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About
Chair
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Panel
Commissioning Executive for Religion & Society at RTÉ, television and radio
John has more than 30 years’ experience in Irish broadcasting, with senior roles spanning commissioning, production, current affairs, radio and television. His previous roles include Editor of Production in Entertainment, Executive Producer of The Late Late Show, Head of RTÉ 2fm, Editor of Current Affairs Radio and Deputy Head of Television Schedule Planning. He was also RTÉ's first webmaster! He is particularly interested in finding creative partnerships and co-funding models that help ambitious public-service programmes reach the screen and all island audiences.
Ulster-Scots Broadcast Fund Manager
Heidi joined Northern Ireland Screen in January 2022 and is responsible for engaging with key Ulster-Scots Broadcast Fund stakeholders including broadcasters, production companies and community representatives. She has many years’ experience in local and network production and, prior to this role, also worked for 15 years in the Northern Ireland tourism sector.
Eagarthóir Coimisiúnaithe TG4. Commissioning Editor, Factual, Arts and Culture.
Proinsias leads TG4’s factual output, commissioning content for TV and digital platforms in factual, specialist factual, arts and culture genres. She is also the Executive Producer of the channel’s landmark live events. She manages TG4’s premiere primetime factual slot, commissioning mini-series, single hours and feature films for TV, theatrical and online distribution. She has devised and delivered on highly successful co production schemes in Ireland and internationally and has brought many major co productions to TG4. She was Exec Producer on BAFTA, PRIX EUROPA award winning titles and on the Oscar nominated Kneecap. She is a member of the EBU FACTUAL EXPERTS GROUP, programme advisor to DOCS IRELAND and represents TG4 at international markets and co production fora.
Senior Head of Content Commissioning
Eddie is responsible for BBC Northern Ireland’s Commissioning Department. Since taking on this role in 2020, he has commissioned a range of content for Network and local audiences, across multiple genres. These include documentaries Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland, On Drugs, Kinahan: The True Story of Ireland's Mafia, Bombing Brighton: The Plot to Kill Thatcher, Bad Nanny and Jailed: Inside Maghaberry Prison , and scripted content, Leonard & Hungry Paul, Dead & Buried, Tall Tales & Murder, Rewarding, Crá, Committed and Skintown Previously, at RTÉ, he launched and ran the investigative documentary strand Prime Time Investigates, before moving into commissioning across genres - documentaries A Mother Brings Her Son to Be Shot, Maurice McCabe: Whistleblower, and The Man Who Wanted to Fly and comedy The Young Offenders, Mrs Browns Boys, The Republic of Telly, The Savage Eye, Can’t Cope, Won’t Cope and The Tommy Tiernan Show. Eddie is from Belfast. He joined BBC NI in February 2018, to run in-house production, before moving into his current role. He studied Law at Trinity College Dublin, has a master’s in journalism from Dublin City University, and Diplomas in Strategy & Innovation from the Irish Management Institute. He has worked in print journalism, TV production and commissioning in the UK and Ireland, and received Ireland’s TV Journalist of the Year Award in 2001 for his work in Afghanistan.
Tv Presenter
As part of the first USBF Production Trainee cohort in 2017, it’s been a real joy to build my career as a producer/presenter here in NI. Working on development and production of BBC NI series like Our Farming Life, Home Ground, and Hame, to progressing to director on the fact-ent series, Oul Treasures, and most recently trying my hand at presenting for both TV and radio. It’s been fantastic fun and a great honour to work with such wonderful teams of creatives. Last year I got my dream job presenting Jane Rea’s Bloomin’ Wild, a series from our family farm, the commute was great and the craic was mighty!