Michael Kelly - Founder
Michael Kelly is a freelance journalist, author and social entrepreneur. He established GIY (Grow it Yourself) in 2009. Michael is an Ashoka Fellow, a Social Entrepreneurs Ireland awardee and a recipient of the inaugural 2010 Arthur Guinness Fund. He is a member of the TASTE Council of Ireland. He writes columns for The Irish Independent, The Evening Echo and Food & Wine Magazine. He has written two books on self-sufficiency - Trading Paces and Tales from the Home Farm (O'Brien Press). Also available to download
Michael is a passionate speaker on food issues, self-sufficiency, sustainability and growing your own food. He worked for ten years in the IT industry in Dublin but now lives the good life in Dunmore East, Co. Waterford with his wife and two kids.
Ciaran Walsh - Operations
Ciarán Walsh originally from Midleton Co Cork, graduated in '98 with a Degree in Business Studies from Waterford Institute of Technology. He is a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Irish Taxation Institute. Ciarán has been involved with GIY since the first meeting in September 2008. Ciarán is former chairman of Ferrybank Community Development Group, a member of the Ferrybank Socio Economic Development Committee and is the Founder of the Ferrybank Community Allotment Project. He lives in Waterford with his wife Collette.
Paul Sweetman - Fundraising Co-Ordinator
Paul runs and owns his own business in Kildare and is relatively new to the wonderful world of GIYing. His wife having purchased a "how to rear hens" course got him to cross paths with Michael Kelly and the rest is history. Paul went on to set up the Bray GIY Group which won Group of the Year in 2011 which is still today one of biggest and most active groups.
Living in Wicklow with his wife, the twins, dog and a few hens he uses his GIYing as an escape from the hectic word of running your own business. He admits to been a bit OCD when it comes to his sowing... straight lines, measuring tape and always by the book! Outside of that Paul is tasked with helping us increase our impact through growing our various avenues of funding.
Micheal O Cadhla - GIY Groups and GROW Magazine Editor
Born in Waterford but now living in Mayo with his young family, Mícheál has always been committed to sustainability and moving towards self sufficiency. Leaving college with a degree in business studies he started work as a computer programmer in a bank, but soon found travelling the world in a Greenpeace ship more to his liking. Since then he has designed and built a reedbed sewage treatemnt system, co-authored a book on community campaigning, served on the board of the Irish Wildlife Trust, as well as being involved with various other community groups around the country. Now settled in Foxford with wife Cristíona and their three children, Mícheál divides his time between his job as a production scheduler, working in his own garden, and helping to develop GIY.
Cristiona Kiely - Membership and Retail
Cristiona spent 7 years working with Greenpeace - both at home in the Irish office, and abroad on their fleet of ships. Back on dry land, Cristiona and her husband set up and ran a food business in Waterford which quickly grew to employ 35 people in it's cafe, bakery, deli and catering business. Upon the arrival of their second child, Cristiona and her young family decided to move to Cristiona's home town in Mayo to set up a home in the countryside with a slower pace of life. They have built their own house and have a large fruit and veg garden which they hope to finally have under control in 2012! They have great hopes that the 3 children, hens, ducks, pigs and bees will help rather than hinder their progress!
