Aisling Ennis
Aisling Ennis is highly regarded as a harpist both at home in Ireland and internationally. A passionate performer, arranger and educator, she enjoys a varied career as a solo, chamber, orchestral harpist and educator. A former student of the Royal Academy of Music and Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, Royal Irish Academy of Music and holds a first class Master’s degree in Arts Management and Cultural Policy from UCD as well as a PGCE in Primary Education. Aisling is known for her evocative playing across a broad spectrum of genres, her ongoing experimental collaborations and innovative approaches to programming.
Upcoming work includes ongoing performances of her new adaptation of Mozart's Magic Flute, collaborating with Peter Power of Sparsile Collective on his new work After Light: These Dark Citizens for Cork's Midsummer Festival, solo appearances with Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh and Irish Chamber Orchestra for Kilkenny Arts Festival, the release of her debut solo album of compositions and ongoing recitals with Trio Tain. Aisling is a 2022 member of Wicklow Artists Panel and works to support and enrich the arts in her beloved home, Wicklow.
Brian Matthews Murphy
Brian is an actor and film maker from Wicklow. He has acted in features and TV shows such as The Lost City of Z, Spa Weekend, Last Journey of The Vikings and has also written, produced and directed shorts which have been selected for numerous festivals around the world and in Ireland.
In 2019 he received a JCI young person of the year award in the category of Arts and Culture.
He also started and runs North Wicklow Filmmakers (known as No WiFi), a local community group.
Conor Dowling
Conor Dowling is a TV & Film writer and podcaster from Dublin Ireland. In 2021 he was awarded a screenwriting bursary and mentorship from Screen Skills Ireland to attend Stowe Story Labs in America. Conor has worked on numerous series for RTE and RTEjnr as a shooting director and producer, and his directorial debut feature comedy,"The light of Day" premiered at The Galway film fleadh in 2014. You can usually find Conor tinkering with an old film camera, or working on his Arts Council funded horror novel Monumental.
Instagram: @conord_owling | Twitter: @conord_owling
Emily Gillmor Murphy
Emily Gillmor Murphy is a dyslexic Irish playwright, theatre maker and novelist.
For theatre Emily wrote A Boy Called Nedd (2014) which was shortlisted for The Stewart Parker Trust Award (2015), ALL TALK (2016), Monster? (2017), Her Fingernails (2017), The Boy With Scar (2018), The Horror Writer (2019) Blind an Audio Horror Experience (2020) and BLISS an audio walking experience (2022). Her work has been directed by Ciarán Gallagher, Karl Shiels, Sandra Thompson-Quartey, Riccardo Sinibaldi and Aonghus Óg McAnally. Her work has been supported by Druid Theatre Company, Theatre Upstairs, Bitter Like a Lemon Theatre Company, Writers’s Avenue London Theatre Company, RTÉ Radio One and Mermaid Arts Centre Bray.
Emily’s novels published by Penguin Random House include You and I (2012) and One Chance (2014)
Website: www.ryotsproductions.com
Lisa Freeman
Lisa Freeman works across scripted performance, moving image, text and installation. She investigates content from archival material, mainstream media and local knowledge to explore representation and precarious economies of labour. Through employing intimacy as a form of resistance, she aims to reveal social anxieties along with deeper economic and power structures. Freeman was awarded a Project Studio Award at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Dublin (2022/23), an Arts Council of Ireland Project Award (2022) and Bursaries (2020, 2022).
Recent exhibitions and performances include; Brows For Days at The LAB Gallery, as part of ‘Unassembled’ (2020). Green Skies, A Double Rhythm, a site-specific performance at The Curragh, Kildare (2019). Other projects include: The Talk That Talks, RHA Gallery, Dublin (2018), TBC TV, Somerset House, London (2018), More Mutable Clouds, Prenzlauer Kunst Kollektiv, Berlin (2018), PLATFORM, Draiocht Gallery, Dublin (2018), Solas Nua, Washington DC (2018).
Niamh O'Connor
Niamh has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and history from UCD and Master of Arts degrees in journalism from DCU, screenwriting from IADT and creative writing from University of East Anglia.
She started her writing life as a crime journalist and worked as the true crime editor of the Sunday World for 12 years. She is the author of seven novels and nonfiction books and has been nominated three times for an Irish Book Award. In recent years, Niamh has been working as a full-time screenwriter. Her crime dramas have been optioned by O’Sullivan Productions, Danú Media and Treasure Entertainment. Her books are represented by David Higham Associates and her screenwriting by Independent Talent Group. She was made a Lord David Puttnam scholar in 2021.
Twitter: @crackingcrime | Website: www.crackingcrime.com
Robert Barrett
Robert Barrett lives in west Wicklow, where he writes flash fiction, short stories, and plays. He won first place in the RTE PJ O’Connor Awards in 2017 and 2020. His short stories have been shortlisted for both the Colm Tobin International Short Story Competition 2017 and the Cairdre Word Short Story Competition 2021.
His fiction has been published in the Fish Anthology, Bath Flash Fiction Anthology, Flashback Fiction, the Bangor Literary Journal, The Incubator, New Flash Fiction Review, and on RTE Radio 1. He is co-editor of www.splonk.ie and a member of Wicklow County Council’s Artist Connect Panel.