Creative Director

CIARA O’CONNOR WALSH

Ciara is Creative Director of A Lust for Life. Ciara has been working with the A Lust for Life team since 2017, and prior to that, has worked as a public relations and communications consultant for some of the country’s leading state agencies and organisations to produce communications campaigns and strategy on social issues ranging from housing, to the environment, to tourism, to overseas aid.

She specialised in youth communications and in designing educational programmes and experiential events for primary and secondary schools and colleges. Ciara has also spent many years working with some of Ireland’s largest non-governmental organisations, including Women’s Aid and the Irish Family Planning Association, working on organisational strategy, training, PR and communications.

Ciara has always cared deeply about our country’s mental health, having experienced mental health issues both herself, and in her friend and family circles, including losing a close family member through suicide. Ciara wrote her MA thesis on representation of mental health in the Irish Media in 2001, and has witnessed the hugely positive sea change in Irish culture around mental health over the previous two decades since. She believes that storytelling and breaking the silence surrounding mental health is key to social change; but that this needs to be shored up by significant state investment in, and normalisation of, services for people experiencing mental health problems; as well as investment in positive mental health programmes and education, especially for young people.

Ciara is also podcast producer and self-confessed podcast and radio nerd, and most recently has been working with Niall Breslin to produce his hugely successful Where Is My Mind series, his Wake Up/Wind Down Spotify series. She was also the producer of the award-winning Where There’s A Will podcast series for A Lust for Life. She is mammy to Ezzy and Seth (the humans) and Larry (the wheaten terrier), and lives with her husband and family in beautiful Kilkenny.

Written by Ciara
How the Buddhist metaphor of “the second arrow” can help you be nicer to yourself

Section – Tools

Head of Programmes

LEDA CONNAUGHTON

Leda is Head of Programmes in A Lust For Life.

Our Schools Programme is a ‘Netflix’ based model for primary schools to host engaging age-relevant content, created ‘by children for children’ and designed to build psychological flexibility and resilience.

Leda’s background is in developing and delivering educational and well-being programmes, which is underpinned by her BA in Psychology and MSc in Mental Health from Trinity College Dublin. Leda is passionate about changing Irelands’ narrative and support system around mental health, in particular for Irish young people. This has been at the backbone of her educational and working career after losing a close family member through suicide. Leda has made it her mission is to empower young people to mind their mental health, to break down the barriers of stigma that surrounds mental health and to create a more welcoming society that acknowledges and supports other people’s challenges.

Co-Founder and Chair

PAULA MCLOUGHLIN

Originally from Dublin, Paula lived in London for 20 years – initially working in financial management with Marks & Spencer plc., and then as a Senior Executive/Partner with Accenture plc. where she worked all over the world to lead large teams and global transformation programmes. Paula was then COO of The Work Foundation, a 100 year-old UK ‘think tank’ where she was instrumental in orchestrating its sale to Lancaster University. As an independent consultant, Paula has worked with many clients including Clarks, Mind Gym, the Aura Holohan Group and Virgin Atlantic Ltd. In recent years Paula has fulfilled a promise to herself to spend more of her time using her long business background to influence and support causes that she feels passionate about. She was previously an Ambassadors for Tomorrows People, a UK charity which supports young and marginalised people to get and keep a job – and was also Trustee/Director and Chair of HR sub-committee of Just for Kids Law, a UK charity which provides support, advice and representation to children in difficulty. Based on a deeply held belief that we can and must do a better job of looking after the wellness of humanity and ourselves, A Lust for Life now holds a very special place in Paula’s heart.

Co-Founder and IT Services

PRITESH SYMONDS-PATEL

Pritesh is a co-founder of A Lust for Life and provides IT services to the organisation. Pritesh has a deep passion for technology and mental health and strongly believes in the mission behind A Lust For Life. He decided to walk away from a successful career in banking and start a web development company where he could further build on his passion for technology. He has worked with many leading companies throughout various sectors to deliver bespoke solutions. Pritesh expanded company further include sports and personality management for a number of high profile athletes in the lead up to the Olympic Games. Pritesh’s insight into digital media strategy has been a key factor to successful sponsorship deals and is driven to deliver content which is engaging. Pritesh is working on developing further projects and products for both web based and mobile platforms.

Partnerships & Fundraising services

GWEN O’TOOLE

Gwen has a background in roles that combine content creation, partnerships and funding – from publishing reports in The Times UK, to content campaigns for the Guardian newspaper and film production for Feline Films. She wrote, directed and produced an award-winning short film around the topic of shame, before taking the scenic route back to Ireland via a world trip. She is dedicated to supporting young people around their mental health and giving them a platform to progress the conversation. She is also passionate about providing young people with opportunities to grow their social and emotional skills, resilience, scientific understanding of their own minds and tools to help manage their lives.

Digital communications & content services

DARAGH FLEMING

Daragh is the Communications and Digital Content Lead at A Lust For Life. He is a writer, poet, and owner of the award-nominated mental health blog Thoughts Too Big and has a rooted passion for mental health and reducing stigma. Daragh is a published author, and writes a weekly block exploring some common mental health issues that people experience.

Daragh has always had a passion for mental health, and has spent the last ten years, advocating, reducing stigma, and spreading awareness about mental health and suicide prevention. With an educational background in applied psychology and linguistics, Daragh uses his voice to shed light on some of the traditionally neglected aspects of mental health in order to normalise the conversation.

As a writer, Daragh currently has two collections of short stories in publication (The Book of Revelations and If You Are Reading This Then Drink Water). His debut poetry chapbook (Notes For A Mid-Youth Crisis) launched early in 2022, His second collection of poems arrives in July of 2022 and his debut in non-fiction, Lonely Boy: A Conversation On Mental Health, launches in November of 2022.

Daragh is a self-proclaimed Marvel nerd, a novice long distance runner, and played basketball at a national level up until 2021. Depending on your perspective, the best and worst thing about Daragh is that he’s from Cork, where he currently lives.

Written by Daragh
Mental health routines and the real meaning of self-care

Section – Voice

Community and Engagement services

MAIREAD MCGARRY

Mairéad is the Community and Engagement Coordinator at A Lust For Life, with a background in retail, events, and student engagement. Mairéad spent 10 years as a visual merchandising manager and regional visual manager with H&M and Zara, opening many stores throughout the UK and IE. Her time in DCU ignited a passion for mental health and well-being, supporting the students living on campus through events, and mental health and wellbeing initiatives, while implementing projects in sustainability and communications. She really believes in the important work being carried out by charities such as A Lust For Life.

Mairéad sings, practices meditation, and yoga, and spends as much time outdoors as possible to look after her own well-being.

ANDREW JENKINSON

Serial Entrepreneur Andrew Jenkinson is Director and Co-founder of Interactive experience company vStream, and XR experience specialists vStream Health. Andrew holds a BSc in Computer Applications from DCU and a Masters in Innovation & Technology Management from The Smurfit School of Business. Prior to founding The vStream Group of companies with childhood friend Niall O’Driscoll, Andrew was a founding member of Irish software startup SteelTrace which was acquired by US Multinational Compuware for $20M in 2006. Andrew has received significant award recognition including Internet Marketer of the year, Entrepreneur of the year (European Business Awards) and Irish Times Innovation Awards. Andrew is a keen musician, father of 3, and loves anything with an engine!

Written by Andrew
The panic attack that changed my life

Section – Personal Stories

DAVE BYRNE

Dave Byrne is the Head of Creative and board member for THINKHOUSE, a youth marketing agency in Ireland which has been voted Top 15 independent agencies in the world 3 years running.

In 2015, he was appointed Head of Creative Studio where he built and continues to lead the in-house creative team, delivering global best in class, culturally connecting campaigns and events.
Prior to Thinkhouse, Dave worked for Bodytonic Music, one of Ireland’s largest independent music promoters.

Over the last decade, Dave has worked on campaigns which have connected young people to countless brands and missions.
These include Movember, Darkness Into Light, BeLong To, Heineken Music, Barry’s Tea, Twitter, Dropbox, Facebook, Unilever, Lucozade and Jameson.

True to his belief that to work in the youth culture space, you have to live and genuinely care about it, Dave runs a multitude of club nights and continues to DJ around the world. He is regularly invited to contribute to youth publications and media series.

Treasurer

FEMI BANKOLE

Femi Bankole is an IT Risk Consultant and works as a Manager within EY’s Business consulting practice in Dublin. He has a degree in Physics from University of York. In 2020, he co-founded Black & Irish, a social platform aimed at celebrating the success’ and highlighting the struggles of black and Irish people. He is a Presenter on RTE’s ‘Black & Irish Podcast”, which provides commentary around race and culture in Ireland. He is a member on the board of directors for the charity ‘A Lust of Life’. He is also a member of the Expert Advisory Group (EAG) to the Digital repository of Ireland (DRI). He was featured on the Irish times ’50 People to watch in 2021’. Femi is a sports fanatic, an avid arsenal fan and spends his spare time playing for his local club, Rathmines Roosters.

TRIONA FERRITER

Triona has over 20 years’ experience operating at a senior management level within both US multinational and indigenous Irish companies. Having joined Arthur Cox in 2020 as Chief People Officer, Triona has responsibility for shaping and driving the People and Culture agenda for the firm, supporting the Management Committee and Partnership. Prior to Arthur Cox, Triona worked in the banking sector as Chief People Officer for AIB. Previous roles were primarily in a US multinational environment, where Triona supported diverse business functions, including manufacturing, shared services and retail, mainly in the pharmaceutical sector. Throughout her career Triona has coached Senior Business and HR Leaders and lead HR teams of scale. Triona has a passion for unleashing individual and organisation potential, has broad experience in driving high-performance cultures and leadership and is a qualified Mechanical Engineer and a business and executive coach. Prior to joining AIB in 2017, she was a European Executive Director with MSD, a multinational Pharmaceutical organisation.

BRIAN HIGGINS

Brian is a senior public servant working in the areas of Disability and Mental Health.

He has worked within the area of Mental Health directly and indirectly for well over a decade, most notably as CEO of Pieta, the national charity for the prevention of suicide & self-harm and bereavement support. Brian led Pieta’s “Darkness Into Light” fundraising event from being a national fundraising event to becoming a global movement in 18 countries with over 215,000 participants.

More recently Brian served as CEO of Bloomfield Health Services, an Irish mental health charity. Founded in 1812, Bloomfield has provided treatment and continuing care for individuals with complex psychiatric and neuro-psychiatric needs for over 200 years.

A criminologist by background, Brian was instrumental in the development and roll out of the UK Child Rescue Alert (a national alert issued in the event of child abduction) in partnership with the UK’s National Crime Agency in his role as Director of Services for Missing People (missingpeople.org.uk), the UK’s national missing person’s charity.

Most recently, Brian served as CEO of The Resource Alliance an international non-profit which serves a global alliance of people and organisations fighting for positive social change. Through their global events and structures they provide spaces for fundraisers and change-makers to collaborate, share ideas, learn from one another and maximise their impact on the world.

Brian spent a number of years working in Homelessness as a member of the senior management group of Depaul in Ireland. He has worked as Director of Children’s Services with Rainbow Project International in the Republic of Zambia and as the founding Executive Director of Depaul in the United States of America.

DONAL STEELE

Donal is a Deputy Director at the National Treasury Management Agency, where he leads a number of different corporate operations functions. A gold medal winner from Trinity College Dublin with degrees in maths and engineering and a Masters in Business Studies from DCU, he has over 28 years of experience working in the Ireland and the UK across a broad range of sectors, including the financial, information technology, construction and public sectors, and specialises in corporate operations, procurement & contracts, programme/project management and engineering. Donal has travelled his own journey through mental health recovery and with two young boys at home he is passionate about giving young people the skills necessary to take care of their own emotional and mental health.