The Ark Team & Contact Details

Carol Fawsitt (Chair)
Appointed February 2017

Carol is a Solicitor (retired) and having established her own boutique practice specialising in Employment Law and Family Law in in 1987, she then merged her practice with Hayes Solicitors in 2006 becoming a Senior Partner and Head of the Employment Law Department. She combined private practice with memberships and appointments to public and private bodies including the National Women’s Council, Archways, ASH Ireland, the Employment Equality Agency and later the Equality Authority, the National Economic and Social Council (N.E.S C.), the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal, and the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal of the High Court. In 2010 she was a founding member of the Employment Law Association of Ireland (E.L.A.I.) and its first Chair. In 2021 she stepped down as Chair of Alcohol Action Ireland, a position she held from 2013, the national charity advocating for public health measures to reduce the harms caused by alcohol consumption and earlier in 2019, she co-founded Silent Voices. Currently, Carol remains involved in Silent Voices , history projects and is a member of the Charity Appeals Tribunal. Her passion is focussed on the importance of a child’s early years and their access to early intervention supports when needed, combined with their access, as of right, to art and culture for the purpose of inspiring imagination, bringing joy and a lifelong interest in the arts.

Prof. Anne O’Gara
Appointed Dec 2019
Professor Anne O’Gara was President of Marino Institute of Education (MIE) from 2006 to 2018. She previously worked as a Primary Inspector with the Department of Education and Skills and taught for more than twenty years in schools serving designated areas of disadvantage. In February 2014, she was awarded the title of Adjunct Professor in the School of Education, Trinity College Dublin (TCD) in recognition of her experience and leadership in the field of teacher education in Ireland. Anne serves as a Director on the Board of Tusla Child and Family Agency, where she acts as Deputy Chair.

Catherine Cotter
Appointed Dec 2019
In addition to running her own commercial interiors company, Catherine Cotter has worked in the arts and education for over 30 years, including spearheading arts programmes in The Dalkey School Project and Monkstown Educate Together, leading Irish arts festivals in Lisbon, and contributing to organisations such as Children’s Books Ireland, the Irish Writers Centre, Poetry Ireland and the Museum of Literature Ireland.

Lynda Carroll
Appointed Dec 2019
Lynda is a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Advisor. She has over 30 years' experience in financial services at Board and Senior Executive level in the private and public sector, including as Managing Director of De Lage Landen Ireland (part of the global vendor financing arm of Rabobank) and Vice President Global Structured Finance Europe. She has also worked in the Central Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks plc.

Shane Hegarty
Appointed April 2021
Shane is the author of the bestselling children's series 'Boot' and 'Darkmouth'. Previously a journalist and editor with The Irish Times, he is now a full-time writer, translated into 20 languages. His work has seen him perform events to young audiences at major festivals across Ireland and Britain.

Annie Ó Breacháin
Appointed April 2021
Annie is an Assistant Professor in Drama Education in the School of Arts Education and Movement at the Institute of Education, Dublin City University (DCU). She teaches and researches in the area of Drama Education. Before she began working in Initial Teacher Education, Annie worked as a primary school teacher and in teacher in-service, with the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST), offering support in the areas of Drama and Gaeilge. She has a particular interest in student-teacher relationships, phenomenological inquiry, children’s participation rights, and Social Justice Education. She is also interested in the practice of teaching, the art of storytelling, curricular integration using Mantle of the Expert, performative pedagogy and visual and embodied research data. Annie was chairperson of the Association for Drama in Education in Ireland (ADEI) from 2017 to 2021.

Pádraic Whyte
Appointed
Pádraic is associate professor of English and a director of the Children's Literature MPhil programme at the School of English. Pádraic co-established Ireland’s first full-time master’s programme in children’s literature. He lectures on a range of topics at undergraduate and postgraduate level including empowerment in literature for children.

Pádraic is the current Chair of the KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards and was curator of the exhibition Upon the Wild Waves: A Journey through Myth in Children’s Books which ran in the Long Room, Trinity College Library. He is a former Chair of the CBI Children's Book of the Year Awards 2013, served on the executive committee of the Irish Society for the Study of Children’s Literature for a number of years, and worked as curator of the Telling Tall and Tiny Tales literature programme at The Ark.

Liam Ryan
Appointed October 2022
Liam is the Country Manager at an Irish-founded company called SilverCloud; a world-leading digital mental healthcare platform. Liam has also completed a Diploma in International Business & Selling at TU Dublin and has a proud past in entrepreneurship having cofounded two tech startups in the digital health industry.

During his academic years, Liam studied the French Horn at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and conducted the 90-member symphony orchestra at Trinity College Dublin. Liam has since played with various bands with notable performances at leading festivals. Liam currently plays trumpet with Attention Bébé, and Stomptown Brass who premiered A Show for Curious Eyes & Ears at the first edition of BIG BANG! Dublin.