Bob Collins
is Director General of Ireland's national broadcasting organisation, RTE, to which he was appointed in April 1997. He was a member of the interim Authority for the Irish language television service Telifís na Gaeilge.

Virginia Kerr
is one of the most distinguished Irish sopranos of her generation, equally well know on the operatic stage, concert and oratorio platform and as a recital ist. She has sung with many of the world's leading orchestras and she has given masterclasses in Mexico, Georgia and the USA and is a frequent performer on radio and television.

Eamon Maher
worked as a secondary teacher from 1982-1994 in Clongowes Wood College, Naas, Co. Kildare. Has been lecturing in French in IT Tallaght since 1994. In Spring 2000 Eamon will be publishing a book (with an introduction by Brian Fallon) on 5 French and 5 Irish novelists (including Kate O'Brien) under the title: Crosscurrents and Confluence: Echoes of Religion in 20th Century Fiction (Veritas)

Theo Dorgan
is a poet, editor, broadcaster and Director of Poetry Ireland. With Noel Duffy he co-edited the recent anthology Watching The River Flow, a century in Irish poetry. His most recent publication is Sappho's Daughter, a book-length poem. He is a member of Aosdana.

Mary Coll
is Artistic Director of the Belltable Arts Centre in Limerick and the co-producer of the Unfringed Festival of Fringe Theatre there. She was awarded an MA in modern English for her thesis on The Social Environment in the Works of Kate O'Brien and compiled the bibliography of Kate O'Briens published work. Mary is also known for her own work as a poet and as a critic and reviewer.

Patricia Palmer
is a lecturer at University of Limerick and presenter of the Wore/scapes series on Lyric FM's artszone programme.

Dick Walsh
is from Cratloe, Co. Clare. He attended Cratloe National School and St. Munchin's College, Limerick before starting work as a reporter with the Clare Champion in 1955. He joined The Irish Times in 1 965 and was political correspondent (1973-1985) and political editor before becoming assistant editor - politics in 1998. He is the author of The Party - Inside Fianna Fail, Des O'Malley - a political profile and Gearcheim in Eirinn, about the 1970 arms crisis.

Pat Donlon
was Director of The National Library of Ireland from 1989 - 1998. Elected to the Royal Irish Academy in 1992. She has served on council and as Vice President in 1995 and 1 997. She was appointed to the Heritage Council in 1999. She is currently Research Fellow in the Faculty of Applied Arts, Dublin Institute of Technology.

Ann Marie Gill
Mother of 4 daughters, formerly chief executive of the National Womans Council. Previously in charge of management and employee development at INTEL, in Leixlip, Co. Kildare. She is now the Human Resources Director at Genworth Financial Europe.

Blake Morrison
is the author of two collections of poems, Dark Glasses and The Ballad of the Yorkshire Ripper; a bestselling memoir: And When Did you Last See Your Father?, a study of the Bulger case, As If; a children's book: The Yellow House, a play: The Cracked Pot, a collection of stories and journalism Too True and the libretto for Gavin Bryars' opera Dr. Ox's Experiment. His Selected Poems were recently published by Granta Books, and his first novel, The Justification of Johann Guenberg will be published by Chatto & Windus later this year. Formerly literary editor of the Observer and Independent on Sunday, he lives in London.