Scholarship Trust

TRUSTEE

Gerry Boland

A native of Limerick, Gerry Boland is a former Partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers having served with the firm and its predecessors for 38 years. He is a Non-Executive Director of a number of organisations including Director of the University of Limerick Foundation, the JP McManus Charitable Foundation, Limerick Enterprise Development Partnership (LEDP), the James McMahon Group.

Gerry is also a Trustee of the JP McManus Scholarships.

TRUSTEE

Patrick Dowling

Patrick joined the Irish Civil Service in 1965, where he held a number of senior management positions at the department of Education and Skills. He served as a special adviser to the then Minister for Foreign Affairs; Minister for Finance; Minister for Agriculture & Food and Minister for Labour. Patrick also served as a member of Mr Michael O’Kennedy’s Cabinet in the EU Commission.

Whilst in the Department of Education and Skills Patrick headed the student support section. He had previously headed the International and Structural Funds Unit with Responsibilities, inter alia, for the negotiation of substantial EU funds, for the Education Sector in the context of successive National Development Programmes. Patrick retired in 2007.

TRUSTEE

Diana McCabe

Diana has over thirty years’ experience working in the communications industry specialising in the corporate, sports, educational, philanthropic and charity sectors. A former Director of Weber Shandwick International, Diana set up DMC Communications in 2003 (now Dialog Communications) building a strong team with expertise in corporate and consumer communications, sponsorship and event management, media relations and reputational management.
In addition to account management, she advises on the strategic direction of Dialog’s client projects.

Diana has been a Trustee of the All Ireland Scholarships since 2022.

TRUSTEE

Professor Sarah Moore Fitzgerald

A writer and academic, Sarah is a professor at the University of Limerick. She has a research background in psychology, organisational behaviour and pedagogy and from 2012-2018 was Ireland's first chair of the National Forum for the enhancement of teaching and learning in higher education. She was UL's Dean of Teaching and Learning from 1999 to 2009 and Associate Vice President academic (2009-2017).
Since 2017 she's merged her academic and creative practice to join UL's creative writing team and is part of a Children's Books Ireland National project: 'every child a reader'.

Sarah is a volunteer project leader of an arts council-funded project called 'Walls of Limerick' providing mentoring and professional development support for writers from disadvantaged and marginalised backgrounds. She works with UL colleagues Prof Joseph O'Connor, Donal Ryan, Emily Cullen, Eoin Devereux, Fíona Scarlett and Kit De Waal to provide and develop creative writing programmes. including the MA in Creative Writing, UL's Creative Writing Winter school and more.

Sarah is the author of seven novels for children and young adults. She's been shortlisted for the Waterstones prize, the Irish Book Awards, CBI book of the year and has received a Kirkus star in the US for exceptional merit in children's literature. Her work has been adapted for the stage and translated into over 18 different languages and in 2022 she won the London Magazine award for short fiction.

Sarah has been a Trustee of the All Ireland Scholarships since 2022.

TRUSTEE

John Kiely

John Kiely is the former principal of Abbey CBS secondary school in Tipperary, his alma mater and the manager of Limerick Senior Hurling team. He worked in the school from 1997, first as a teacher, before being appointed school principal in 2013.

John represented Limerick at both under-21 and senior level in both football and hurling and in 2018, he led The Treaty’s senior hurling team to their first Liam MacCarthy victory in 45 years.

In 2022, he returned to the University of Limerick where he received a special Honorary Doctorate, the highest honour the University can bestow. During his conferring ceremony, UL President Kerstin Mey described him as “one of the great sporting leaders of our time”.

Two of his students guided Abbey CBS to their own All Ireland win, when they were crowned winners of the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2023. Four of Kiely’s former students also received All Ireland Scholarships in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

John encourages each young person who is embarking on further studies to appreciate every moment and to acknowledge all they have worked hard for and have so deservedly achieved. His advice is to “not look too far down the road, because you might miss out on the journey while doing it.”

John has been a Trustee of the All Ireland Scholarships since 2024.