Ireland

Nicki Matthews MRIAI joined the Built Heritage Policy Team of the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, as a Senior Architect in 2018. Her role includes the delivery of a range of progressive policies for cultural heritage including the contribution on cultural heritage objectives to the Regional Assemblies, the National Heritage Plan 2030 renewal, the National Policy on Architecture, as well as devising strategies for delivering heritage-led urban regeneration and climate change mitigation. As a member of the SEA Forum, Nicola contributes to the Environmental Protection Agency in respect of environmental impact of strategic, national infrastructural projects such as flood relief CFRAM programme, Irish Water, Energy, Transportation and Port Infrastructure etc. where proposals impact on cultural heritage. With regard to the delivery of the Department of Culture,

Heritage and the Gaeltacht policies through funding programmes, Nicola provides the technical support to the various funding programmes currently operated including the Built Heritage Invest Scheme, The Historic Buildings Fund, the Historic Towns Initiative and the Heritage Council-run Irish Walled Town Network (IWTN).

Prior to this, Nicola was the Architectural Conservation Officer (ACO) for Dublin City Council, with the remit to communicate the built heritage significance of the historic city and its regeneration through the reuse and repair of historic vacant buildings for residential use to meet the housing crisis – in particular the roll out of the ‘Living City Initiative’, to address the vacant upper floors of the historic centre of Dublin.

Simon O’Connor is a composer and the first Director of the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI), a collaboration between University College Dublin and the National Library of Ireland. Since 2019, MoLI has won the Business to Arts Best Philanthropic Support of the Arts Award 2021, Red Dot Best Exhibition Design 2020, IDEA Exhibition Design Gold Award 2021 & shortlisted for the European Mies Van Der Rohe Architecture Award 2022 and the European Museum of the Year Awards 2022. It won the European Heritage Award/Europa Nostra Award in the category Citizens’ Engagement and Awareness Raising in 2023 and was also recognised with the Grand Prix. Simon was the founding curator of the Little Museum of Dublin, a winner of the European Heritage Award / Europa Nostra Award in 2016.