IBBY Ireland Committee Members
President: Jane O’Hanlon
Committee Members:
Margaret Ann Suggs (Secretary), Patrick Ryan (Treasurer), Elizabeth Goldbrick, Aisling Meade, Kathleen Moran, Siobhan Parkinson
Jane O’Hanlon is the Education Officer with Poetry Ireland/ Éigse Éireann, co-ordinating its education and outreach work. She is a former board member of Children’s Books Ireland and of IMRAM bi-lingual Festival, and a former tutor on the NYCI Certificate in Youth Arts.
Patrick Ryan is a storyteller, educator and writer based in Belfast working regularly in schools, libraries, arts centres and festivals. He has led several innovative storytelling projects including Kick into Reading, which trained professional footballers to tell stories to children. His writing includes articles on storytelling, folklore and literacy, the award-winning anthology Shakespeare’s Storybook, and, with Donna Schatt, Story Listening & Experience in Early Childhood, nominated for the Folklore Society’s Katharine Briggs Award.
Margaret Anne Suggs is a children’s book illustrator and has published over a dozen books in 4 languages. She holds an MA in Visual Communications as well as an MA in History of Design and Applied Arts both from NCAD. She serves on the Board of Directors for Illustrators Ireland and the International Board on Books for Young People Ireland (IBBYIre). She lectures part-time at Ballyfermot College, where she founded the illustration course (Higher National Diploma).
Currently, Margaret Anne is working on a picture book based on her Southern childhood surrounded by nature. She lives in County Dublin by the sea with her charming sons, rakish husband, and needy black cat.
Kathleen Moran is Senior Librarian with the JCSP Demonstration Library Project. Prior to joining JCSP, she worked for over 20 years at all levels of the public library service in Waterford City, including a 2-year period as Acting City Librarian. An avid reader, she founded and runs the DEAR Ireland National Reading Campaign. She was recently awarded (in conjunction with the JCSP Demonstration Library Project) the 2019 Children’s Books Ireland Award for Outstanding Contribution to Children’s Literature in Ireland and is the first Irish nominee for the IBBY-iRead Outstanding Reader Promotor Award.
Siobhan Parkinson writes novels, mostly for children and young people, and served as Ireland’s first Laureate na nÓg for children’s literature. She is the commissioning editor and publisher with Little Island, a former co-editor of Bookbird, an IBBY publication, and a former editor of Inis, the magazine produced Children’s Books Ireland.
Elizabeth Goldbrick is Rights Manger and Art Editor at Little Island. She received an M. Phil in Children’s Literature at Trinity College Dublin. Her love of children’s books comes from years of reading books from far and wide at home and in local libraries and later working in an independent Irish children’s bookstore enjoying “matchmaking” readers with new illustrators and titles. In 2019 she curated the Eric Carle Picture Book Museum’s exhibition Ireland’s Eye: Picture Book Views of Ireland.
Aisling Meade