Meet the team
Andrew Dolan, Executive Director
Andrew is an accomplished artist, producer, and leader with over fifteen years of experience in professional theatre across all aspects of the profession, including directing, design, fundraising, finance, and strategic planning. He recently served as a Co-Artistic Director of Red Eye Theater since 2019, where he co-curated the New Works 4 Weeks Festival—an annual four-week festival that commissions 11 artists each year to make new performance works—and co-led the capital campaign and development of a new 150-seat black box theater in Minneapolis. He also spent five years at The Cowles Center for Dance & the Performing Arts, working across marketing and development departments before becoming its Associate Director of Development.
Rex Daugherty, Artistic Director of Theatre
Rex has served as AD of Theater since 2015. During his tenure he has garnered international acclaim for Solas Nua productions, earned multiple Helen Hayes Awards and nominations, and provided the company with steady artistic and financial growth. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, on the cover of American Theatre Magazine, The Irish Times and aired on RTE. His one-man performance of The Smuggler was listed by The New York Times as one of the best theatre productions of 2019, nationwide. Rex’s work has also been seen at The Kennedy Center, The Shakespeare Theatre Company, The National Theatre, The Warner Theatre, Ford's Theatre, Signature Theatre, Round House Theatre, Folger Theatre, Rep Stage, Imagination Stage, Arts on the Horizon, The OKC Civic Center, and Off Broadway at 59E59.
Mary Turkot, Website & Digital Content Manager
Mary Turkot is a fiction writer, poet, and recent Georgetown University English M.A. graduate ('23), where she worked as the Program Assistant for the Global Irish Studies Initiative for two years. She managed the website, communications, and social media for the Initiative, and has coordinated multiple academic conferences and public events with visiting Irish authors and scholars during her time at Georgetown. She also facilitated the addition of the first Global Irish Studies Fellowship into the Initiative’s programming. Her work has been featured in Rutgers University literary magazine The Anthologist and on poets.org by the Academy of American Poets. Her poem, "Brigantine, New Jersey," won the 2021 Enid Dame Memorial Poetry Prize.
Maedhbh Mc Cullagh, Director of CIFF
Maedhbh is a multidisciplinary cultural producer, arts programmer, and creative consultant from Ireland. For more than two decades she has been producing and managing artistic programs, presentations, productions, and special events for international festivals and cultural organizations, in Europe and the US, including appointments as the Associate Director of Irish Screen America, Managing Director of the contemporary interdisciplinary Abrons Arts Center, independent freelance producer at The Trailblazery, The Civilians Theater Company, Performance Space NY, The Foundry Theatre, the Alliance of Resident Theatres NY, Program Manager of the international Dublin Fringe Festival and Associate Producer of the award-winning Aurora Nova international program of physical theatre, dance and cross-disciplinary performance at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Kate Meenan-Waugh, Chair
Kate is an educator who has worked in secondary schools for more than 30 years, most recently at the Washington International School. She has taught and developed global education and community service programs which have included extensive, purposeful travel for both students and teachers. She is also an interviewer, mentor and organizer for the ASSIST student exchange program, as well as a teacher of ESL to recent adult immigrants in the Washington DC area. Born in New York City, Kate is a first-generation Irish-American, with deep roots in Donegal, Tyrone and Belfast. She holds a BSFS from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and has done extensive graduate work at New York University in international education and counseling.
Tom McIntyre, Vice-President
Tom McIntyre identifies public programming opportunities for New York University's Washington, DC site and events with NYU global sites. He facilitates the participation of national experts, scholars, and policymakers in lectures and special events. He founded and directs NYU’s DC Dialogues program and is the Deputy Director of Programming and Outreach of NYU’s John Brademas Center, where he oversees its program agenda and acts as Congressional liaison. Tom created The Young Leaders Network, connecting young leaders to established policymakers and mentors in DC. From 1999-2004, Tom worked for Sen.Tom Daschle (D-SD). He received his BA from The Catholic University of America and his Master’s of Public Administration with a specialization in management of public and nonprofit organizations from the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at NYU.
Dennis Houlihan, Secretary
Dennis was a policy analyst for a national public sector trade union, where his work involved advising members and leaders on labor relations, public finance and public service provision. He has also worked for the National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. House of Representatives and served as consultant on city planning, fiscal and government organization issues in San Francisco. He received a Certificate of Honor from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and was selected as the Alumni of the Year by the San Francisco State University Department of Urban Studies and Planning. He earned a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of California, Berkeley and a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies from San Francisco State University.
Michael Henry Kirlin, Treasurer
Mike is a native of Philadelphia, PA whose paternal grandparents emigrated as teenagers from farms outside Derry, Northern Ireland and reconnected in the US. After earning an AB in English Literature from St. Joseph's University, Philadelphia, Mike received a Master’s degree in Comprehensive Health Planning from George Washington University. Over a forty-year period, he was a hospital administrator and medical practice executive in the Baltimore and Washington communities. Mike is a former Board member of Ronald McDonald House in Washington, DC and served a term as its President during the expansion of the "home away from home" in Northeast Washington, near Children's National Medical Center.
Cóilín Parsons
Cóilín Parsons is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at Georgetown University. He is also a Director of Georgetown’s program in Global Irish Studies. Dr. Parsons’ academic interests include Irish literature, global modernisms, space and scale, cartography and post-colonial literature and theory. Cóilín is published in multiple academic journals, book chapters and review essays. He is a frequent and popular participant in varied academic and literary panels. He earned a Doctorate and Masters’ degrees from Columbia University in New York City and a Masters’ degree from Syracuse University. He was awarded double First-class Honours in English and History from National University of Ireland, Galway when he earned his B.A. Before coming to Georgetown in 2012, Cóilín taught at Columbia University in New York City and at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Sheldon Scott
Sheldon Scott is a visual artist who mines his experiences growing up in the Gullah/Geechee South and professional background in storytelling to examine the Black male form with particular emphasis on biases of usability and expendability in relation to constructs of race, economics and sexuality. His works have been presented at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC; American University Art Museum, Washington, DC; and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, DC. As a finalist in the 2019 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, Scott will present work in the exhibition, The Outwin 2019: American Portraiture Today, Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC.
Colette Breen
Born in Belfast, Colette emigrated to New York with her family at the age of 7. She’s been a life-long educator, with a BA in French from St John’s University and a Masters in Linguistics from San Francisco State University. She began her career by teaching French to high schoolers in New Rochelle, New York, followed by English as a Second Language to Southeast Asian refugees in Oakland, California, and 20 years as an administration both in curriculum development and as a principal of a number of schools in California & New Jersey. She rounded out her career leading professional workshops and mentoring principals for the New Jersey State Department of Education. Colette has consistently been involved in promoting contemporary Irish arts & culture and has independently produced a number of events including music, dance, poetry, and her favorite interest, Irish film.
Cathal Armstrong
Dublin native Cathal Armstrong is an 8 time James Beard Award-nominated chef and co-founder of 11 Washington DC area restaurants and bars. In 2011, he was honored as a "Champion of Change" by the Obama White House. The Wall Street Journal, NY Times, The Irish Times and more have taken note of his culinary prowess and dedication to ending childhood obesity. Cathal’s commitment to Irish “farm to table” style can be found at his latest restaurant in Arlington, Mattie and Eddie’s–a love letter to his paternal grandparents, drape makers whose wee home was the place for family to gather for Sunday meals. Growing up in Ireland, he was educated in Irish language, sport, and dance. This unique exposure to Irish language and culture makes Cathal especially interested in promoting “Irishness” and its cultural value in the US.
Kevin Taylor
Kevin is the Senior Guest Services Supervisor at Swiss Post Solutions/White & Case LLP. Prior, he was the Event Floor Supervisor at Sodexo Corporation/Fannie Mae, where he oversaw successful execution of events and meetings throughout the Fannie Mae headquarters site. Kevin has also served as Executive Meeting Manager at The Hay Adams Hotel, where he sold and serviced meetings, conferences, and other events. Kevin’s prior experience includes positions in the hospitality, airlines, and travel businesses. He is very active in his community, having served as president of the local civic association and on the Board of Lighthouse DC. He currently serves as chair of his neighborhood block club. Kevin lives in Washington, DC with his husband Patrick McGlone and their Yorkshire Terrier, Tonic.
Caitríona Palmer
Author of the bestselling memoir, An Affair with my Mother: A Story of Adoption, Secrecy and Love (Penguin, 2016). Her recent bestselling book, Climate Justice (Bloomsbury, 2018), co-written with former President of Ireland and UN Special Envoy on Climate Change, Mary Robinson, was short-listed for the 2018 An Post Irish Book Awards non-fiction book of the year. A writer, former journalist, and adopted person, Caitríona is a frequent commentator on the legacy of secrecy and shame generated by Ireland’s closed adoption system and state-financed institutions. Her commentary has appeared in the Irish Times, the Irish Independent, and RTE radio, among others. She is also a senior writer and editor for the World Bank Group in Washington, DC. A native of Dublin, Caitríona is a graduate of University College Dublin and Boston College where she was a Fulbright scholar.
Brian Maney
Brian’s work experience has been predominantly in Washington, D.C., where he has worked in corporate communications in the financial services industry; on housing, economic development, and shareholder rights issues for several nationally based advocacy organizations, and, most recently, in government oversight in both the legislative and executive branches. He is active in his church, where he has served on his parish board of directors, as Treasurer, and, over the years, managed fundraising campaigns, taught Sunday School, and gone on mission trips. He earned a BA in English from Fordham University and a JD from the University of California, Berkeley. He lives with his family in the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
Conor Howard
Conor is a seasoned producer, programmer, and facilitator of Irish arts events in the US. For 30 years, Conor worked as literary programmer for the Irish Arts Foundation, a community-based multidisciplinary arts group in the San Francisco Bay Area. His work includes co-production of "Finnegans Awake," the largest festival of Irish writing west of the Rockies, with Stanford/Golden Gate University and Irish Consulate SF, 2000; co-production of the International Joyce Conference "Extreme Joyce/Reading on the Edge,” with UC Berkeley, 2001; and the San Francisco Irish Film Festival, of which he is founder and original producer. Conor has also hosted an ongoing series of readings and conversations with Irish writers and poets; some of which include Seamus Heaney, Edna O'Brien, Roddy Doyle, and Colm Tóibín. He currently serves as Sole Proprietor of Anna Livia Books.
Paddy Meskell, Chair Emeritus
Brought up and educated in Ireland, Paddy came to the U.S. in 1988 and has lived most of the time in Washington D.C. He co-founded two software companies in Ireland, worked on Wall Street and with Sallie Mae and has recently retired as Executive Vice President and member of the Board of Silver Diner. For many years he has conducted leadership workshops for the Washington Ireland Program in Ireland and in the U.S. and for Social Entrepreneurs Ireland (SEI). He currently works as an independent consultant specializing in helping small entrepreneurial companies grow successfully.
Anne Mitchell
On June 4, 2024, beloved board member, Anne Mitchell, passed away peacefully in the care of family and friends. A passionate member of our Irish community, Anne will be greatly missed. She is survived by her loving husband, Conor Howard; stepdaughter, Natalia Howard; and sister, Mary Davies.
A native of Belfast, Anne was an immigration attorney with her own practice where she facilitated the journey to the U.S. for many. Anne studied at Trinity College, Dublin, where she earned a BA and JD. She was later awarded an MA (Oxon). Like many before and after her, she began life in America working in, as she said, “a (different) bar”. But she soon graduated to the law firm of Wasserman Mancini where she worked as an associate for five years. She left in 1989 to co-found Mitchell & Dunn. Throughout her practice, she was a loved and valuable mentor to young women working with her.
