Anastasia Crickley
Anastasia Crickley is the Chairperson of NCCRI and Head of Department of Applied Social Studies, National University of Ireland, Maynooth where she has played a lead role in the development of professional education and training for community and youth work at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. A key feature of the programmes is a commitment to participation by students from the disadvantaged and marginalized communities, including Travellers and new minorities where community and youth workers work. She is a member of the Governing Authority of the University and has played an active role in promoting equality, diversity and interculturalism at NUIM.
Anastasia, with her late husband, John O Connell and others, is a founder member of Pavee Point Travellers Centre and of the National Travellers Women's Forum. Recently she was elected as the first Chairperson of the European Fundamental Rights Agency based in Vienna having previously been Chairperson of the European Union Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia. During her tenure the remit of the Centre was extended to monitoring human rights as well as racism. She is Personal Representative of the Chair in Office of the OSCE on Combating Racism, Xenophobia and Discrimination also focusing on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians and Members of Other Religions. The OSCE is an Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and it is a regional intergovernmental organisation of 56 participating states including Russia, US, Canada and Central Asian States as well as European Countries. She has been active in promoting Civil Society Organisations and community sector participation in Ireland and in Europe.
Anastasia was appointed a Member of the Council of State by the President Mary McAleese for 2004 – 2011.
Catherine Joyce
Catherine Joyce is an Irish Traveller and has been a member of the Irish Travellers human rights movement for over 20 years. In 1991 she won Person of the Year award for her contribution to progressing Traveller human, social and cultural rights.
She is manager of the Blanchardstown Traveller Development Group, a local Traveller organisation and for a number of years she was co-ordinator of the Irish Traveller Movement and is currently its Chairperson.
Catherine represents Traveller issues at a local level through her involvement in a range of different groups including the Local Traveller Accommodation Consultative Committee, Local Drugs Task Force, Blanchardstown Area Partnership to mention a few. At a national level she represents the Irish Traveller Movement on the National Traveller Monitoring Committee and for a number of years was an active member of the National Traveller Accommodation consultative committee and the Task force on Travellers. She has also represented Irish Travellers at a number of international conferences. She was part of the Irish Government delegation to the World conference on Racism and Inter-culturalism in South Africa and also attended the International Conference on Social Development in Copenhagen, the World conference on youth affairs in Tasmania and re-imagining Ireland in Richmond Virginia, USA.
Anna Lo
Anna Lo is the Alliance MLA for South Belfast following the 2007 Assembly Elections. She is the first ethnic minority politician to be elected at a national level in Northern Ireland, and the first politician born in East Asia elected to any national parliament or assembly in Europe.
Born in Hong Kong, She worked in London for a year prior to coming to live in Northern Ireland in 1974. For several years, she held secretarial posts in a local newspaper and the BBC as well as making regular contributions to the BBC Chinese Service about the Chinese community and Northern Ireland affairs. In 1978, she started the first ever English evening class for Chinese people in Northern Ireland in a further education college. Following a career break to have her two sons, she joined the Chinese Welfare Association in 1987 as a community interpreter. Four years later she returned to full-time education and qualified as a social worker from the University of Ulster in 1993 and worked in a health and social services trust and Barnardos before taking up the post of director in the Chinese Welfare Association in 1997. She was a founder member of the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities and a commissioner for the first Equality Commission for Northern Ireland. She was also the first chair of the South Belfast Partnership Board and the South Belfast Racism Roundtable. She currently is a member of various equality committees including the OFMDFM Race Forum and the Bill of Rights Forum. Anna was awarded an MBE in 1999 for services to ethnic minorities.
Chinedu Onyejelem
Chinedu Onyejelem is the editor and publisher of Metro Eireann newspaper. He holds a Masters degree in Ethnic and Racial Studies from Trinity College Dublin, a B Sc in Social Studies Education, a Nigerian Certificate in Education and an Advanced Certificate in Mass Communication from various Nigerian colleges.
He has worked as a journalist for the print and online editions of The Irish Times, and has also written for Garda Review and the Irish Catholic. He has made numerous TV and radio appearances, including on Prime Time, Mono, Morning Ireland, Rattlebag, Today with Pat Kenny and Tonight with Vincent Browne, along with many other programmes. He also worked for the News Agency of Nigeria. In 2006 he was the recipient of one of the ESB/Rehab People of the Year Awards.
Chinedu founded the Metro Eireann Media and Multicultural Awards (MAMA) to honour people and groups across Ireland (north and south) who work to combat racism and promote cross-cultural understanding. In 2006 he established the Permanent TSB Ethnic Entrepreneur of the Year Awards. The maiden awards were presented by President Mary McAleese in February 2007. Chinedu is a Ministerial nominee to the Steering Group of The National Action Plan Against Racism and a member of Department of Foreign Affairs/NGO Standing Committee, which advises the Irish Government on Human Rights issues overseas. He was recently appointed a Director of the non-governmental, international, humanitarian organisation Concern Worldwide.
Seán Óg Ó hAilpín
Seán Óg Ó hAilpín was All Ireland Hurling Captain in 2005 and is widely regarded as one of the country’s greatest players. He has won three All Ireland titles, five Munster titles, one National Hurling League title and one Railway Cup title. As a former Gaelic footballer he has also won both Munster and National Football League honours. He has also been selected for the International Rules Squad on a number of occasions. He has been the recipient of many awards and honours off the field including the three most prestigious personal awards in the game – the Vodafone, Texaco and Gaelic Players’ Association Hurler of the Year Awards. In 2005 he was also presented with the RTÉ Sports Person of the Year award. He currently plays with the Cork County Senior Team and his home club in Cork; Na Piarsaigh.
Seán Óg Ó hAilpín was born on the island of Rotuma, Fiji to an Irish father and Fijian mother. His family later moved to Australia and then to Ireland in 1988. He graduated from Dublin City University in 1999 with a BSc. in Finance Computing and Entrepreneurship.
Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin
Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin established the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance in the University of Limerick in 1994, where he took up the position as the first holder of a new Chair of Music. The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance main focus is research and innovation in Irish and Irish-related music world wide and it includes a central ring of nine MA programmes with associated doctorate research. Since 1995 it has also been the home of the Irish Chamber Orchestra.
From 1975 to 1993, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin worked in the Music Department of University College Cork with young traditional and classical musicians from Ireland, the U.K. and North America. In that time he established UCC Music Department as the first such educational body to work towards the integration of traditional and classical musicians, within a shared curriculum. In January, 1994 he continued this work at postgraduate level in the University of Limerick. In 1990, he was Visiting Professor at Boston College for a semester, during which, he founded an Archive for Irish Traditional Music in America.
His composition and music performance activity is mirrored in his work as an Ethnomusicologist and his main recordings are on various labels including Gael Linn and Virgin/Venture. In 1990 he produced the CD of a Fiddle Festival held in Boston College ‘My Love is America,’ which was honoured by an award from the Library of Congress, Washington. He has also produced a series of five CD recordings of live traditional music events held in Cork University from 1991-1995, the royalties of which benefit various archives of Irish Traditional music in Ireland, UK, USA and Canada.
