Our Staff

Damien Walshe | ILMI

Damien Walshe

Chief Executive

Nina Byrne | ILMI

Nina Byrne

Communications Officer

Elaine Walsh | ILMI

Elaine Walsh

Finance/Office Administrator

Shelly Gaynor | ILMI

Shelly Gaynor

Peer Mentoring Worker

Peter Kearns | ILMI

Peter Kearns

DPO Development Officer

Fiona Weldon | ILMI

Fiona Weldon

Capacity Development Officer

Paula Soraghan | ILMI

Paula Soraghan

VOICE community Development worker

Nicola Meacle | ILMI

Nicola Meacle

VOICE community development worker

Nicola Kenny | ILMI

Claire Kenny

ILMI Policy Assistant

Heylove Robert Mark | ILMI

Heylove Robert Mark, Sr

Community Development Worker

Boakai Abu Nyehn | ILMI

Boakai Abu Nyehn, Jr

Community Development Worker

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Damien Walshe

Chief Executive

Damien joined ILMI in October 2017 and has over 15 years experience in equality and human rights organisations, including the Irish Traveller Movement, the Equality and Rights Alliance and Aontas. Damien is keen to bring previous experience of actively engaging and supporting people to work collectively in to ILMI to ensure that people with disabilities see ILMI as a vehicle for change to bring about equality in Irish society.

Nina Byrne

COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER

Nina joined ILMI in 2011 to work on what was then called the Strasbourg Freedom Drive now the Brussels Freedom Drive and has worked on many other projects where she helped coordinate the communications and event management, including the Mansion House “Meet your TD” event where ILMIs and their members from around the country came to speak with their local representative. Nina also worked on the Personal Assistance Bill project and the Disability Studies course run in conjunction with NUI Maynooth.

With a background in corporate communications and marketing a degree in Graphic Design and Fine Art Nina has a diverse range of experience and skills and bring them all to the Irish Independent Living movement. The ILMI eBulletin, the ILMI Social media accounts and maintaining links with and building the ILMI membership are part of her day to day work.

Elaine Walsh

Finance/Office Administrator

My name is Elaine and I have recently joined the team at ILMI as Finance/Office Administrator.

I bring over 18 years office experience and have worked within the community sector for 14 years. I am delighted to be part of such an important and worthwhile movement and I am here to assist and support the team whichever way I can.

Shelly Gaynor

Peer Mentoring Worker
I have recently joined the ILMI team as Peer Mentor for the Greater Dublin Area. My role is to directly work with disabled people in the Greater Dublin area to access the supports and services they need to live independent lives. I’m very excited about this role as I have been involved in the Independent Living Movement for over twenty plus years in Ireland. I have had the pleasure and privilege to call many of the founders of the movement personal friends of mine not only were they friends but also peer mentors to me on my own journey to independence and onto independent living. Independent living is something I’m very passionate about and ensuring that disabled people have freedom, choice and control in their lives, something that non-disabled people take for granted. With this I have joined many activists across the country on numerous campaigns that had a focus on “rights not charity”. A personal highlight for me was in 2012 when I was part of a small number of people who did an overnight stay outside Leinster house to make sure the government took us seriously and to ensure Personal Assistance Service funding was not going to be cut by 50 percent. We maintained that we were not going anywhere until we had the commitment in writing that this cut would not happen. It is moments like this that remind me of the importance of collective action and the strength of a movement of people working together. Personally, I have been using a Personal Assistance Service (PAS) since the age of 18. I was with a service provider for nearly 20 however in recent years I have moved to direct payments via Aiseanna Tacaiochta (AT). A PAS allows me to be me, the person I want to be. I’m delighted to join the staff of ILMI in light of the momentous unanimous passing of the motion on PAS that happened in November 2019. I hope to bring and indeed pass on the guidance and insight I have gained throughout the years to fellow disabled people that was shown to me. I was always told that if you really want something in life that in can be achieved once one is willing to work towards it. Nothing is handed to anyone on a plate disabled or not. Once you have the right mind-set that distant dream can become a reality. I look forward to working with existing ILMI members and spreading the message and philosophy of independent living to other disabled people. I feel it’s important to let people know that they are not alone in the everyday struggle of daily living with a disability and that the movement is full of people with shared lived experience that is worth sharing.

Peter Kearns

DPO Development Officer

Peter started work with ILMI in June 2019 as ONSIDE Project Coordinator. Peter graduated from Trinity College in the late 1980s with an English Honours degree and followed this with an MA in Film & TV Studies at DCU and a Higher Diploma in Adult & Community Education from Maynooth College. He also has higher Dips. in Disability Studies and Arts European Mentoring.

Peter lectured at St. Angela’s College (NUIG) and has written-up QQ1-Level 8 & 9 Modules promoting a need for a Emancipatory-Advocacy way of thinking & practice for & with disabled people. In the mid 1990’s Peter established THE WORKHOUSE, a disability consultancy company involved in equality/mentor/arts training in Ireland, Europe and Asia. In terms of linking social model led disability equality with effective practice on the ground, Peter was a Community Support Consultant with Disability Equality Specialist Support Agency (DESSA) and Development & Policy Worker with Forum of People With Disabilities. He is also a writer/dramatist, documentary & film maker. Peter also enjoys extreme trekking and has two children Deirbhile & Oisin and lives in Co. Leitrim.

Fiona Weldon

Capacity Development Officer

Fiona Weldon joined ILMI in November of this year and has over 30 years of experience in working in the Disability Sector. All of her work is motivated by the reality of the effects of segregation, exclusion and non-disabled professionalism. Henceforward promoting the need for a Rights Based Model of Support to people that are labelled disabled (as opposed to our current resource based model of support that is dominated by both the Medical Model of Disability and the Charity Model of Disability) that is driven by both the Social Model of Disability and the Philosophy of Independent Living as professed by the Disabled People’s Movement.

Fiona’s initial work in this sector involved setting up a local Independent Living Service offering Personal Assistance to local disabled people that wanted more choice and more control over the human supports that they needed to assist them with their daily living tasks.

Fiona holds an MA in Disability Studies, Diploma’s in Community Development, Information Communication Technology (ICT) and Counselling Skills. She also holds Certificates in other subjects including Advanced Facilitation, Equality Studies, Social Care, Reality Therapy, Assistive Technology and Supported Self-Directed Living.

Fiona has worked for the National Institute for Intellectual Disability (NIID) in Trinity College, NUI Maynooth and the National Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre in Dublin City University. Her work here involved evaluating/researching and/or delivering evidence based Bespoke Training Programmes that purposely intended to enable disabled people to believe in themselves to want better lives. This work has both travelled nationally and internationally.

Paula Soraghan

VOICE Community Development Worker

Paula started working with ILMI in January 2022 as a Community Development Worker for the VOICE project. She identifies as a proud disabled woman and advocate since discovering the social model of disability when she attended ILMI’s 2019 AGM.

She has a Joint BA from Maynooth University, A HDip in Drama Education from Griffith College, Dublin, and she is studying Disability Equality in St Angela’s College Sligo.

She is very passionate about the social model of disability and the importance of disabled people’s lived experience through a social model perspective to bring about positive social change.

She understands the importance of online spaces that help build community and empower disabled activists to create social change as she is an active member in ILMI, also.

She wants disabled people to feel confident and in control of their lives and ensure that they are reaching their full potential in their communities.

Nicola Meacle

VOICE community development worker

I first heard about the independent living movement in the early nineties when I attended an event organised by a group of Dublin-based disabled activists. My public health nurse volunteered with the Irish Wheelchair Association and had seen a poster.

I was living with my Parents in the countryside at that time and it was life-changing for me to hear disabled people articulating what I had felt intuitively i.e. Disabled people had the right to self-determination and to pursue the same aspirations as their non-disabled peers. Prior to that meeting, I hadn’t heard about the concept of Personal Assistance and it was the missing link I had been waiting for.

After graduating from UCC with a degree in social science, I worked in CORK CIL for approx. 20 years where I saw the significant and positive impact that Personal Assistance made in disabled people’s lives. The PA Service is one part of the jig saw that makes independent living possible. There is an interconnected importance of housing, personal assistance, transport, and an accessible physical environment in terms of achieving independent living. For those elements to be in place requires a commitment to and understanding of the social model of disability.

I also worked with Northside Community Enterprises as a CE Supervisor, supporting long-term unemployed people to gain the skills to access mainstream employment.”

Claire Kenny

ILMI Policy Assistant

I joined the ILMI team in January 2021 as policy assistant intern. My role involves working alongside James Cawley, policy officer on various projects and research.

Over the last year I have participated in many projects and groups such as ILMI’s housing network. The ILMI housing network was designed to assist disabled people to become active and effective members of their HDSGs. As the National housing policy for disabled people 2022-2027 was launched, it is important to have disabled peoples’ voices at the table.

It is really exciting time to be working for a DPO like Independent Living Movement Ireland whose vision and mission is an Ireland where disabled people have freedom choice and control over all aspects of our lives and be seen as equals in society.

In 2018 I graduated with an B.Sc. honours degree in Applied Biology and Biopharmaceutical Science from GMIT. As a very proud Disabled woman who faced some of the barriers encountered by many disabled people. It is personally very rewarding and fulfilling to work for an organisation who embraces the social model of disability and be a part of such a dynamic hard-working team.

I believe it is fundamentally important that disabled people are involved in a meaningful, authentic way in all facets of Society with our contributions valued and our rights respected.

Heylove Robert Mark, Sr

Community Development Worker

Heylove Robert Mark Jr joined ILMI in September 2024 as community development worker on the Disability Participation Awareness Fund (DPAF) funding project “Engaging Disabled People in Direct Provision”, bringing over 15 years of expertise in advocating for the rights and inclusion of disabled people across West Africa. As an Assistive Technology Specialist, he has worked with the West Africa Federation of the Disabled (WAFOD) and the National Union of Organizations of the Disabled (NUOD) in Liberia, empowering disabled people to engage in key societal processes. His work includes representing NUOD in the Liberia Elections Observation Network, ensuring disabled people’s full participation in electoral processes. Heylove also contributed to the international Photovoice project, which documented the experiences of disabled people and their caregivers during COVID-19 in Bangladesh and Liberia, led by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM). He is excited to share his wealth of experience with ILMI, particularly in supporting disabled people in direct provision to build connections and take part fully in Irish society.

Boakai Abu Nyehn, Jr

Community Development Worker

Boakai Abu Nyehn, Jr joined ILMI in September 2024 as community development worker on the Disability Participation Awareness Fund (DPAF) funding project “Engaging Disabled People in Direct Provision” . He is a passionate advocate for disability rights, social inclusion, and development, with extensive experience in working to promote the rights and full participation of disabled people in Liberia. Boakai has served as a consultant on disability and social inclusion for numerous national and international agencies. He has also worked as a Research Assistant on multiple projects with organisations such as Leonard Cheshire Disability and Inclusive Development Centre at University College London, Talking Drum Studio, AIFO-Liberia, and UNMIL, ensuring that disabled people’s needs and perspectives are integrated into their programs.

As a disabled person, Boakai’s lived experience informs his leadership as Assistant Director for disabled people in Liberia. His role focuses on advocating for the inclusion of disabled people at all levels of society, promoting accessible development, and advancing the rights of the community. Boakai holds certifications in International Law and related fields and is a skilled Administrator and Assistive Technology Specialist, committed to using his expertise to create a more inclusive society for all.