People
Angela Flynn
Dr Angela Flynn is a Lecturer in the School of Nursing and Midwifery in UCC. She has been involved in the trade union representing academics (IFUT) for many years and is a member of the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival organising committee. Angela works closely with the Sanctuary Runners, a solidarity-through-sport organisation involving running in solidarity with refugees and asylum seekers.
Ashling O'Sullivan
Ashling O’Sullivan is a Research Support Officer from UCC Academy working at ISS21. She loves to support community-based work and really enjoys seeing a project come together. Ashling provides support on A Feminist Walk of Cork 2 to Maggie and Conach.
Caitriona Twomey
Caitríona Twomey, a long-time volunteer and trustee at Cork Penny Dinners, introduced to helping others by her kindhearted parents Tom and Breda and her Nan Liz, firmly believes that the dedicated volunteers on the ground are the driving force behind everything the organisation achieves. She says she is the lucky one to be in such fine company. Alongside her family, these volunteers serve as her inspiration, fueling her passion and drive.
Caitríona loves music and being the coordinator and member of the High Hopes Choir brings her great happiness and pride. Big into all things Recovery, Caitríona’s push towards helping all in their recovery to achieve their best life bore fruit when the Penny Dinners Recovery Group blazed their way to victory in the Dragon Boat Race. Providing assistance to those in need is at the core of her mission, as she is deeply committed to making a meaningful impact on the lives of fellow human beings who are facing hardships. As a trained psychotherapist, Caitriona understands the importance of going above and beyond, and her guiding principle is 'No one goes hungry on my watch.'
Ciara Doyle
Ciara Doyle has lived in Cork all of her life and contributed to the Feminist Walk 2 whilst on a student work placement from Cork College of Commerce with Maggie in the Department of Sociology & Criminology. Ciara studied Social Studies with Psychology at Cork College of Commerce.
Conach Gibson-Feinblum
Conach Gibson-Feinblum is a PhD student at University College Cork, who worked as a researcher on the Feminist Walk 2 project. She has a passion and care for feminist epistemologies as well as valuing the knowledge, histories, and biographies of communities in archives, existing literature, and research.
Eileen O'Shea
My name is Eileen O'Shea and I am the Director of Operations for the Traveller Visibility Group (TVG). My role centres around ensuring the team here are fully supported, that they have everything they need to meet our strategic objectives. The key focus at TVG is to advocate for Traveller rights, to improve the lived experience of Travellers in Cork and nationally and end systemic anti-Traveller racism in Ireland.
Ellie Mahony
Ellie is passionate about utilising online communications to create social change. She is a UCC Law graduate and completed her master's degree in Public Relations. Ellie’s work includes web development, social media management, graphic design and campaign management. Ellie designed the website for A Feminist Walk of Cork.
Jean Mc Carthy
Jean Mc Carthy is a Support Worker at Cork Alliance since 2022, she has a BA in Psychotherapy.
JP Quinn
JP Quinn has been Head of Visitor Services since August 2005. A skilled storyteller, JP's focus is on telling the UCC Story and heritage and making it as accessible as possible for many different audiences. JP leads out on the university visitor strategy, develops university merchandise projects and writes books on UCC stories including; A Bee at UCC published 2021; A Tree at UCC, 2023 and the forthcoming UCC time capsule: Strange Stories from UCC. JP Originated the Junior Conferring Programme for Primary Schools which has seen over 100,000 children partake in since 2007.
Kevin Hosford
Kevin is the Chairperson of Gender Rebels and represents the group on Cork City’s LGBTI+ InterAgency Group. She recently completed her doctorate in Criminology and is a researcher and lecturer in Criminology, Criminal Justice Policy, Cybercrime, and Research Methods at University College Cork.
Linda Connolly
Professor Linda Connolly is Professor of Sociology and Director, Maynooth University Social Sciences Institute. She was the University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies Visiting Scholar during the Lent Term 2022. Her research interests include feminism and the women’s movement in Ireland, gender theory, the family, conflict related violence including sexual violence, wars, migration, and theoretical and methodological debates in Irish studies. She is the author of several recent publications including on the gender-based violence women experienced in the Irish Revolution (1919-23) and led the Irish Research Council funded 'Women and the Irish Revolution' project. She has published a number of books, supported by national and European research grants.
Maggie O'Neill
Maggie is Professor in Sociology & Criminology at University College Cork, Director of the Institute for Social Science in the 21st Century and UCC Futures: Collective Social Futures. Maggie has a long history of working with communities to create change, using arts based and participatory research methods. Maggie loves walking, walking as a way of doing research and as a teaching and learning method. She leads a walking module at UCC and is a member of the Walking Artists Network. Maggie has co-created a number of pedagogic walks.
Maia Thomas
Maia Thomas is a freelance graphic harvester and illustrator who loves finding creative and accessible ways to communicate complicated ideas. She is passionate about social and environmental justice and can often be found among the trees.
Martin Davoren
Dr Martin Davoren joined the Sexual Health Centre in September 2017 as executive director responsible for planning, directing and managing our services. He also holds an adjunct lecturer position with the School of Public Health, University College Cork, where he previously worked as a lecturer and researcher. Martin was assistant director for Networks and Knowledge Translation with the SPHeRE Programme, Ireland’s national research training programme for population health and health services research. He was also in charge of setting up, directing and evaluating UCC Health Matters, Ireland’s Health Promoting University. Martin’s research focused on alcohol use, drug use and sexual health. He was principal investigator and co-applicant on a number of funded projects.
Mary Crilly
Mary Crilly is a founding member and CEO of the Sexual Violence Centre Cork. Through her work in the Centre, Mary has been providing support to victims of sexual violence across Cork city and county for more than 40 years. Mary Crilly received a Pride of Cork Award in March 2022 in recognition of her work in the Centre. In June 2022, Mary received the Freedom of Cork City. As a fabulous feminist activist, Mary has played a role in changing the response to male violence against women over the last four decades. Mary is noted for her work in the areas of sexual violence, domestic violence, sex trafficking, female genital mutilation and stalking. Mary continues to works tirelessly to eliminate sexual violence and to change attitudes and victim blaming in society. Image:Larry Cummins.
Miriam Ryan
Miriam Ryan has worked with the Cork Alliance Centre as a Support Worker for 3 years. She has worked in Community Work in Cork and Dublin, primarily with women. She has B.A’s in Youth and Community Work and Addiction Studies.
Naomi Masheti
Dr Naomi Masheti is a Psychologist and a three-time graduate of UCC. She leads Cork Migrant Centre and is a Psychosocial Practitioner and a guest lecturer at the School of Psychology, University College Cork. Naomi was the recipient of UCC 2020 Athena SWAN Equality Award. Spends leisure time watching medical and crime dramas, supernatural and futuristic movies and couch time reading fictional novels.
Serena O'Neill
Serena is a support worker with the Cork Alliance Centre. Before this she worked with women in an addiction service. She has a degree in Social Science from UCC and a masters in Addiction Studies from DBS.
Sheila Connolly
Sheila Connolly is CEO of the Cork Alliance Centre since it opened in 2002. She has been instrumental in informing its ethos, programme design and implementation. The Cork Alliance Centre works with people released from prison. Its principal aim is desistance from crime, doing so through facilitating the process of personal recovery and empowerment. Sheila holds a Masters in Restorative Justice. In 2001 she established the Linkage Programme Office in Cork, supporting Probation Service clients into training and employment. Prior to that she worked overseas with Concern Worldwide.
Tom Spalding
Dr Tom Spalding is a design and social historian specialising on urban settings. He is the author of several books and academic articles dealing with the social aspects of streets, buildings and interiors. He is a contributor to a forthcoming text on walking pedagogies (with Prof O’Neill) which is in press. Tom’s other upcoming book, focusing on twentieth century design history, will be published by Cork University Press in 2025.
Vicky Seaman
Vicky Seaman is a Support Worker at the Cork Alliance Centre since 2006. She has an MA in Criminology and is currently a PhD candidate at UCC researching the broad life experiences of women who have spent time in prison.
