Governance

Ray Boland is a barrister who has been practising at the bar in Cork since 1997. He studied law in UCC from 1990 to 1993 and in the King’s Inns, Dublin, from 1993 to 1995. He tutored criminal law in UCC, and lectured in the Law Society in Cork, and was a member of the Bar Council of Ireland from 2013 to 2017.

Ray has an interest in the arts and is a long term supporter of Corcadorca theatre company. He is a lifetime member of Cork Arts Theatre. He also served on the board of Cork Midsummer Festival from 2006 to 2012.

He explores questions around the human voice and its creative power, at the intersection of theatre, performance/live art, installation, and music/sound; often leading interdisciplinary research teams. A former laureate of the Wellcome Trust Large Arts Awards, he also collaborates with researchers from speech and language science, voice and speech medicine, and vibration, materials and textile engineering, and with an array of visual and design thinkers.

Yvon is also the Artistic Director of Touch & Tract and Your Vivacious Voice.

He is also a regular reviewer for the Examiner’s Arts pages, notably live music. He brings more than 25 years’ experience in publishing to the GTC board.

Julie is Artistic Director and CEO at Mermaid County Wicklow Arts Centre. She holds a BA in Drama and Theatre Studies and English, and an MA in Drama and Theatre Studies from UCC. The former Artistic Director of The Everyman, Cork from 2014 to 2020, Julie is also Chair of the board for Theatre Forum Ireland, and sits on the Irish Playography Panel at Irish Theatre Institute. She has worked as an actor, director and producer with numerous Irish arts organisations and companies.

Recent directing credits include: The Lonesome West by Martin McDonagh (2018), Bluetooth by Rachel Thornton (2018), Autumn Royal by Kevin Barry (2018 remount, associate director), Dancing At Lughnasa by Brian Friel (2017), The Factory Girls by Frank McGuinness (2016), The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart by David Greig (2015), Lovers by Brian Friel (2015), all for The Everyman.

Recent producing credits include the world première of Mick Flannery’s Evening Train musical (2019), the Landmark/Everyman world première of Asking for It by Louise O’Neill (2018), world première of Autumn Royal by Kevin Barry (2017) and Irish première of Futureproof by Lynda Radley (2017), all for The Everyman.

Seán Love is Executive Director of Fighting Words, which he co-founded in 2009 with author Roddy Doyle. Fighting Words provides free tutoring and mentoring in creative writing and related arts to children, young adults and adults with special needs, throughout Ireland.

Prior to his establishment of Fighting Words, Sean was Executive Director of Amnesty International, Ireland. He holds a BA in History and MA in Information Studies.

Being a daughter, sister, wife, aunt and mum are the roles I treasure most. I sing a little, play a little guitar & piano. I began my love of teaching in my late father’s garden with his rhubarb plants as my students and naturally moved to teaching real students a little later!

I have spent the majority of my teaching career in St. Vincent’s Convent Primary School where I am Principal since 2014. It is a very special place and I count my blessings every day. Working with children, I can say that the most complex expressions of the human soul I have witnessed have been from the “mouth of babes”.

As a young child I did not have access to youth theatre and so the poet/author/word seamstress in me is more concrete than elastic. I borrow from the creativity of others to express and release my inner voice, and so one of my strongest convictions is to the expression  children’s voice and creativity. As a school, we have a decades long relationship with Graffiti Theatre.

As a parent, I brought my own children to the weekly Activate drama workshops. I am proud to sit on the Board of Graffiti Theatre.

Her work involves cultural quarter and cultural organisational development, funding applications and bid development at national and European level, partnership development, project feasibility and cultural programme and project delivery.

Karan has led multiple projects which incorporate the voice of children and young people, which she views as central to enhancing Ireland’s creative youth and forging sustainable creative careers. Important programmes in this space include current development of Youth Theatre Ireland’s Strategic Plan, Organisational Review and Strategic Plan development for Graffiti Theatre Company, design of multiple county-based Music Generation programmes and development of a Creative Youth Partnership for Laois and Offaly.