Naomi O'Connell
is a soprano, trained with Archie Simpson, a member of The Lismorahaun Singers and a winner at Feis Ceoil 2003 & 2004. She is currently studying at Royal Irish Academy of music.

Padraic McKernan
Born in Limerick, he was formerly Ireland's Ambassador to Washington - and is currently Ambassador to France.

Martin Mansergh
was brought up in County Tipperary and educated at Oxford University. He joined the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1974 before joining the Department of the Taoiseach in 1981. He was appointed special adviser on Northern Ireland in 1982 and has served three Taoisigh in this capacity. He is now a member of the Seanad. His book The Legacy of History was printed by Mercier Press.

Sinéad McCoole
is the author of a number of books and she has scripted a series of short films, Women of 1916, for RTE. She works as an historical and picture researcher and as a lecturer at the Kilmainham Gaol Museum. Author of Hazel: A Life of Lady Lavery 1880-1935, Guns and Chiffon, and No Ordinary Women, she has worked on a number of important exhibitions for the Irish Heritage Service. A former guide she is now on the Board of Visitors of Kilmainham Gaol Museum.

Ivor Browne
is Professor Emeritus, University College, Dublin, having retired in 1994. He was formerly Professor of Psychiatry at the University College, Dublin; Chief Psychiatrist of the Eastern Health Board. He is a preceptor of the Sarg Marg system of meditation which he has practiced since 1978. Browne has published many books and articles as An Experiment with a Psychiatric Night Hospital (1960); Psychiatry in Ireland (1963); The Dilemma of the Human Family: a cycle of growth and decline (1966); Thomas Murphy: The Madness of Genius(1987), How does Psychotherapy Work? (1989), Psychological Trauma, or Unexperienced Experience (1990).

Eoghan Harris
is a screenwriter and political columnist with The Sunday Independent.

Paddy Woodworth
was born in Bray, Co. Wicklow and has written for the Irish Times from 1988 to 2002. He has worked for the London Times, the Sunday Times, El País, as well as RTE, BBC, and Spanish radio and television. He is the author of Dirty War, Clean Hands, Aznar's Legacy, Zapatero's Prospects. He now divides his time between research on environmental issues, and writing a travel book on the Basque Country.

Patricia Byrne
A native of Mayo, she was employed at Shannon Development for 20 years in various economic and enterprise activities. She was Chief Executive of the National Technology Park at Plassey and on the Senior Management Team in Shannon Development as Director of Knowledge Enterprise. She recently retired to pursue writing, teaching and consulting interests.

Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill
Born in the North of England; she was raised in Ventry (Dingle Gaeltacht) Co. Kerry from the age of five and is one of Ireland's best poets. Among her books are An Dealg Droíghín; Féar Suithinseach; (versions in English by Michael Hartnett) and a full collection Selected Poems/Rogha Danta. She is a member of Aosdana, and was editor of Modern Irish Poetry section of Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing, Vols. 4 & 5 (2002)

Eileen Battersby
Staff journalist and Literary Correspondent of The Irish Times, three times National Arts Journalist of the Year; reviews fiction, covers Arts, writes about archaeology, history, heritage and environmental issues.

Kevin Whelan
One of Ireland's best known and widely published historians, was named the Smurfit Director of the Keough-Notre Dame Centre in Ireland in 1998. A native of County Wexford, Kevin received a bachelor's degree at University College Dublin, and a doctorate from the National University of Ireland. He has published fourteen books and almost 100 articles on Irelajxfs history, geography, and culture. Among these are The Tree of Liberty, Radicalism, Catholicism and the Construction of Irish Idemity 1760-1830, Fellowship of Freedom: The United Irishmen and the 1798 Rebellion (1998), and the bestseller Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape. His next book is The Killing Snows: Cultural Change in Nineteenth-Century Ireland.