I can be remembered as one of the people who changed that narrative and made climate action something that is for everybody and something that’s a positive thing.”

Evelyn Moynihan

CEO Kilkenny Group

UCC graduate Moynihan joined the Kilkenny group in 2019, accepting the role of CEO in 2021 from Marian O’Gorman, the company’s owner. Operating across twenty retail outlets, five restaurants and an expanding e-commerce business, Moynihan brings serious business acumen to the job. With a track record in brand-building at businesses like Diageo and Musgraves, Moynihan says she is passionate about delivering commercial plans that disrupt the market and deliver growth.

Jude Sherry

Director anois

Jude is an international expert and thought leader on sustainable design. With sustainability embedded as a cornerstone of all aspects of her work, Jude has consulted governments, intra-government, educational institutes, business and more on policy, business practice and education including United Nations and the European Commission.

She is co-founder and director of multi-award winning anois, which specialises in helix collaboration and design for sustainability. The recent anois immersion in Cork City has led to a national movement called #DerelictIreland focused on turning dereliction into an opportunity to co-create liveable, healthy and productive cities, towns, and villages. In June of 2021 Jude wrote for the Irish Examiner with partner Frank O’Connor asking “Do we want a city full of offices, car parks, and hotels or one designed for 8- to 80-year-olds to live in?”

Kristin Jensen

Publisher

Frustrated that many voices and many parts of our food culture were not being represented, Kristin Jensen founded Nine Bean Rows Books and Blasta Books to update the story of the modern, diverse and vibrant food scene in Ireland. Before that, Kristin was a freelance editor and writer for over 20 years, specialising in editing cookbooks and recipes. When she’s not pottering in the kitchen or got her nose stuck in a book, you’ll find her walking for miles in the countryside with her dogs, probably listening to a podcast about food.

Mary McCarthy

Director of Crawford Art Gallery

Hailing from Skibbereen, Mary McCarthy is a stalwart of a Cork arts scene that is dominated by strong women. She is, says Des O’Driscoll, a force. “Like many other countries, Ireland has a tendency to focus attention and resources on what’s going on in the capital, but since taking over at Crawford, McCarthy has been building on the work of her predecessors to elevate the status of the Leeside institution and remind everyone that a thriving arts world exists beyond Dublin. The next step for McCarthy in this process will be overseeing a €29m overhaul of the Crawford that’s due to begin in the next few months.”

Ollwyn Moran

Cognikids

Ollwyn is the founder of Cognikids, a company that makes high-quality baby products that help your baby’s neurological development. Ollwyn has over 25 years in the education and child development field and currently undertaking a PhD in child development and started Cognikids while working as a teacher and singlehandedly raising her two sons.

Patricia Quinn

Benefacts

Patricia Quinn is a social entrepreneur and former public servant. As MD of Benefacts she set out to transform the transparency and digital accessibility of Ireland’s €14bn nonprofit sector. In January of 2022 following Government funding cuts, the organisation was forced to close.

She has fought tirelessly mostly behind the scenes to keep it going. The Government may have cut her funding but I reckon we’ll see more of her.”

Patricia Scanlon

Founder Soapbox Labs

Patricia Scanlon holds a PhD in speech recognition and artificial intelligence from University College Dublin. She has over 20 years’ experience working in speech recognition technology, including at Bell Labs and IBM. Inspired by her oldest child and her background as a speech engineer, Scanlon founded SoapBox Labs in 2013 to redefine how children interact with technology using their voices. An acclaimed TEDx speaker, Scanlon has been named one of the world’s top women in tech by Forbes and a “Visionary in Voice” by industry-leading publication Voicebot.ai.

Sinéad McSweeney

VP public policy and managing director Twitter Ireland

Sinéad McSweeney leads Twitter’s public policy team globally, as well as serving as the managing director of Twitter’s operations in Ireland. She has been a key leader within the Twitter team since she joined the company in 2012. From Midleton, she studied law at University College Cork and qualified as a barrister in 1993. She began her working life as a parliamentary transcriber in the Dáil debates unit of the Houses of the Oireachtas.

Siobhán Talbot

Glanbia

Originally from Kilkenny, Siobhán Talbot is group managing director of Glanbia, a position she has held since November 2013. A graduate of UCD, Siobhán began her career with PwC in 1992 and trained as an accountant, before working in various roles in Ireland and later Australia. She joined Waterford Foods in 1992 and set up the internal audit function there, subsequently becoming financial controller. In 1997, Waterford Foods merged with Avonmore to become Glanbia. Talbot has risen through the ranks and is second woman ever to head an Irish listed company making her one of the most senior women in Irish business today.

Suzanne Moloney

Patient advocate and entrepreneur

Qualified chef Moloney was running a bakery calledCocoaMoiselle in Dublin when she decided to make the leap towards entrepreneurship. Suzanne has had hidradenitis suppurativa (HS), a disease of theskin that causes painful lesions, abscesses and wounds to form on delicate areas of the body since her early teens and has experienced the first hand the effects of not having access to appropriate wound dressings. In 2020 her dream became a reality and hidrawear HS specific wound dressings were launched onto the market. In 2021, HidraWear became the first HS wound dressing available through the Irish public health system.

Talita Holzer

Entrepreneur

Talita is the co-founder and CEO at waytoB, a social enterprise with the mission to make the world more accessible to people with disabilities. Its first product is an accessible navigation app which provides icon-based, turn-by-turn direction to easily and safely guide its users to their destination. She is the founder of the non-profit GoingFar, created to support diverse migrants in Ireland to achieve their career goals.

Tilly Heneghan

DPDonations

In May 2020 student Tilly Heneghan was experiencing some pandemic-related free time thanks to her master’s in children and youth studies moving to online study. She founded DPDonations on social media as a way to provide asylum seekers with the items they needed but could not afford to purchase. “Our focus is on sensible everyday items, but we have tried to cater to the requests of the asylum seekers as best as possible.” The response was a tsunami of aid from all corners of the country. Their Christmas collection saw more than 10,000 items donated and distributed to direct provision centres across Ireland. “The main challenge we faced was Covid-19 itself,” says Henegan. “When the really strict lockdown hit, it proved difficult to get the items across across Ireland.”

Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin

STEM

Aoibhinn is an assistant professor in the School of Mathematics & Statistics at University College Dublin where she is director of the BSc Science, Mathematics & Education programme in the College of Science. Passionate about encouraging more women into her field, Ní Shúilleabháin says more is still to be done in the area. This year, she was instrumental in the development of a project called The ‘Role Models in STEM: You can be what you can see’, highlighting positive role models with careers in the pSTEM subjects. Ní Shúilleabháin is an advocate for breastfeeding mothers and shared her own experiences of breastfeeding in order to normalise the difficulties that some women experience.

I’m just one of those annoying people who, if I see something wrong, I like to try and fix it.”

Aoife Martin

Writer

Aoife Martin is an IT professional and writer. She is passionate about trans rights and believes Ireland can be a leader in this area. She has read her written work on the stage of the Abbey and in the National Concert Hall. She sits onthe board of TENI (Transgender Equality Network Ireland) and enjoyswriting, going to the cinema and swimming in her spare time. In 2021 she was awarded the Praeses Elit Award by Trinity Women in Law for her activism and was named by OUTStanding as one of their Future LGBT+ Leaders.

Caitríona Twomey

Cork Penny Dinners

A familiar face in Cork thanks to her work with Cork Penny Dinners, Caitríona Twomey is lifeline for those in need. “She has developed the charity from an important place where people in difficulty can be fed to providing accommodation and a new education, health and wellness centre” says Liz Dunphy.

She identifies people’s needs and responds to them in very practical and innovative ways. She is now pioneering a rape crisis centre for people who are homeless with Mary Crilly and Lavinia Kerwick. It will be the first of its kind in Ireland and she hopes it can then be rolled out nationally.”

Liz Dunphy

Dr Naomi Masheti and Sr Josephine McCarty

Cork Migrant Centre

Known as Sr Jo, McCarthy Sr Josephine McCarty of the Cork Migrant Centre has over thirty years in community development work having worked in Africa and South America among other places. She is a key shaper and developer of programs at the Cork Migrant Centre.“I never felt alone on this project - I always felt there were so many people wanting the success of this, that it would last and be of value,” she told Eoin English this year. “I’m very hopeful of the aliveness of the place, of the interest in it, and that has to be held but it needs buy-in from the whole of Cork city to keep it going.” The centre provides free, confidential and current information on access to services and immigration issues and is managed by Dr Naomi Masheti, a psychologist and graduate of UCC with PHD in the Psychological Wellbeing of African Migrant Children. She is an unrelenting advocate for those in need, and wrote powerfully in this paper in October last year that race and ethnicity should not matter in maternity care.

Emer O’Neill

Broadcaster, author, teacher

When Emer O’Neill began speaking out about racism at the height of lockdown in May 2020 she had no idea it would change her life. Born to an Irish mother and Nigerian father, Emer had never spoken about the racism she experienced growing up in Ireland, until that month — and the video went viral. Catapulted into the public eye, O’Neill grasped opportunities with both hands, taking a role on RTÉ’s Home School Hub as Ireland’s PE teacher during the lockdowns. She wrote a children’s book about diversity, inclusion, and learning that our differences are our superpowers called The Same But Different and took on a role on the most coveted afternoon couch in the country, the Today Show, as Sinead Kennedy went on maternity leave.

Jess Murphy

Chef, activist

Jess Murphy one of the most exciting chefs in Ireland and the recipient of both a Bib Gourmand and a Green Star from the Michelin guide for her incredible menu based around sustainable local produce. Murphy is also has been supporting UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency since 2017 working with refugees to gain empowerment through food. In August of this year she will release her book with Eoin Clusky, The United Nation of Cookies, a compendium of recipes from refugees from over two dozen countries who have made Ireland their home.

Joanie Barron

Childcare professional

Joanie Barron founded Wallaroo Playschool in Cork in 1985. Bringing a child-centred, humanistic approach to the centre, Barron has led the standard for what childcare should look like. Since 2005 Wallaroo has been working with children in the direct provision centres for asylum seekers providing preschool, afterschool and summer camps to children in the centres. “A child-centred philosophy has been the cornerstone of her work through the decades,” says Feelgood editor Irene Feighan.

From her work in Wallaroo playschool to running a pre-school and after school care for asylum seekers in direct provision centres in Cork, Barron has made a lasting contribution to the community.”

Feelgood editor Irene Feighan

Karin Dubsky

Environmental scientist

Karin is an ecologist who has spent much of her life trying to protect and restore nature and encourage wise use, informed by traditional local knowledge, especially in the coastal environment. She says that curiosity, empathy, imagination, motivation and persistence are qualities that were encouraged in her growing up. “They also helped with managing weaknesses like dyslexia, a technology bypass and getting overwhelmed by upset in face of avoidable damage and misuse of power.” The most urgent action we need to take in terms of climate change, she says, is clear.

On a macro scale it’s getting the climate and biodiversity crises under control and plan restoration with local communities. This is achievable if most of those responsible for the smaller pieces act in the interest of the common good.”

Linda Kelly

Activist

Linda is a powerhouse and founder of Women Ascend — an Instagram community space for women to explore their power and use it with the purpose for progress. After giving birth to her second daughter in July 2020 under Covid-19 restrictions, Linda began campaigning with other Uplift members under the #BetterMaternityCare banner. The goal of the campaign is to end all partner restrictions currently in place across Irish Maternity Services. She works tirelessly to support women and families as they navigate the maternity system at this time.

Majella Beattie

Care Champions

Majella founded Care Champions on Facebook during the height of the pandemic as an advocacy group for all people who need care support in the community. Led by Majella Beattie, the group was contacted during the pandemic by over 500 families with concerns about their loved ones in nursing homes.

Mary Crilly

Sexual Violence Centre Cork

Mary Crilly is approaching her 40th year at the forefront of the Sexual Violence Centre Cork (SVCC). The number of women who use the centre every year is in the 400s, and great progress has been made in bringing sexual violence into the open— but we have a long way to go when it comes to victim blaming and protecting perpetrators she says. Crilly’s end goal is to work towards a society that does not tolerate sexual violence in any capacity.

I want my legacy to be that we are shocked and appalled by all sexual violence. That we don’t tolerate it in any way.”

Una Butler

Campaigner

In the face of unimaginable tragedy, Una Butler is determined to bring about change. Una’s husband John killed their daughters, Ella, two, and Zoe, six, at their home in Ballycotton, Co Cork, in November 2010, before taking his own life. Ever since their deaths, she has been calling on Government to amend the Mental Health Act to make it mandatory for a spouse or partners to be involved in the treatment of a family member suffering with their mental health, especially if they are a parent.

Amy Hassett

Advocate, scientist

Amy Hassett is a PhD student of neuroscience at UCD and co-director of Disabled Women Ireland. She regularly highlights important issues affecting disabled women and presents Let’s Find Out, a science series for children produced for RTÉJr with the support of Science Foundation Ireland.

Marja Almqvist

Community development

“Marja Almqvist has for decades been an active community development in Dublin and is now heavily involved in the Liberties Weavers, a community group in the Liberties in Dublin,” says Michelle Darmody. “Marja and the Liberties Weavers are dedicated to championing the forgotten history of the textile industry in the liberties, an industry which for centuries was peopled by immigrants and by women.”

Ola Majekodunmi

Creator

Ola Majekodunmi was born in Lagos, Nigeria and raised in Dublin, Ireland. She is a broadcaster, Gaeilgeoir, co-founder of Beyond Representation and board of directors member on Foras na Gaeilge, Dublin Film Festival and a member of Galway Film Centre’s national talent academy steering committee. Through her work with Beyond Represenation, she champions black Irish women who are breaking new ground in the media.

Saoirse Mackin

Activist

Saoirse Mackin is a transgender political activist who campaigns for the LGBT+ community, in particular transgender people, and lobbies politicians to further the rights of sex workers in Ireland with the goal of making society safer and more accepting for those in the sex work industry.

Sarah Grace

Activist

Sarah Grace survived a sexual attack by a stranger who broke into her apartment in Dublin while she was asleep in July 2019. Following the imprisonment of her attacker last year, Sarah waived her right to anonymity with the goal of changing the way sexual assault cases are handled by the courts. She has since met with the Director of Public Prosecutions’ office and Minister for Justice Helen McEntee, and written a book about her experience which she hopes will act as a guide for other survivors who wish to bring their attacker to court.

Sindy Joyce

Human rights defender, sociologist, lecturer 

Sindy is a Mincéir/Traveller from Newcastle West, County Limerick. She is a human rights defender, a sociologist and a member of President Michael D Higgins Council of State. Sindy is also on the anti-racism committee for the National Action Plan Against Racism. In March of this year she embarked on a new role as lecturer of sociology at UL.

Susan McQuaid O’Dwyer

CEO Make-A-Wish

Susan heads up Make-A-Wish Ireland, overseeing a staff of 12 and a volunteer force of 120 all dedicated to making the dreams of children come true. Make-A-Wish was established in Ireland in 1992 and grants wishes to children between the ages of 3 and 17 years, who are living with life-threatening illnesses. She originally trained as a Montessori teacher and now says that fundraising is her passion.

Caitríona Balfe

Actor

Born in Dublin and brought up in Monahan, studying drama in DIT in Rathmines, Caitríona has quietly built a superstar career while shunning the limelight. Her role as Claire Fraser in Outlander has garnered her four Golden Globes and thanks to a magnificent performance in Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast, now the world knows what her legions of Outlander fans already did — this lady is the real deal.

Jessie Buckley

Actor

After winning an Irish fanbase with a deep run in the reality TV show contest I’d Do Anything, Kerry woman Jessie Buckley embarked on a successful career on stage and in television. The delightful musical drama, Wild Rose, marked out Buckley’s sheer range of talents.  Further praise for Charlie Kauffman’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things followed, but it was her supporting role on fellow actor Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut The Lost Daughter which has proved an utter game-changer for the Killarney woman. Nominated for an Oscar and a BAFTA, the role has brought Buckley’s talent and charisma to the world stage. – Esther McCarthy

Dorothy Cross

Artist

Dorothy Cross is a native of Cork who now lives and works in Connemara. Her work as an artist is often inspired by the natural world and incorporates objects such as bones and taxidermied sharks and birds. She is perhaps best known for a series of works made from cowhides and udders. These include figurative pieces such as Virgin Shroud and Amazon, but also a saddle, a rugby ball and a pair of stilettos, all of which feature cow’s teats. The series was inspired by a domestic sieve fashioned from a cow’s udders she encountered in a museum in Norway in the 1980s. – Marc O’Sullivan

Ciara Ní É

Writer and performer

Ciara Ní É is is the founder of REIC, a multilingual spoken word and open mic night that features poetry, music, storytelling and rap. She is co-founder of queer arts collective AerachAiteachGaelach, set up with Eoin McEvoy and she is currently co-writing a TV series with Tua Films. Writer Mike McGrath-Bryan says of Ciara, “her YouTube show What the Focal is a tremendous insight into the lives of its speakers, and the dialect differences, while her TG4 documentary Saol Trí Ghaeilge was an unflinching but hopeful look at the state of the mother tongue around the island.”

Éadaoin O’Donoghue

Playwright, actor

In September 2021 the cast of Heart of a Dog took to the stage of The Everyman Theatre in Cork to perform the first live show in front of a live audience in 18 months. Written by Éadaoin O’Donoghue, it was a perfect homecoming, wrote Marjorie Brennan in this paper. “It was entirely appropriate that the Everyman, a place held dear by Corkonians, should reopen with a play written by one of its own.” Heart of a Dog was one of two plays that O’Donoghue would see on stage in the latter half of 2021, both written developed during her time as artist-in-residence at Corcadorcora at Triskel Arts Centre. So, it came full circle in November, when she starred in Hail To The Great Wave a play she had written in residence as it premiered on the stage at Triskel.

Elaina Ryan

CEO Children’s Books Ireland

Elaina Ryan has a background in children’s publishing: she holds an MLitt in Publishing from the University of Stirling and is former Managing Editor of Little Island books, where she worked closely with Ireland’s inaugural Laureate na nÓg, Siobhán Parkinson. She is co-artistic director, with Niamh Sharkey, of Towers and Tales, the Lismore Story Festival in County Waterford. For parents of Ireland, says Jen Stevens, she is extremely important. “Elaina holds the imaginations of reading children in her heart and hands.”

Emma Dabiri

Broadcaster, historian and author

Emma’s latest book What White People Can Do Next: From Allyship to Coalition, released in April 2021 was an immediate bestseller. A clever deconstruction of the mainstream conversation around anti-racism, the book is not a ‘how to’ guide. Rather, this collection of essays urges us to root our understanding of race in the multiple and complex histories of class, capitalism, and colonialism. 

 the book is an invigorating, clear-sighted guide on how to dismantle racism”.

Louise O’Neill

Felispeaks

Poet, performer, playwright

Hailing from Longford, spoken-word artist Felicia Olusanya is a prolific writer and performer and was commissioned by RTÉ to write the poem Still about Ireland’s response to the pandemic. Her poem For Our Mothers is currently featured on the Leaving Certificate English curriculum for the examination year 2023. She has been a board member of Poetry Ireland since June 2020 and her voice is one of hope, inspiration and possibility. She is a significant voice of her generation.

Joanne McNally

Comedian

The world may have stopped spinning on its axis while the pandemic raged around us, but for Joanne McNally it got bigger. Over the last two years the comedian enthralled audiences over social media — so much so that when she could perform live shows again, she couldn’t put enough on to satisfy her fans. She is in the middle of a 100-night sell-out tour, has a new book coming out and is one half of My Therapist Ghosted Me, the smash-hit podcast she presents with Vogue Williams. 

This woman is only getting started.”

Jen Stevens

Marian Keyes

Author

A special kind of love exists for Marian Keyes. With books sold in their millions, her latest novel Again Rachel was a return to one of her most beloved characters Rachel Walsh and it has been triumphantly received by critics and fans alike. Marian speaks to that special part inside all of us — the one we don’t want anybody to see — and coaxes it out with good humour and gentle coaxing. She is Aunty Marian of Ireland, forever and always.

marise gaughan

Author

“There are memoirs, and then there is Marise Gaughan’s Trouble,” says Weekend editor Vickie Maye. “With brutal and frank honesty, her stunning prose tells a story of depression, sex, and self-destruction as she tries to make sense of her father’s suicide.”

Mary Hickson

Creative producer

“Mary has made the Cork the fulcrum for a host of very talented musicians and artists with Sounds from a Safe Harbour,” says Michelle Darmody. “The last iteration saw Feist perform music based on Homer’s Odyssey, in the intimate setting of the Kino.”

Victoria Adeyinka

Performer

With more followers than celebrities like Miley Cyrus and Ellen Degeneres, Victoria Adeyinka is one of the most popular TikTok creators in Ireland. She began posting sketches poking fun at her mother, incidents that happened in school, and life as an Irish person with Nigerian heritage. “Before she knew it each video was getting over 1m likes. Less than three years later she has over 15m followers and over 613m likes on the app. Yes, that is more followers than the population of some countries,” says Anna O’Donoghue. 

“Adeyinka has launched a music career with her debut single, ‘This Abandoned’. This was no shock to fans as her older brother, Tom Adeyinka is an acclaimed drill rapper, better known as Offica. Watch this space.”

Anna O’Donoghue

Melatu Uche Okorie

Writer and scholar

Born in Nigeria, Melatu moved to Ireland in 2006 with her infant daughter. It was during her eight and a half years living in the direct provision system that she began to write and her collection of short stories This Hostel Life was shortlisted for the Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year award at the Irish Book Awards, and adapted into an operatic work by the Irish National Opera. She has an MPhil in Creative Writing from Trinity College and is currently studying for a PhD in the College of Education while working on her new book.

Nicola Coughlan

Actor

From Derry Girls to Bridgerton Nicola Coughlan has stolen hearts around the world thanks to mega acting chops and the kind of charisma that commands love. Her portrayal of Penelope Featherington, a character who is later revealed to be mysterious gossip writer Lady Whistledown in Bridgerton has earned her rave reviews and worldwide fame, which she compared to being like “a dog on the tube” last year in an interview with Elle magazine. In January of this year, she said “every time I’m asked about my body in an interview it makes me deeply uncomfortable and so sad I’m not just allowed to just talk about the job I do that I so love. It’s so reductive to women when we’re making great strides for diversity in the arts, but questions like that just pull us backwards.”

Saint Sister

Band

Saint Sister are Morgana MacIntyre from Belfast and Gemma Doherty from Derry who met at Trinity College Dublin in the mid-2010s, playing with the Trinity Orchestra. “Over the course of two albums, 2018’s Shape of Silence and 2021’s Where I Should End, both nominated for the Choice Music Prize for Irish album of the year, they make music that leaves the listener weak at the knees,” says arts writer Eoghan O’Sullivan. “Twin Peaks is a woozy evocation of friendship, a theme that recurs throughout their songbook — My Brilliant Friend, Karaoke Song — as they mix Doherty’s harp-playing and arrangements to MacIntyre’s burgeoning songwriting prowess. Their harmonies are life-affirming and as they stand loud and proud on the cover of their second album, Saint Sister are only just getting started. A band to believe in.”

Saoirse Ronan

Actress

This will be a big year for Saoirse Ronan, with the release of See How They Run directed by Tom George and written by Mark Chappel. With a high octane cast in Rockwell, David Oyelowo, Adrien Brody, Ruth Wilson, and Harris Dickinson, the murder mystery caper looks set to be a hit. She has also undertaken a role in the adaptation of the best-selling memoir The Outrun. She will play Rona, a woman who after leaving rehab returns to Scotland’s Orkney Islands in the adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s best-selling memoir of the same name. Nora Fingscheidt and Liptrot have adapted the book for the screen and Fingscheidt will direct. “I have been waiting to play a part like this,” said Ronan of the role.

Tolü Makay

Singer-songwriter

A supremely talented vocalist whose influences span from Erikah Badu to Amy Winehouse, Makay’s debut single ‘Goodbye’ has over 1m views on Youtube and her version of the Saw Doctor’s ‘N17’ shot straight to number one.With her star firmly in the ascent, Tolu says she still wrestles with her sense of identity. In July of last year she told the Irish Examiner: “Every day, I’m trying to figure out who I am, where my place is. Being both Nigerian and Irish sometimes you feel like you belong, sometimes you don’t.” That commitment to self-exploration is what makes Tolü Makay an artist to watch.

Kellie Harrington

Boxer

A multifaceted, intersectional figure, Kellie Harrington is a sporting hero for the present time. So many can identify with and take pride in Kellie: women and girls, athletes, frontline workers, LGBTQ folks, working-class kids, Dubliners, and many more besides. Not all great fighters make for great role models, but Harrington combines the two roles with ease. Regardless of whether you follow boxing closely or not, chances are that Harrington’s Olympic victory and indomitable spirit boosted your mood in the summer of 2021, when we all needed a lift. It’s no mean feat to inject joy and positivity into such a pugilistic sport, but Harrington pulls it off.  - Eimear Ryan

Carolyn Hayes

Triathlete

Hayes made her Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, finishing 23rd having battled superbly on the run and posting the eighth quickest split of the race. In what were remarkably difficult conditions in extreme heat and humidity, the Limerick woman said that she had mixed feelings about the result following the race. We see it differently — she was just six minutes and 34 seconds behind the winner, Flora Duffy.

Amy Hunter

Cricketer

Belfast-born Amy is a cricketer who plays for Typhoons and Ireland. In October 2021, during the final match of Ireland’s tour of Zimbabwe, Hunter became the youngest cricketer, male or female, to score a century in an ODI match, doing so on her 16th birthday.

Ciara Griffin

Rugby

The 27-year-old Kerrywoman retired from rugby with her 41st cap in November 2021. On her decision, she said “it has been a childhood dream come true to play for my country. Being afforded the opportunity to captain the national team has been the highest honour. It has been an incredible journey filled with many highs and lows and I am very grateful for all the life skills I have developed through my involvement in high performance sport.”

Ellen Keane

Swimmer

Ellen Keane made her Paralympic debut in Beijing in 2008 and she took home her first gold medal at Tokyo 2020. The first Irish medal of the 2020 Paralympic Games and the swimmer was determined to bring it home. She said following the race “the last thing my coach said to me before I went in was ‘If I need to push you in a wheelchair home, I want those legs wrecked’. And that is exactly what I did.”

Emma Duggan

Ladies football

The Meath woman was responsible for a goal that went a long way to ensuring that her county was crowned All-Ireland Ladies Football champions for the first time in its history. Faced with a seemingly insurmountable task, the 19-year-old showed incredible poise, says Eimear Ryan. She displayed “purpose and fearlessness by intercepting a short kickout and floating it remorselessly into the net over Ciara Trant’s head.” And that, was history.

Emma Slevin

Gymnast

In October 2021 18-year-old Emma from Galway claimed 19th place at the World Gymnastics Championships in Japan. She made history when she became the first Irish gymnast to qualify for the All Around finals. Gymnastics Ireland’s women’s national performance coach Sally Batley said Slevin is a phenomenal athlete. “She’s incredibly driven and is constantly striving to improve and to be the best version of herself, so there was certainly potential here today to feel the pressure.”

Katie-George Dunlevy and Eve McCrystal

Paracyclists

Dream team Dunlevy and McCrystal have medalled consistently at World and Paralympic Games since 2014. The tandem cyclists returned home from Tokyo 2020 with three medals: two gold and one silver.

Hannah Tyrrell

Rugby

Tyrrell announced her retirement from rugby in May of 2021. 30-year-old Tyrrell played 103 HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series games for Ireland, scoring 99 points, while she also featured for Anthony Eddy‘s side at the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens in San Francisco.

Katie McCabe

Football

Ireland’s youngest ever captain and Arsenal star McCabe is a key member of the Irish sqad. In 2021 she was voted Arsenal Women Supporters’ Club player of the season. In September it was announced the Ireland women’s team would be paid the same as the men.“It was monumental for us, to be honest,” McCabe told The Guardian at the the time. “The work that the FAI had done, Séamus Coleman as the men’s captain too, that work behind the scenes to ultimately get the deal done was fantastic. It sent out a real message across the world of football at international level especially.”

Katie Taylor

Boxer

In April, Katie Taylor will face off against Amanda Serrano in New York’s Madison Square Gardens. When they enter the ring on Saturday, April 30 it will be the first time a female fight has headlined at The Garden.“ You can really feel the history in the making of this fight,” Taylor told the Irish Examiner at the annoucement of the fight. “It’s iconic. I’ve sacrificed my whole life for this sport and it’s amazing that I have an opportunity to be in a fight of this magnitude.”

Leona Maguire

Golfer

In February of 2022, Leona Maguire won the LPGA Drive On Championship in Florida, the first by an Irish woman on tour. “It’s a bit surreal...it’s 17 years in the making. You kind of wonder if it’s ever going to happen. I’m just proud of how the whole week went, especially today,” she told Sky Sports after the history-making round. Maguire enjoyed a stellar year on tour in 2021. She starred in European’s Solheim Cup win recorded two second-places and four top 10 finishes.

Aifric Keogh, Eimear Lambe, Fiona Murtagh, and Emily Hegarty

Rowers

The team won Ireland’s first medal of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics when finished third in the women’s four. Rowing Ireland CEO Michelle Carpenter said “rowing’s story is one of resilience, determination and keeping the headdown. The entire country has had a rough 15 months due to Covid, hopefully, our sport will help lift everyone after all we have been through.”

Rachael Blackmore

Jockey

Blackmore enjoyed an outstanding season of sport over the last twelve months including several historic firsts. In April she was the first woman in history to win the Grand National, she claimed the leading jockey prize at Cheltenham and was the first woman to win the Champion Hurdle. All this and injury too — she broke her ankle and her hip.

She is the consummate professional and an incredible icon for horse racing”.

 Ruby Walsh

Rhasidat Adeleke

Sprinter

The teenage champion sprinter from Dublin shone brightly over the last 12 months. She brought home two gold medals from the U20 Championships in Tallinn last July. Many in sport questioned her not receiving a place on the Irish Olympic team. “This will be looked back upon as one of the worst decisions ever made by Irish athletics,” wrote Sonia O’Sullivan on Twitter, describing Adeleke’s situation as “clearly an outlier where exceptions should be made and brave decisions taken”.

Mona McSharry

Swimmer at Tokyo 2020

Mona McSharry became the first Irish swimmer to reach an Olympic final since Michelle de Bruin in Atlanta, 25 years ago. The 20-year-old from Sligo finished fourth in her 100m breaststroke semi-final, but crucially had the eighth fastest time from the two semi-finals, which secured her place as the last qualifier.

Karen Weekes

Rower

Karen Weekes, a 54-year-old sports psychology lecturer at Munster Technological University, made history by becoming the first Irishwoman to row solo and unaided across the Atlantic ocean after more than 80 days rowing 3,000 nautical miles. The Kinvara, Co Galway, native is one of only 20 women to ever row an ocean solo.