Ronald Spence (Deputy Chairman of the NHMF and HLF, Chairman of the Committee for Northern Ireland)

Ronnie Spence was appointed as a Trustee in April 2006. He is a Deputy Chairman of the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Heritage Lottery Fund and chairs the Fund’s Northern Ireland Committee.

He was educated at Methodist College Belfast and at Queen’s University Belfast where he studied Modern History. He was a member of the Northern Ireland Civil Service from 1963 to 2001, including serving over 7 years as Permanent Secretary of the Department of the Environment and the Department for Regional Development. He was heavily involved in initiatives in the areas of housing, urban regeneration, protection of the environment, tourism, equality, community divisions, regional planning, transport, cultural diversity and social exclusion.

He was Chairman from 1995 to 2001 of the Northern Ireland Partnership Board which delivered through local partnerships an innovative European Community Peace and Reconciliation Programme. He chaired from 1997 to 2002 the Northern Ireland Events Committee which promoted quality events to improve the region’s image and to bring the different parts of the community together. He was the joint chair of partnership boards that prepared long term vision statements for Armagh, Belfast, Craigavon and Derry/Londonderry.

Mr Spence is Chairman of the Probation Board for Northern Ireland and a member of the Northern Ireland Legal Services Commission. He has a keen interest in improving the performance of organisations and is a director of a consultancy company. He is a member of the Council of The University of Ulster and a Director of Camphill Communities Trust NI. He chairs the Ulster Sports Museum Association.

David Erwin

Dr Erwin, a marine biologist, served for 27 years on the staff of Ulster Museum (17 as Keeper of Botany and Zoology) and took early retirement in 1994. From 1997 to 2004 he was Chief Executive of The Ulster Wildlife Trust.

He has served on the UK Biodiversity Working Group, the NI Biodiversity Working Group and the Council for Nature Conservation and the Countryside, in addition to many other Government and voluntary sector committees and advisory groups. He is Chair of the Causeway Coast and Glens Heritage Trust and is a past Chair and past President of The Ulster Wildlife Trust.

He is the author of a large number of academic and popular publications on environmental matters, particularly on the marine life of Britain and Ireland. He led the Sub-littoral Survey of Northern Ireland. He has travelled extensively to study marine conservation around the world and is a regular lecturer and broadcaster on natural history topics and environmental issues.  In 1992 he was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to examine coastal zone management in the U.S.A., New Zealand and Australia.

He was awarded an O.B.E. in the 2000 New Years Honours list for ‘services to the marine environment’.

Máire Gallagher

Máire Gallagher grew up in counties Donegal and Derry and graduated from Queen’s University Belfast in 1991 with a degree in Celtic Studies with French, and then from the University of Ulster in 1992 with a Post-Graduate Diploma in Administrative and Legal Studies.  Máire went on to attain the University of Ulster’s Post-Graduate Diploma in Further and Higher Education and spent some years teaching languages in secondary and grammar schools and in the FE sector.

Moving from education to the management of European training and employment initiatives in the voluntary sector, Máire subsequently moved to the public sector as a Regional Programme Manager with the Northern Ireland Health Promotion Agency.  She later returned to the voluntary sector as Assistant Director of Groundwork Northern Ireland, an environmental regeneration organisation. Máire recently returned to live in the north-west and is now Director of Foyle School and Employer Connections, a voluntary organisation based in Derry which develops and implements employability programmes for full-time students.

Rita Harkin

Rita graduated with a Masters in Town Planning from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh in 1995 and received a Post Graduate Certificate in Architectural Conservation from the University of Ulster in 2004 and an RSUA Diploma in Conservation in 2007.  She has been employed as Research Officer for the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society since 1998 and previously worked for Belfast City Council as Heritage Projects Officer; Rachel Bevan Architects (specialists in eco-friendly design) and the Ecology Building Society.

In 2005, Rita was awarded a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship to study best practice in the provision of disabled access to historic buildings in the US and Scandinavia.  She sits on the executive committee of the Northern Ireland Environment Link and is a board member of Belfast Exposed Photography.

Caroline Marshall

Ms Caroline Marshall currently works for the Lough Neagh and Lower Bann Advisory Committees where she liaises closely with statutory agencies and interested parties to provide integrated management advice.  In this post since 1999, Caroline has produced the Lough Neagh Management Strategy detailing recommendations for the management and sustainable development of the wetlands and waterway.  She has led the preparation of a successful bid to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development for £3.2 million and has also been instrumental in setting up the Lough Neagh Partnership Ltd and Lower Bann Partnership.  She is currently a director of the LNP and Secretary of the LBP.

After leaving Queen’s University, Belfast with a BSc in Biology in 1988, Caroline obtained a Post Graduate Certificate in Education from Stranmillis College, Belfast.  She taught for several years and worked for the Ulster Wildlife Trust and Environment & Heritage Service before moving to Scotland.  In the north of Scotland and subsequently in the south of England, Caroline was involved in estuary management and produced several management plans.

In 1996 Ms Marshall returned to Northern Ireland to take up post as the Manager with the Loughshores Area Based Strategy.  This involved distribution of £1 million to the western and southern shores of Lough Neagh.  During her time as Manager, she also led the development of, and secured funding for, the Loughshore Trail; National Cycle Network Route 94.

Caroline was reared, and still spends much of her time, on the north coast of Northern Ireland.

Patrick Murphy

Following seven years as Director of the Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education, Patrick Murphy took early retirement in 2002 to pursue other interests.  During a 30 year career in education he has worked as lecturer, head of department, Dean of faculty and deputy director. He lectured on social geography, social policy and urban sociology with a specific interest in housing.  He was UK Chief Examiner for the Royal Institute of Housing for ten years.

He is currently engaged as an adviser to the private and public sectors on management, communications and marketing in both parts of Ireland.

In recognition of his services to education he was honoured by Newry and Mourne District Council in 1997 and he was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Education by the University of Ulster in 1998.  Honorary membership of the City and Guilds Institute was conferred on him in 2005.

He has worked as a writer and commentator for over thirty years on a number of subjects including politics, agriculture, economics, education and social affairs. He writes regularly for the Irish News (Belfast).

In 2005, he was appointed to the Medical Ethics Committee of the Northern Ireland Department of Health and Personal Social Services. In the same year he was also appointed to sit on the Boards of Governors of three schools in Northern Ireland.  In 2006 he was appointed Assistant Local Government Boundaries Commissioner for Northern Ireland.

He is a native of Rostrevor, Co Down, where he still lives and practises environmental agriculture including the restoration of hedgerows and planting ash, willow and alder on marginal land.

He is currently a member of the Irish Advisory Commission on Justice and Social Affairs (Dublin), the Southern Education and Library Board (Armagh) and the Advisory Board for the Northern Ireland College of Agriculture and Rural Enterprise (Antrim).

His pastimes are dry stone-walling and hurling.

Jane Williams

Jane Williams grew up in north Belfast and read English at Cambridge. She taught in schools in Belfast and London before becoming involved in museums by volunteering in Dulwich and in St. Paul, Minnesota. She works in learning and development for National Museums Northern Ireland and lectures in Museum Studies for the University of Ulster in Belfast and online. She is a member of the South Eastern Education and Library Board. 

Jane edited an oral history for museums in the Northwest and Causeway regions and was formerly editor of the Irish Museums’ Association journal, Museum Ireland. She was a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Voluntary Action Studies at the University of Ulster; Chair of the Library Committee of the South Eastern Education and Library Board, and a member of the executive committee of the Bryson Charitable Group.