DCCI Elected Representatives

Trish Brennan
Trish Brennan:
I live in Cork, my job is Head of Fine Art & Applied Art at CIT Crawford College, where I have developed & supported new programmes; BA hons Contemporary Applied Art-Ceramics, Textiles & Glass, MA in Art & Process, Certificate in Art Textile & host the annual symposium MAKE, which celebrates making, craft and materiality. I am seeking your support to be elected as board member of Design & Crafts Council of Ireland. I have experience of serving on committees & boards, serving on National Sculpture Factory board of directors for over 10 years, finishing this September. I have represented CIT Crawford College at D.C.C.I.’s GANs in recent years and it has been a real privilege to attend, listen, contribute & to meet with makers and representatives nationally.
To give you an overview of my background, I come from a rural farming background in the midlands, studied Photography at Westminster University (1991) and MA Art in the Digital World, NCAD (2002). Alongside working in education & photography, I have a broad experience of working in the arts including: community arts, arts programme manager, festival & event producer and policy development. I have worked independently and worked with large institutions including; CIT, Dun Loaghaire Rathdown Co.Co. Arts Office (Festival of World Cultures, Poetry Festival), Irish Museum of Modern Art (Education & Community). I am passionate about the important role of creative practice, engagement and heritage to our quality of life. A national culture of excellence in craft & design cannot exist without meaningful & functional support for creative makers. I would be honored to represent GANs on DCCI’s board of directors, and promise to turn up & represent your interests.

Breda Fox
Approved 38 creatives for financial support to grow their business since 2010.
Approved 44 creatives for trading online vouchers since 2015.
Progressed creative clients by subsidised participation at Showcase annually including providing mentoring, training and upskilling
merchandising in advance of the international trade show.
Established a local craft network, to share best practice, support and learn from each other.
Worked with Design and Crafts Council of Ireland (DCCOI) to develop Galway creatives including the provision of DCCOI mentors
and training. I have supported four Building Craft and Development programmes in Galway to date.
Funded, organised and managed the Local Food and Craft fair to take place showcase the best of local Galway creatives and
providing a platform for sales pre-Christmas since 2012. This initiative was borne from needs identified by the craft network
Supported creative events, local markets and pop up shops such as Potters Market (from 2011), Creative Makers pop up shops (from
2016) and the Irish Fashion Innovation Awards since its foundation in 2010
Chaired the collaboration of creative innovation in 2019 with funding from Creative Ireland and Galway City Council and supported
by the IDA Galway. The project matched local Galway business, designers and artists and involved collaboration with 5 local
makers and 5 local multinational companies culminating in the creation of 5 unique and remarkable pieces of work.
Connecting the business engineers with local artists, textile, jewellery, ceramic and furniture makers had lasting impacts on industry
and makers creative processes.
In 2010 I joined the Galway County & City Enterprise Board (now the Local Enterprise Office Galway) and have led the service
delivery of the agency since then.
In 2010 I joined the Galway County & City Enterprise Board (now the Local Enterprise Office Galway) and have led the service delivery
of the agency since then. Training and advisory supports have increased threefold, and 37 clients businesses have transitioned to
Enterprise Ireland to continue to develop and grow. I am particularly passionate about the design and craft sector and work hard to
support the sector in my day to day role.
Since I joined the enterprise agency, supports to creatives include:
themselves.
My history prior to enterprise support work included The Point (now The 3 Arena), Dublin as Finance Director in the 1990’s. During this
time, I was also one of the youngest people ever appointed to a state board, serving as a nonexecutive Director of An Post for 5 years.
Moving to Galway in 2000, I became Finance Director of Transitions Optical in 1999, dealing with everything from
pricing to compliance. Two years later, I became Supply Chain & Customer Service Director for Europe. In 2006, I
started my own business advising start-up and established businesses in the West including projects for locally based
multinationals and helped clients with funding, efficiencies, cost-cutting and positioning for growth/recovery.

Maeve Murphy
Maeve is a passionate advocate for Irish craft & design and brings with her a breadth of experience spanning arts management and practice. She holds a BA (Hons) in Design in Textiles from GMIT and an MA in Cultural Policy & Arts Management from UCD. With over 10 years’ experience working in the Arts across multiple disciplines, Maeve has worked with Music Network, Music Generation and was the Programme Coordinator for the West Cork Chamber Music Festival. Also an entrepreneur, Maeve co-founded Forest & Flock, an independent Irish craft & design retail shop. She is the Operations Manager with Cork Craft and Design and Programme Coordinator for Cork Craft Month working closely with over 100 Craftspeople and Designers in County Cork.


Mary Palmer
Mary is an award winning Textile Artist with more than twenty-five years experience in the craft community in Ireland. She is a founder of Cork Textiles Network as well as the cross-border organisation, The Quilters Guild of Ireland, and has served on numerous committees and Boards, including DCCI and Cork Craft and Design.

Donagh Quigley
Donagh Quigley has a background in traditional music. After finishing a traineeship in thatching in his early 30s, Donagh started out on his own as a thatcher and began growing his own straw. Once the recession hit, Donagh was forced to re-evaluate and come up with something new; it needed to be scalable and of benefit to the end user. Donagh and his wife Gemma began creating handmade soap in their kitchen using only natural ingredients, before launching The Handmade Soap Company at Showcase in 2010. The Handmade Soap Company now employs 21 people in an upcycled mill in Slane, Co. Meath. The product range has expanded over the years and the company now exports widely. Donagh has extensive real-world experience of building and scaling a craft business.

Rachel Quinn
Rachel Quinn graduated with a Diploma in Fine Art from Sligo IT in 1995, gaining work experience in a variety of contexts before starting her own award winning ceramics business. A founding member of ‘Made in Sligo’ she has worked closely with the Sligo Local Enterprise Board and the Sligo Leader partnership to instigate a network of 15 micro craft producers. Rachel has been involved in several projects at local and national level including festivals, teaching, community initiated projects and is a member of DCCI’s CRAFTed programme.


Neil C. Read
Neil Read
Having studied ceramics and stained glass at Edinburgh College of Art I gained a post-graduate and established a studio in Edinburgh. From 1978-1980 I was photographer and Supervisor of Cataloguing at Edinburgh City Museums. In 1980 I exhibited at the Trinity Arts Workshop moving to Dublin in 1982 as ceramics lecturer at the National College of Art and Design, becoming Head of Department of Ceramics, Glass and Metals (1987-2010).
A practicing maker with a Dublin studio, my work is in The National Museum of Ireland, The Office of Publics Works, The Royal Museum of Scotland and The Sanbao Ceramic Art Institute and FuLe International Ceramics Museum, China.
Having been Chair of the Royal Dublin Society’s craft competition, Irish Contemporary Ceramics and the Golden Fleece Awards, a member of the committee of the Glass Society of Ireland (GSoI) (1993-1998) and the Crafts Council of Ireland (1994-1996) I am on the board of the GSoI.
Having been external examiner at the Glasgow and Crawford Schools of Art and the DCCoI’s Pottery Skills Course, my experience of the sector is substantial. If elected I would support individual makers and small businesses of quality and excellence and their profiles at home and internationally.

Eddie Shanahan
Eddie Shanahan specialises in business and product development for the fashion and textiles, craft, homewares and retail sectors. He has developed and executed Business & Product Development programs for varied organisations including DCCI and the network of Local Enterprise Offices as well as providing effective mentoring services to individual craft and design across a range of disciplines. Eddie developed the ‘CREATE’ project with Brown Thomas to identify and develop Irish design talent with the capability to sell in the store side-by-side with the world’s leading luxury labels. He is Chairperson of the Council of Irish Fashion Designers.