Partners
University College Cork
The School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences in UCC leads LIVE. UCC brings expertise in a range of environmental sciences, science communication, public engagement and research to the project. The University already has a strong presence on the Iveragh peninsula, which they hope to expand with long-term environmental programmes. They also oversee the project governance and reporting to the funding body.
Dr Pat Meere
Dr Meere is the head of the Geology department in UCC. He is a co-leader of the project. He has a passionate interest in structural geology and in engaging the public with all aspects of geology. He has previously studied the geology of the Skelligs and other important features of the Iveragh landscape.
Dr Fidelma Butler
Dr Butler is a senior lecturer in ecology at UCC. She is a co-leader of the project. Her work includes a range of ecological topics from soil to bats. She has a strong interest in involving members of the public in research and developing citizen science projects. Within LIVE, she is leading the Knowledge Gathering work package.
Lucy Taylor
Lucy is the LIVE project manager. Based in Ireland, she manages the administrative aspects of the project and oversees the implementation of project activities on both peninsulas.
Orla Breslin
Orla is the local operations coordinator for the Iveragh peninsula. With a background in art, crafts and digital humanities, Orla develops and implements community and stakeholder engagement initiatives in Kerry. She is working to ensure that communities on the peninsula drive the project and that the project responds to their needs and inputs.
Clodagh Cahill
Marketer Clodagh has recently returned to Valentia Island after time spent working and travelling abroad. With a background in PR and community engagement she is passionate about sustainable tourism and the Iveragh Peninsula. She will be managing the marketing and public communications of the LIVE project in Kerry.
Kerry County Council
Through the Tourism Office, Kerry County Council will provide a link to broader tourism, community and sustainability policies at county and national level and also to their extensive tourism networks. They will manage the development of vibrant, collaborative marketing campaigns for the project and for the Iveragh peninsula and will ensure the sustainability of the LIVE network beyond the lifetime of the project.
John Griffin
John is the Kerry County Tourism Officer and has a wealth of experience in developing successful tourism strategies. He brings his insights into local and national tourism trends and policies to the LIVE project.
South Kerry Development Partnership
South Kerry Development Partnership is a community-led development organisation that works with a bottom up, collaborative approach to rural development. Within LIVE, they provide strong links to communities and to other community development initiatives on Iveragh. They are tasked with creating the digital and non-digital assets for tourism and education that will be the main tangible outputs of the project.
Seán de Buitlear
Seán is the EU Projects and Communications officer with SKDP. He is the main link between LIVE and the wider SKDP network. He brings experience and expertise in ensuring maximum impact of community projects and communications initiatives to the LIVE partnership.
Bangor University
Bangor University’s Sustainability Lab worked with the Welsh partners to co-develop the #Ecoamgueddfa, the first ecomuseum in Wales and, to our knowledge, the first digitally driven ecomuseum in the world. The team at Bangor have been involved from the beginning in co-developing the LIVE project. They oversee the implementation of the cross-cutting themes in the project to ensure that LIVE achieves a green, clean, prosperous economy while respecting people and their cultures. They are also responsible for marketing the #Ecoamgueddfa and the project communication strategy. LIVE has found a new home in the University's School of History, Philosophy, and Social Sciences.
Dr Einir Young
Dr Young is passionate about sustainability and will lead the cross-cutting work of embedding sustainable thinking and working throughout the project. Collaboration, integration, and involvement are critical to ensure that Pen Llŷn and Iveragh are treated as homes as well as destinations.
Gwenan Griffith
Gwenan is the LIVE Digital Community Officer. With a background in fine art, community development and digital inclusion, Gwenan leads the dissemination and outreach work package, responsible for the development of the LIVE Ecomuseum brand and delivering effective marketing capacity in Llŷn. She will be working closely with the Ecomuseum partners and surrounding businesses to embed a cohesive marketing approach and will deliver digital marketing training to project partners.
Katharina Möller
Katharina is an archaeologist specializing in Iron Age archaeology and public participation. Originally from Germany, she came to Bangor in 2013 where she has been involved with the university’s Llŷn-based archaeology field school at the Bronze Age/Iron Age double ringwork enclosure Meillionydd. For LIVE she will develop resources and activities to promote the archaeological heritage of the Llŷn.
Gwynedd Council
Gwynedd Council's Environment Department facilitates landscape-scale partnership working on the Llŷn Peninsula and develops and implements projects that bring environmental, community and economic benefits to the area.
Arwel Jones
Arwel co-ordinates the LIVE project in Llŷn. He will work with partners, stakeholders and communities to implement the outputs of the LIVE project. He will ensure that the area benefits fully from the project, developing and sharing good practice that will contribute to securing a prosperous future for the area and its residents.
National Trust
The National Trust is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England and Wales. The Snowdonia and Llŷn branch of the National Trust have over 10 years of experience in delivering collaborative projects which focus upon conservation and visitor experience. They have been integral partners of the Ecoamgueddfa since its establishment in 2014, with two out of the seven heritage sites owned by the National Trust. Within LIVE, they will be responsible for leading and co-developing the educational outputs.
Laura Hughes
Laura Hughes is the National Trust Visitor Operations and Experience Manager for Snowdonia and Llŷn. With a background in ecology, her focus has shifted to running the diverse visitor operations including busy coast and countryside access points and car parks, a new visitor centre, historic buildings and gardens.
Robert Parkinson
Robert Parkinson is the Programming and Partnership manager for the National Trust on the Llŷn peninsula. With a degree in physical geography and experience as a primary teacher, he specialises in developing educational opportunities in the outdoors with local schools. His focus as a part of the LIVE project will be creating more opportunities for schools, visitors, local groups and volunteers to experience and learn more about the natural world, history and heritage on Llŷn.
Knowledge Gatherers
During the LIVE project, a team of geologists, ecologists and science communicators will join the team to focus on specific aspects of the natural environments of the Llŷn and Iveragh peninsulas. The focus of their work will be decided in consultation with members of each community. This will underpin the main outputs of the LIVE project, which will be resources for tourism and education that will engage residents and visitors with aspects of their rich natural heritage.
Anna Collyer
Anna studied Earth Sciences at Trinity College Dublin and has a keen interested in geology and paleoenvironmental studies. As part of LIVE, she is working on Valentia Island where she is using geology and geomorphology to reconstruct past environments and landscapes from the Devonian Period nearly 400 million years ago to the Last Ice Age.
Fiach Byrne
Fiach is a Zoology graduate from University College Cork. He has been fortunate enough to study some vastly different species in depth in Ireland and abroad. With LIVE, he will be studying the winter foraging behaviour of the Red-billed Chough, a member of the crow family, and modelling its distribution in Iveragh.
Soli Levi
Soli specialises in Public Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS), creating maps of people's perceptions and experiences across landscapes. Originally from Greece, she has been living in Cork for the last 3 years. She loves languages, SCUBA diving, writing poetry, and all things nature.
Ben Porter
Ben is an ecologist, wildlife photographer and science researcher from a small, wind-battered island off the Llŷn Peninsula in North Wales. Most at home in the field, Ben is particularly interested in birdlife and projects seeking to restore and protect our precious natural environment
Linda Lyne
Linda grew up with Killarney National Park and the Black Valley as her playgrounds, so she has always had a strong connection to nature. Attenborough inspired her wildlife adventures from Antarctica to Galapagos and beyond before she gained Zoology degree. Her research interests include Ireland’s only native reptile, the common lizard.
Aoibheann Lambe
An archaeologist, Aoibheann is particularly interested in the geoheritage of Iveragh - especially megalithic-era rock art and the prehistoric copper mines which are at the heart of the transition from the stone to the metal ages. She also loves forest mushrooms and the Kerry slug.
Calum Sweeney
Calum has a master’s in Plant Taxonomy and Conservation from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and skills in field botany from around the world. He will be gathering knowledge on the flora of the Iveragh region - with a focus on the Spring and Autumn seasons - and make it available in a fun and interesting way to locals and visitors alike.
Christina Winkler
Although grown up nowhere near the coast in Germany, Christina has always been fascinated by whales and dolphins. Being a marine biologist with special interest in conservation and a passion for wildlife photography, she will be studying the marine mammals and other marine megafauna along the coast of the Iveragh peninsula. Finding ways to share that knowledge with the local community and visitors is her aim for the LIVE Project.
Leonie Schulz
Leonie is an Environmental Social Scientist with research interests and employment history in sustainable/ responsible tourism, ecotourism, recreation ecology, visitor management in natural areas, and wildlife conservation. She has worked in different coastal and mountain areas as a tour guide and researcher, investigating novel visitor monitoring techniques and sustainable tourism management solutions. As part of LIVE, she will be looking at environmental and socio-cultural impacts of tourism on the two peninsulas.
Jane Sheehan
Jane is a wildlife biologist with a masters degree in Marine Biology from University College Cork and a keen interest in jellyfish. As part of LIVE, she will be researching Valentia’s own pioneer marine biologist Maude Delap and her contribution to 19th century jellyfish and plankton research. Jane also hopes to carry out her own plankton survey of the Iveragh Peninsula and begin developing a long-term dataset of plankton which will help give us a better understanding of our marine eco-systems.
Jonty Storey
Illustrator, designer and photographer, Jonty has lived on Pen Llŷn for the past 20 years. Taking inspiration from his surrounds, he has helped craft the new branding for the LIVE project as well as illustrating and
photographing the place he calls home.