About the Board

The current Board of Directors is made up of people with a range of important skills and experience: from finance and funding experience, management experience, experience on other boards (paid and voluntary), and in technology. The board’s vision for the centre is to make the Glens Centre an indispensable part of the cultural life of the North West.

 

Current Board Members

Phil Sun/Heraghty – Cathaoirleach

Phillina, a Californian native living in Ireland for the last 16 years, has an MA in Culture and Colonialism and a PhD in Irish Visual Culture and Utopian Studies from National University of Ireland, Galway. 

 

Peter Kearns BA, MA, H. Dip.

Peter graduated from Trinity College in the late 1980s with an English Honours degree and followed this with an MA in Film & TV Studies at Dublin City University and a Higher Diploma in Adult & Community Education from Maynooth College. In the mid 1990’s Peter established THE WORKHOUSE, a disability and arts consultancy company that supports research & development, equality & mentor training to the private & statutory sector in Ireland, Europe and Asia. This work included an 18-month EU funded Director/producer on Lights-Disability-Action, where three short films made by disabled adults from the course won awards at festivals in Europe and the Americas.

Peter’s associate residency at The Abbey Theatre (2000 to 2003) facilitated the development of a disability policy and promoted a vision for the National Cultural Institutes’ access to & with disabled people as audience, creators and producers. Since leaving Dublin’s City Arts Centre as Education-Director, he has produced & directed a series of touring adult cabaret shows with disabled performers. Critically recognised art & drama work has included Firestation Artists Studio interactive website ‘Transformation’, Cork Year of Culture establishment of Forum Theatre groups at Cork Cheshire Homes, Dundalk Disability Forum Theatre, Dublin, Sligo and Galway Disability Drama groups. He is also a writer/dramatist and UN documentary & film maker and works part-time for DESSA, a national disability-equality agency. Peter lectures at St. Angela’s, Sligo NUIG & Sligo IT on film & disability, advocacy and The Lived Experiences of Disability.

087 250 6246 – kearnsp@eircom.net

 

Rossa Ó Snodaigh – Rúnaí

Rossa Ó Snodaigh is a founder member of the internationaly reknowned group Kíla, he’s also an author of four books, played intercounty hurling for Liatroim, directed the stage and RTÉ radio play Líon Mo Bhearna and initiated and the founding of Gaelscoil Chluainín and Aonad Loch Gile.

086 826 0860 – rosnodaigh@gmail.com

 

Noirin Clancy

Nóirin Clancy, a native of Glenfarne, Co Leitrim, has been working in the voluntary and community sector for over 25 years. Her work has mainly focused on community development, equality and women’s human rights at national and international levels. Noirin is currently working in the disability sector. In a voluntary capacity she is actively involved in a number of organisations which include 50:50 North West, an advocacy group campaigning for equal representation in politics and the Holey Soles Hill Walking Group.

087 274 7770 – clancy.noirin@gmail.com

 

Brenda Mc Mullen

Brenda Mc Mullan is Head Teacher at Loughan House Open Prison in Blacklion in Cavan working for Cavan Monaghan Education & Training Board (CMETB). The role entails:

1. Providing a high quality broad and flexible education programme designed to meet the needs of residents as they prepare to return to the community.

2. Providing a range of cultural experiences and opportunities that facilitates lifelong learning while at the same time helping persons in custody to respond to their sentence through personal development and positive renewal.

3. Events and projects are facilitated in the community: one such collaboration led to the performance of a bespoke play by Seamus O’Rourke for 11 residents which was performed at the Glens in 2017.

4. The Artists & Writers in Prison Scheme is availed of regularly and provides high quality tuition from established artists and writers working with teachers and students on pre-approved projects. Many of these projects have been creatively installed throughout the campus and impact positively on residents, staff and visitors in the normalization of the prison environment.

0044 7498 293979 – brendamcmullan@eircom.net

 

Declan Drohan 

Declan Drohan M.A. H.Dip.Ad.Ed. currently lectures on the BA Hons. Programme in Performing Arts at IT Sligo.A graduate of the Gaiety School Of Acting, he is the former course leader of the acting programme at DIT’s prestigious Conservatory Of Music and Drama, Rathmines, Dublin. In a twenty five year career, his work as a director has encompassed everything from radical reappraisals of classical texts to stagings of new writing and innovative community based projects integrating individuals with often profound disabilities into large scale, mainstream theatre projects. His consultancy and training work in adult education, theatre training and disability/equality settings was the focus of his work for a period in the 90’s, with many of the techniques and work processes developed radicalising his teaching and directing work.
His visibility on the Dublin Theatre festival scene has been consistent since relocating to the North West Of Ireland, (How I Failed to Become a Popstar– 2001, Frank Pig says Hello – 2005, Little Dark Star – 2006, Beneath the Bone Moon – 2015) , in addition to directing the annual ‘Bespoke ‘ graduate showcase of emerging acting talent at the Project Arts Centre and Bewley’s Theatre.

For the past three years, his directing of the fourth year Yeats Project has become a major outreach project for the BA Honours programme at IT Sligo, with performances of the texts in the college’s own Black Box Space, the Yeats Building, Sligo and the Glens Centre, Manorhamilton

086 852 6987 – declan.drohan@yahoo.ie

 

Paul Keogh

Paul Keogh AIIPM, QFA, Grad Dip., MSc., CFP®, PTP is a financial consultant with more than 30 years experience as a strategic advisor.