Evelyn Conlon
Writer

Evelyn Conlon is an Irish novelist and short story writer. She is an elected member of Aosdána, the Irish association which honours distinguished artistic work. She has been writer-in-residence in colleges in many countries and at University College Dublin. A clear-sighted, observant and unsentimental thinker, her work is marked by originality and wit. Her most recent novel Not the Same Sky (Wakefield Press, 2013) steps back in time to tell the story of four young women who were among the 4,000 orphaned Irish girls shipped to Australia following the Great Famine of 1847. Earlier novels include Skin of Dreams (Brandon Press, 2003), A Glassful of Letters (Blackstaff Press, 1998) and Stars in the Daytime (Women’s Press, 1990). She has published three collections of short stories, My Head is Opening (Attic Press, 1987), Taking Scarlet as a Real Colour (Blackstaff Press, 1993), the title story of which was performed at the Edinburgh Theatre Festival, and Telling – New and Selected short stories (Blackstaff Press, 2001, Books Upstairs 2016), as well as editing four anthologies, including Cutting the Night in Two (New Island,2001) and Later On (Brandon Press, 2004). Her stories have been widely anthologised and translated, most recently into Chinese and Tamil. 

Rob Doyle
Writer

Photo: Al Higgins

Rob Doyle was born in Dublin and holds a first-class honours degree in Philosophy, and an MPhil in Psychoanalysis from Trinity College Dublin. His debut novel, Here Are the Young Men, was published by Bloomsbury in 2014, and was chosen as a book of the year by The Irish Times, The Sunday Times, The Sunday Business Post, and Independent. It was shortlisted in the Best Newcomer category for the Bord Gáis Irish Book Awards, and is one of Hot Press magazine’s ‘20 Greatest Irish Novels since 1916′. Doyle’s second book, This Is the Ritual, was published in January 2016 (Bloomsbury / Lilliput). His fiction, essays, and criticism have appeared in The Guardian, The Observer, The Dublin Review, The Irish Times, The Sunday Times, The Sunday Business Post, Stinging Fly, Gorse, Dalkey Archive’s Best European Fiction 2016, and elsewhere. Rob has also played the lead role in Hit the North (2016), a feature film directed by Daniel Sayer, and is the editor of the Dalkey Archive's Anthology of Irish Literature, due for publication in 2017.

 
Monica McWilliams
Ulster University

Monica McWilliams is an Emeritus Professor in the Transitional Justice Institute at Ulster University. She co-founded the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition political party in 1996, was elected to the Multi-Party Peace Negotiations and is a signatory of the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. She served as a member of the Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly from 1998-2003. She was the Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission responsible for drafting the advice on a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland. More recently, Monica produced recommendations for the Northern Ireland Executive on ‘The disbandment of paramilitary organisations in Northern Ireland’. She has been appointed to the Independent Reporting Commission to monitor the implementation of this process. Monica has a long standing interest on the impact of political conflict on women’s lives and has worked with women in various conflict regions building capacity skills on this issue. She is currently undertaking the first longitudinal research study on violence against women in armed conflict, funded by DfID as part of its work on Political Settlements.

Fintan Vallely
Professor and Musician, University College Dublin

Fintan Vallely is a musician, writer, lecturer and researcher on Traditional music. From Co. Armagh, now living in Dublin he was the author of the first tutor for Irish flute (1986, 2012) and has written and edited books and biographies on Irish music and song. He has taught on programmes in NUI Maynooth, University of Ulster, Dundalk Institute of Technology and Trinity College Dublin, and is now an adjunct Professor with University College, Dublin. A contributor to conferences and journals on Traditional music, he was an initiator of the first Irish Conferences on it in 1996 and 2003. His PhD research is on the entry of the flute to Ireland, and his work since covers identity, song, and investigation of the origins of the bodhrán drum. His major publication is the 900-page encyclopedia Companion to Irish Traditional Music, out of which he has developed and now performs Compánach, a complementary audio-visual concert show and DVD.