Dr Richard Hayes has worked in higher education for nearly 30 years. He has a PhD from UCD in film studies having studied Arts (English and Philosophy) in Maynooth University. He has taught at a number of universities and colleges in Ireland and has been based in Waterford for over 20 years. He was appointed head of Strategy for South East Technological University in 2022 having been head of strategy at WIT. He also held a number of other management roles in WIT, including Head of Humanities. He has published widely on a range of topics including higher education policy, film and theatre studies, and Irish poetry. He writes book reviews regularly for Poetry Ireland Review and other journals. He is a regular contributor to arts and literary festivals across the South East. He is a board member of the Eugene O’Neill Ancestral Trust and GOMA (Waterford).

Anne Barrett is a retired principal social worker who has worked for over 20 years in the Mental Health Services. She has a Post Graduate Diploma in cognitive psychotherapy and a Masters in Health Service Management. Since qualifying in 1981, she has worked in a range of settings and has been involved in Social Work and Social Care education. Anne has returned from retirement to work part time as a Project Manager with the HSE's Mental Health services; she assists with the implementation of the National Housing Strategy for Disabled People.

Richard started his career as an accountant after obtaining his Higher National Diploma in Accountancy (1994), before he qualified as a barrister and solicitor in 2004 in Nigeria. Richard has a post-graduate degree (MSc) in Global Financial Information Systems – GFIS (2016) from the South East Technological University (SETU) formerly known as the Waterford Institute of Technology, graduating second class upper division. Richard worked as a solicitor in many law firms and has worked in many capacities since arriving in Ireland in 2014, and currently works as an Auctioneer – Real Estate. Richard was once the General Secretary for the Waterford Immigrants Forum, former secretary of the Templars Hall Residents Association and was also nominated to represent the Waterford Migrants Integration Forum (WMIF) on the committee and task force (within the City Council) mandated with the responsibility of developing the Integration strategy for the Waterford City and County Council. Richard once represented the Public Participation Network (PPN) on the Local Community Development Committee (LCDC) at the Waterford City Council.

Carmel spent her working life in An Garda Síochána as a front line operational Garda, and subsequently responsible for Student/Probationer Training and CPD design and delivery, before moving into senior leadership roles up to the rank of Superintendent. Carmel was always an advocate for women in An Garda Síochána and a role model as the first female Inspector and Superintendent to be promoted to those ranks from Waterford. Carmel left An Garda Síochána in 2020 and started her own Coaching and Training Business – coaching leaders and supervisors as they develop in their roles, developing and delivering training courses and workshops for Supervisors and Leaders, providing executive coaching, and coaching and guiding candidates in the competency based interview process. Carmel holds a BA in Training & Education, BSc in Leadership & Governance and MSc in Personal and Management Coaching. She is a certified Senior Practitioner with EMCC and certified in BPS Psychometric Testing. Carmel is an EMCC Volunteer and provided coaching to young Nigerians on the ImpactB4Income Social Responsibility Project. She is Chairperson of the Board of Management of Christchurch National School.

Dr Anthony Barron’s commitment to promoting a public understanding of the canonical texts of Western thought inspired his decision to form the Waterford Philosophical Society in 2005. Since then he has delivered weekly lectures on interrelationships between the arts and the history of ideas to the members of that group. He is the author of Against Reason: Schopenhauer, Beckett and the Aesthetics of Irreducibility (New York: Columbia University Press, 2015).

Dr Ida Milne is a lecturer at Carlow College, and a social historian. Her two main fields of research are pandemic history and Irish Protestant identity. With Dr Ian d’Alton, she co-edited Protestant and Irish, the minority’s search for place in independent Ireland published by Cork University Press in 2019. She researches Protestant attitudes to the GAA, among many other things. She comes from a Church of Ireland and Presbyterian family with long ties - 400 years - to Wexford and the southeast. She is a member of the Church of Ireland Decade of Centenaries Committee.