Age Action Ireland's current Board of Directors are listed below.
If you would like more information about Age Action Ireland and its Board of Directors, please contact us:
- Post: 30-31 Lower Camden St, Dublin 2
- Phone: 01 4756989
Michael Ahern, Chair
Michael is the CEO of Dubco Ireland Credit Union Limited since 2013. He is a current member of the Credit Union Advisory Committee that advises the Minister for Finance with respect to the Credit Union sector .
Michael has a wide breadth of experience across industry, having trained with O’Brien Cahill & Co. and then joining PWC. Michael has held senior financial positions with Golden Vale plc, Glanbia plc, Dairygold, Marchmont Packaging, SIAC Construction, Niall Mellon Property, Reddy Architecture, Concast Precast, Merlin Motor and the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital.
He is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland and holds qualifications in Mediation (CEDR London & MFI), diplomas in Forensic Accounting and IFRS, and is a Qualified Financial Adviser (QFA).
Colm Nagle, Treasurer
Colm is non-executive Chairman of a number of owner-managed businesses and also provides strategic advice and guidance to growth-oriented SMEs. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland.
From 2010 until late 2016, Colm was Chief Financial Officer of Heatons which has 60 department stores across the island of Ireland and employs more than 2,000 people. Prior to that, he had been a Partner in BDO where he advised a diverse portfolio of indigenous Irish businesses and led the firm’s Family Business Advisory team
Ciara O’Donoghue
Ciara is a Director with Legal Services, KPMG Ireland. Ciara has in excess of 20 years’ experience as a Chartered Secretary working with a range of Irish and multinational clients operating in a number of sectors, advising on Irish company law and corporate governance matters. She is a Fellow of ICSA, The Chartered Governance Institute. For the past five years, Ciara acted as the voluntary Company Secretary of Nandri, a charity whose mission is to empower disadvantaged women in rural India.
Ailbhe Smyth
Ailbhe is a long-time campaigner on feminist, LGBT and other social issues. Most recently, she played a leading role in the marriage equality referendum campaign in 2015, and was Co-Director of the Together for Yes campaign to repeal the 8th Amendment. The former founding head of Women’s Studies at UCD (University College Dublin), she has published widely on feminism, gender, politics and culture.
Tonya Myles
Tonya started her career as a journalist, writing about social and political issues for one of the leading Russian newspapers before moving to Ireland. In Ireland, her passion for human rights and interest in advocacy brought her to Cairde- a health advocacy organisation working to reduce health inequalities among ethnic minorities through the rights based approach – to take up a role as Women’s Health Development Worker, engaging directly with women, experiencing inequality and advocating on their behalf.
Tonya has over 17 years of experience in working with minority ethnic individuals and groups with a particular interest in women’s health. Currently, she is a General Manager of Cairde. She previously worked as Community Development and Policy coordinator in Cairde and was involved in policy development initiatives with the ethnic minority communities. Tonya holds MA in Digital Media from Dublin Institute of Technology, MA in Journalism from Moscow State University and Professional Diploma in Human Rights and Equality from the Institute of Public Administration.
Tony Kehoe
Tony’s career, over some forty years, ranged over many sectors from Consumer Products, Aviation, to Medical Devices, and spanned many roles from Plant Manager through Operations Director to CEO, operating in both indigenous and multi- national companies. He holds a M.Sc. Eng from Trinity College Dublin and an M.Sc. in Sustainable Energy from UCC. Tony is an active volunteer with Age Action’s Care and Repair service in Cork. Born in Wexford, raised in Dublin, Tony has lived in Cork for the past 30 years. He and his wife Dorothy, also an active volunteer, have four adult children and six grand-children.
Ray McGrath
Ray lives at the edge of the Glazing Woods in Cheekpoint Co. Waterford where the Barrow River meets the Suir. His joy of walking, local history and the environment are brought to public attention in his Heritage Rambles in Gaultier weekly column in the Waterford News and Star. Formerly a teacher and college principal in Canada he returned to Ireland in 1992 and became a lecturer in Lifelong Learning at WIT. He is active in community matters, being a member of Waterford Council for Older People and the Waterford PPN Environmental Linkage Group. He also served two terms as a board member with Waterford Leader and was a committee member on several Strategic Policy Committees of Waterford Council. Ray is currently chairperson of Waterford U3A.
Dermot O'Riordan
Dermot has spent most of his career working in the public sector in various roles in the areas of corporate governance, internal audit, risk management and financial management. He is very experienced in providing consultancy and training services in these areas and latterly managed the governance function of several public sector bodies.
Currently Dermot is an external member of the audit committee of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and also the governance committee of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. He was until recently a director and chairman of the audit committee of the National Parents Council Primary. Dermot holds a Doctorate in Governance, is a member of Institute of Directors in Ireland and a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.
Eithne McCarthy
Eithne is a solicitor and economist. She specialises in competition/antitrust law and has extensive experience in enforcement, regulatory and public law, human rights, and litigation at EU and national level. She has previously worked for a leading international law firm in Brussels and London, the European Commission, the UK Competition and Markets Authority and is currently Lead Counsel at the Financial Conduct Authority in London; where she also chairs GCD Women driving real and practical change on diversity and inclusion in the workplace. In addition, she is a visiting lecturer in law at the University of Limerick.
Niall Fitzgerald FCA
Strategy, sustainability and compliance do not often keep Níall awake at night as these are the kinds of things he eats for breakfast as Head of Ethics and Governance for Chartered Accountants Ireland, and again for lunch in any of his non-executive and/or advisor roles with several multinational organisations. Being a Galwegian living in Dublin he likes to also focus on wearing the green (Connacht) jersey in the RDS, ensuring his bi-lingual abilities can keep up with his family and that he can get to Croker for the All-Ireland! The mission, vision and values of Age Action Ireland have particular appeal to Níall who has been involved in advocacy and representation work, including for the Charity sector where he is a Judge for the Irish Good Governance Awards and co-founder of an Irish non-profit organisation, Chapter Zero Ireland. Níall is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland and holds a number of professional and academic qualifications. Níall on Linked-in
Fiona Weldon – ILMI Capacity Development Officer
Fiona joined ILMI at the end of 2020 as the Strategies for Change Programme Coordinator. Since then, Fiona has taken up a new position within ILMI as Capacity Officer.
Fiona has over 30 years of experience in working in the Disability Sector and brings a wealth of experience in designing and delivering training and education programmes on a cross-impairment basis.
Fiona’s 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 who are labelled disabled 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 supports that they needed to assist them with their daily living tasks.
Fiona holds an MA in Disability Studies, Diplomas 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.
