Advisory Group

Suzy Byrne

Suzy Byrne is a disabled woman who has been involved in community work and campaigns on disability and equality issues for 30 years. She is a regional manager for the National Advocacy Service for People with Disabilities which provides professional representative advocacy for disabled individuals who may need support in decision making and accessing rights. Suzy is also a Director of Iarnrod Eireann as one of the first disabled people to be specifically recruited to a state public transport board. She is also a board member of the Irish Council of Civil Liberties and an external advisor to the Rethinking Ireland Equality Fund.

Mary Daly

Mary Daly is Professor of Sociology and Social Policy, at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention at the University of Oxford and a Governing Body Fellow of Green Templeton College Oxford. Most of her work is comparative, in a European and international context. Substantively, she is interested in and has published widely on the following social policy areas: long-term care and care for children; gender inequality; family policy; poverty and welfare. Mary Daly’s research has been supported by, among others, the Economic and Social Research Council, the EU, ILO, Council of Europe, UNWomen and UNICEF. She is the founder of the Care Initiative at Green Templeton College Oxford.

Nikki Dunne

Dr Nikki Dunne joined Family Carers Ireland in March 2019. Family Carers Ireland is the national charity supporting the 500,000 family carers across the country who care for loved ones such as children or adults with physical or intellectual disabilities, frail older people, those with palliative care needs or those living with chronic illnesses, mental ill-health or addiction. Nikki leads Family Carers Ireland’s programme of research and manages a diverse range of qualitative and quantitative projects relating to family carers. She is particularly focusing on building and coordinating research involvement and engagement among family carers, researchers and other stakeholders. Nikki has a PhD from the University of Edinburgh, where she was based at the Centre for Families and Relationships. Prior to joining Family Carers Ireland, Nikki has worked in academic research on projects relating to gender and care worker migration, archival research methods and kindness in public policy. 

Zoe Hughes

Zoe joined Care Alliance Ireland in January of 2015. She has qualifications in Social Work, Social Policy and Disability Studies, and her past work has included working with a number of academic and voluntary sector organisations. She has a particular interest in the topic of diversity within caring, along with inclusive research and ensuring direct community involvement. Zoe is currently Senior Policy & Research Officer, and coordinates the Care Alliance research and policy functions. This is along with supporting member organisations to input into Care Alliance Ireland documents and submissions. Zoe commenced work on the Doctorate in Applied Social Studies in University College Cork in October 2017, on the broad topic of family care and the LGBTQIA+ community.

Naomi Masheti

Dr Naomi Masheti is a Psychologist and a three-time graduate of UCC; she graduated with a BA in Applied Psychology in 2007, an MA in Forensic Psychology in 2008, and a PhD specialising in the Psychosocial Wellbeing of Sub-Saharan African Migrant Children in 2015. As a direct result of her PhD, she developed a culturally sensitive training program for front line service providers which she has delivered in UCC (Psychology and BSW courses), UCD (Clinical Psychology program), the Good Shepherd Cork among others. Also, as a direct result of her PhD Naomi was instrumental in setting up the Cork Migrant Centre Psychosocial Wellbeing and Integration Hub at the Nano Nagle Place, focused on culturally sensitive services and transformative social justice work. She is a guest lecturer at the School of Psychology Cork. Naomi was the recipient of UCC 2020 Athena SWAN Equality Award.

Joan McCarthy

Dr. Joan McCarthy is a recently retired Senior Lecturer in Healthcare Ethics in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, University College Cork. With a background in philosophy she has collaborated on several international research projects and her publications focus on ethics at the beginning and end of life, nursing and midwifery ethics, and feminist perspectives on bioethics. She co-edited a book in 2020 on Nursing Ethics: Feminist Perspectives (2020) Nursing Ethics: Feminist Perspectives | SpringerLink).

Maggie O’Neill

Maggie O’Neill is Professor in Sociology/Criminology in the Department of Sociology & Criminology at UCC. Her inter-disciplinary research career has developed along a threefold path: the development of cultural, biographical and critical feminist theory; the development of innovative methodologies for doing social research – including visual, biographical and performative (walking) methodologies; and the development of praxis - interventions in practice and policy. Maggie has a long history of conducting participatory, biographical and arts-based research in collaboration with artists and communities.  Recent books include: Frontiers in Time Research. Co-edited with Elisabeth Schilling (2020);  Imaginative Criminology: of spaces past present and future. Bristol: Policy Press. Co-authored with Lizzie Seal (2019); and Walking Methods: Research on the Move. London: Routledge. Co-authored with Brian Roberts (2019). 

Aoife Smith

Aoife Smith has a background in Community Development and Journalism. She is the Social Enterprise and Home Care Manager at the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland and a co-founding director of The Great Care Co-op. Aoife is interested in solution-driven actions and methodologies to tackle social issues. Integral to her practice is supporting communities to generate and drive solutions to barriers they experience. She has been with MRCI since 2009 working alongside domestic workers, home care workers and au pairs on policy and campaigns to tackle discrimination based on gender, employment and immigration status.

Ailbhe Smyth

Ailbhe was the founding head of Women’s Studies at University College Dublin, and is a long-time feminist and LGBTQ campaigner and activist. She was a strategic advisor for the Marriage Equality campaign, and was co-director of the Together for Yes national referendum campaign. Currently, she is Chair of Women’s Aid, and also of Ballyfermot STAR Addiction Services, and is a director of Age Action Ireland. She was included on the Time Magazine list of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2019.