Ellie Berry is a long-distance walker and Irish mountain climber. Since 2017, she has walked over 4,000km of long-distance trails around Ireland with partner Carl Lange as part of the Tough Soles project. In 2023, she set a new Irish record for the fastest known time for climbing all 275 mountains on the island of Ireland in a little over 50 days. You can find her adventures documented on toughsoles.ie.

Barry Dillon is the co-founder of Venture Out Wilderness Project CLG, a Galway based registered charity and social enterprise.

By merging his passion for outdoor adventure activities, with his professional experience in social care and youth work, Barry helped create an organisation that uses the outdoors and nature to affect positive change in people’s lives.

Venture Out design and deliver a range of ‘outdoor-based’ social care focused programmes, interventions and initiatives, with a specific focus on supporting those from disadvantaged areas and marginalised communities. Using a wide variety of outdoor spaces and environments, Venture Out harness the power of nature and outdoor adventure activities to support their participants.

Blueway Coordinator and Development Advisor – Blueway Partnership 

Outscape was appointed by the Blueway Partnership in Aug 2023 to undertake the role of Blueway Coordinator and Development Advisor. Chris is Outscape’s lead on this project which involves supporting the Blueway Partnership to deliver on their Action Plan and assisting Blueway developers and managers to refine their Blueway proposition, align with the accreditation criteria and ultimately deliver excellent Blueway experiences. 

The Blueway Partnership was established in 2019 and is the body responsible for the strategic oversight, guidance and brand management of Blueways. The Partnership is an all-island body comprised of Sport Ireland, Sport Northern Ireland, Fáilte Ireland, Tourism Northern Ireland and Waterways Ireland. 

Shane Martin’s work as a psychologist spans various sectors and audiences. He is deeply engaged in the corporate world, offering training to multinational giants across Ireland, the UK, and Europe. In education, he is a familiar face in countless schools throughout Ireland, advocating for a psychology of health, happiness, and resilience among management, teachers, students, and parents. His influence extends to national educational conferences, where he has been a keynote speaker, and he has also addressed the Oireachtas committee on Education and Skills on the crucial topic of Positive Mental Health in Schools.

Beyond formal settings, Shane’s self-help course, “Moodwatchers,” has garnered widespread acclaim, both in community venues and online, attracting thousands of participants worldwide. He has worked extensively supporting health professionals throughout the island of Ireland, delivering tailored CPD sessions and well-being seminars.

Shane’s seminars are renowned for their engaging blend of storytelling, humour, and evidence-based psychology, consistently leaving audiences uplifted and inspired. This approach has seen him fill theatres nationwide with his social shows which mix poetry, psychology and humour. He is the author of the best selling book ‘Your Previous Life – How to Live it Well’ and three collections of poems.

Gráinne Moynihan is the Chairperson of St Declan’s Way, a 115km pilgrim walking trail from Cashel in Co Tipperary to Ardmore in Co Waterford, retracing the route St Declan took to meet St Patrick in Cashel in the fifth century. The trail passes through 12 towns, villages and hamlets in two counties and across a mountain range, before it meets the sea. Its’ success relies heavily on engagement with multiple stakeholders including landowners, community groups and State agencies.

Gráinne is an accountant by profession with a background in the drinks business and lived in Dublin, London and Prague for over 20 years. Now returned to her native Lismore in Waterford, she is a board member of Waterford Leader Partnership and Munster Vales and is also part of the Cappoquin Community Development team. As an avid outdoor adventuring enthusiast she is part of the Knockmealdown Active group who organise the annual St Declan’s Way walking pilgrimages and the Knock ME Down Adventure Race in the Knockmealdown Mountains.

Her passion is in trail development, in landowner engagement and in opening up our superb Irish countryside to new outdoor recreation and tourism opportunities.

Annemarie Sheehan supports communities across the country in the creation and setup of new Sanctuary Runners groups. She has been working and volunteering in the charity sector for over 16 years supporting organisations with operations, digital marketing and IT and has been a Sanctuary Runner since 2018.

Sanctuary Runners is a solidarity-through-sport initiative which uses running, jogging and walking to bring together asylum seekers, refugees, migrants and all Irish residents. With groups across Ireland they are currently expanding internationally.

After a wild childhood in west Cork, Jasper Winn began embarking on long cycles, walks, horse journeys and kayak trips across five continents – adventures he’s decanted into books, magazine articles, radio and television documentaries. Jasper is an advocate of slow adventures by paddle, pedal, saddle, boat and sail. He has circumnavigated Ireland by kayak and cycled across the Sahara. Twice.

https://www.instagram.com/theslowadventure/?hl=en

Ella McSweeney is an Irish journalist and reporter. She works across radio, television and print for various broadcasters and publications, including RTE, BBC, The Guardian and the Irish Times. She’s presented a wide range of radio shows for RTE, including Shanks Mare, Documentary on One, Into the Deep, award-winning Mind Matters, Future Tense, Nature’s Web, The Green Light, Farm Week, Countrywide, and she has also guest-presented The Ryan Tubridy Show. For BBC, she has reported for and presented Farming Today, On Your Farm and The Food Programme on Radio 4, and documentaries on BBC World Service. She has presented RTE’s food and farming television series Ear to the Ground since 2009.

Dr. Karen Weekes specialises in effective, transferrable coping tools for managing challenges faced in business, sport and life. Her PhD focused on effective coping strategies and motivations of elite endurance athletes. Karen combines this solid base of knowledge with her own experiences from numerous ultra-endurance expeditions, which includes rowing 3,000 miles solo, and unsupported across the Atlantic Ocean.

More at: www.karenweekes.com