Marriage Equality Board Members

Gráinne Healy - Chairwoman

Marriage Equality Chairwoman Gráinne Healy is a long time feminist activist with serious involvement in campaign for women's rights in Ireland, including reproductive health rights, violence against women, prostitution and trafficking and anti poverty issues. Chair of the European Women's Lobby's Observatory on Violence against Women for over a decade, Gráinne is also former Vice President of the European Women's Lobby, a former Chairwoman of the National Women's Council of Ireland; Chairwoman of the National Domestic Violence Intervention Agency and a previous Ministerial appointee to the Board of the Equality Authority and the Women's Health Council.

A self-employed Projects Manager, Gráinne has devised and delivered numerous EU-funded social inclusion initiatives with transnational partnerships across the EU, including the Dignity Project which seeks to support development of Inter-agency service delivery for victims of sex trafficking and the Equal Project which sought to deliver innovative solutions to work place inequality thus creating a more equal workplace in the Dublin region. She has managed budgets in excess of £1m and has also published evaluation reports and strategic plans for many commmunity and voluntary organisations.

Orla Howard - Deputy Chair

Professionally, Orla has been involved in the Marketing and Advertising Industry for many years and as well as having worked in the Newspaper industry, she has worked in TV and Radio. She has recently returned to education to study Sustainable Development.

Orla has been involved with the NLGF for 10 years, and is currently a Board Member. Her key area of interest is advancing equality for Gay Men and Lesbians.

Ronan Farren

Ronan Farren is a public affairs consultant working with a leading public relations agency in central Dublin. Ronan worked closely with Marriage Equality on its establishment and provides ongoing strategic advice. Ronan previously worked with the Labour Party and the Department of Foreign Affairs and is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin and Dublin City University.

Ross Golden-Bannon

Educated in Ireland, Britain and France, Ross Golden-Bannon worked for New Labour in the House of Commons until September 2000. He was Political Assistant to the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Wales, an Officer of the TGWU Parliamentary Branch and The Secretaries and Assistants' Council. He also acted as an informal lobbyist for Stonewall to The House of Lords.

In 1999 he was accepted on the list of Parliamentary Candidates for the British General Election 2001. He withdrew his name in 2000 to return to Ireland and pursue a career in the private sector where he combined a commercial role at The Sunday Business Post with his weekly restaurant column. In 2004 he co-founded Bannon&Bannon PR with his brother Ultan which later evolved into RGB Consulting, specialising in the development issues. His consulting firm merged with Grayling Global in 2008 where he is Client Director. He retains his role as restaurant critic for The Sunday Business Post and he was appointed editor of FOOD&WINE Magazine in May 2008.

He is regularly sought after as an opinion former and commentator on current affairs. He contributes to a number of other publications and broadcasters including RTE Radio & TV, Newstalk, 4FM and TodayFM.

He is a supporter of One Family, co-founder of the Dublin Rape Crises Centre Wilde October Ball, a member of Amnesty International LGBT Sub-committee (Ireland) and was recently elected to membership of the Irish Food Writer's Guild.

Patrick Lynch

Assistant National Director, HSE; Secretary of the National Lesbian and Gay Foundation (NLGF).

Patrick has a professional interest in the management of change and has been involved in a number of health related change programmes in the organisations he has worked with over the past 30 years.

Kieran O'Brien

Kieran O'Brien is the Director of Partnerships for UNICEF Ireland. Kieran has worked with UNICEF for the past nine years in a variety of fundraising and advocacy roles. Since completing his masters in Development Studies in 2006 he has travelled extensively and currently manages a development programme in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka.

Anna MacCarthy

Organiser, LGBT Noise; Solicitor.

Anna has been involved in LGBT activism for the past 10 years as head of UCC's LGBT society, member of the Union of Students in Ireland's LGBT Working Group and fundraiser for Dublin LGBTQ Pride.

Clare O'Connell

Clare is a full time medical student in her second year of study. She teaches piano and works in a health food store part-time. Her interests include piano, cello, climbing and waterpolo. Clare became involved with Marriage Equality through the group Believe in Equality (a support group and network for children of same sex parents), of which she is a member.

Justine Quinn

Justine has practised as a barrister in Ireland since 2006. She has also been called to the bar of New York and is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, the Honorable Society of King's Inns and the London School of Economics. Justine lectures at NUI Maynooth and is currently writing her PhD in European Law and Governance in UCD on the free movement of same-sex parented families. She is a junior researcher on the Equal Jus Project based in Florence, Italy - a European network for the Legal Support of LGBT rights which is co-financed by the European Commission programme "Fundamental Rights and Citizenship 2007-2013" and supported by partners in Italy, France, Poland and Lithuania. Justine is one of the founders of the LGBT Lawyers Association of Ireland which, in conjunction with FLAC, provides a LGBT Free Legal Advice Centre for the gay community.

Ailbhe Smyth

Ailbhe is Chair of the National Lesbian and Gay Federation. She is on the Steering Group of the LGBT Diversity Programme, and also of ERA (Equality and Rights Alliance). Her board memberships include; GAZE LGBT Film Festival; Irish Medical Aid for Palestine; and Ballyfermot STAR. She is currently Co-Convenor of Feminist Open Forum and National Convenor of the People Before Profit Alliance.

The founding Director of the Women's Education, Research and Resource Centre (WERRC) at UCD and a senior academic for many years, Ailbhe now works with NGOs and Community-based organisations. She has been active in feminist, LGBT and radical politics since the 1970s.

Judy Walsh

Judy Walsh is Director of Graduate Programmes at the School of Social Justice, University College Dublin, where she teaches on the Equality Studies programmes. Judy holds undergraduate and Masters degrees in law from University College Cork and was called to the Irish Bar in 1997. Her research interests and publications span various aspects of human rights law and discrimination law. Judy has considerable experience of the NGO sector: she was Co-Chairperson of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties from 2003-08, and currently sits on the board of the Participation and Practice of Rights Project and the board of Healthy Food for All.