Events
Common Ground: Delivering Public Services Across the Island An ACESA & CEF Knowledge Exchange in partnership with The Irish Times.
Date: 22/09/2026
Venue: Hillsborough Castle & Gardens
Speaker(s): Judith Gillespie, Chair, Chief Executives Forum, Northern Ireland; Gina McIntyre, Special EU Programmes Body (SEUBP); Professor Sir Ian Greer, President and Vice-Chancellor of Queens University Belfast; Dr. Diarmuid O’Callaghan, President of Dundalk Institute of Technology; Tomás Ó Siocháin, Chair, Association of Chief Executives of State Agencies (ACESA)
Organised by ACESA in partnership with the Chief Executives Forum of Northern Ireland (CEF), The Irish Times ‘Common Ground’ project, and Historic Royal Palaces, this landmark event will focus on:
“Common Ground: Delivering Public Services Across the Island.”
As public service leaders North and South face shared systemic challenges and opportunities, this session offers a timely forum to discuss practical collaboration and service delivery across the island.
Our Speakers:
Mark Hennessy, The Irish Times (Event Moderator)
Mark Hennessy leads “The Irish Times” ‘Common Ground’ project that is delving deeply into questions of relations, knowledge and identities on the island of Ireland, and between different parts of the island, and on British-Irish relations. Previously, he has served as News Editor, London Editor and Political Correspondent of the newspaper, and a frequent broadcaster on Irish and British TV and radio.
Judith Gillespie grew up in North Belfast. She joined the RUC GC in 1982, having been turned down twice, and was the first woman in the history of the RUC/PSNI to become an Assistant Chief Constable in May 2004.
A graduate of the FBI National Executive Institute, she holds a Masters Degree in Applied Criminology from the University of Cambridge. She became Deputy Chief Constable in 2009, was awarded an OBE in the Birthday Honours in June of the same year, an Honorary Doctorate from Queen’s University Belfast in July 2012, and a CBE in the Birthday Honours in June 2014. She was a Chief Officer in PSNI for 11 years, helping to lead the organisation through significant, transformational change. A keen sportswoman, she chaired the Board of the Belfast 2013 World Police and Fire Games, delivering the “friendliest and most successful Games ever”.
On leaving PSNI in March 2014 she became an independent leadership advisor, championing the cause of vulnerable victims and survivors. She has served on a number of public bodies including for five years as a founding member of the Garda Policing Authority. She recently chaired the Inter Departmental Working Group on Mother and Baby Homes, Magdalene Laundries and Historical Clerical Child Abuse. She is a member of the Prison Service Pay Review Body and co-chair of the assessment panel for the much sought after Diversity Mark.
Responsible to the Senate, he is the Chair of the University Management Board and is accountable for the University’s overall management and strategic direction.
Professor Sir Ian Greer has been President and Vice-Chancellor of Queen’s University Belfast since August 2018. He has extensive experience of university innovation driving regional economic growth, including cross-sector developments such as the Northern Health Science Alliance, a collaboration of eight Universities and NHS partners, and is the cofounder of the Health Innovation Research Alliance for NI.
He is a strong advocate for University social responsibility, including widening participation. He leads the innovation pillar of the Belfast Region City Deal, driving innovation in key sectors for the local economy – creative industries, health innovation, data science & analytics, and advanced manufacturing. He is the past president of Universities Ireland, promoting collaboration across the island, and a member of the Research England Council and the British Council’s Education Advisory Group (EAG).
By way of background, he is a medical graduate of the University of Glasgow, with his research and clinical career in obstetrics and gynaecology. He has held senior leadership positions in several UK Universities, and was Vice President of the University of Manchester, immediately before moving to Queen’s.
Gina McIntyre, SEUPB
Gina McIntyre is Chief Executive of the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB), a North–South implementation body established under the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement. In this role, Gina has strategic and operational responsibility for the delivery of PEACEPLUS, a €1.144 billion investment programme supporting peace, reconciliation and prosperity across Northern Ireland and the border counties of Ireland.
PEACEPLUS is jointly supported by the European Union, the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Government of Ireland, and the Northern Ireland Executive, and represents one of the most significant and enduring examples of international cooperation in a post‑conflict context.
The programme builds on three decades of successive PEACE and INTERREG funding, through which SEUPB has supported over 23,000 projects, representing total investment of €3.39 billion across communities, civic society and public bodies on the island of Ireland.
Gina is a qualified chartered accountant and has spent the majority of her career working in European support programmes, giving her deep, practical knowledge of the political, social and economic dimensions of cross‑border development in a society emerging from conflict. She is widely recognised for her expertise in managing complex EU funding instruments in ways that address legacy issues, support reconciliation and deliver sustained structural change.
Under her leadership, SEUPB continues to play a central role in helping to deliver tangible community impact, balancing accountability to governments and funders with responsiveness to local need. Gina’s experience at this interface between policy, partnership and delivery has led to her knowledge being increasingly sought and valued by other conflict and post‑conflict regions, where the PEACE programme model is regarded as a leading international reference for peacebuilding, cooperation and long‑term investment.
Gina is a regular speaker at major conferences, policy forums and exhibitions across Ireland, the United Kingdom and the European Union, contributing to international discussions on peacebuilding, reconciliation and the effective governance of EU programmes in complex political environments.
Dr. Diarmuid O’Callaghan, President of Dundalk Institute of Technology
Dr. Diarmuid O’Callaghan is the President of Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT), the leading higher education institute in the North East and cross-border region of Ireland.
Dr O’Callaghan took up the role of president in 2023 and is passionate about enhancing education, innovation, research and employer engagement opportunities both within the institute and on the Belfast-Dublin corridor.
Prior to commencing the role of President in DkIT, Dr O’Callaghan previously held significant positions in higher education, including Strategic Lead for Education at Technological University Dublin and President of the Institute of Technology, Blanchardstown.
Dr O’Callaghan has an undergraduate degree in Agricultural Science, and a Masters’ Degree and a PhD from University College Dublin in the areas of animal nutritional and reproductive physiology.
Tomás Ó Siocháin, Chair, ACESA & CEO, Údarás na Gaeltachta
Tomás Ó Síocháin is Príomhfheidhmeannach/CEO of Údarás na Gaeltachta (udaras.ie), the state agency that supports and develops Irish as the spoken language in the Gaeltacht region across seven counties of Ireland. Údarás supports communities and enterprise to sustain the region, language and its unique global heritage.
Tomás was, until 2022, CEO of the Western Development Commission, an Irish state agency supporting the development of Ireland’s Western Region along the Atlantic coast. Prior to that he held a number of senior roles in Ollscoil na hÉireann/University of Galway and was a broadcast journalist, producer and editor with Irish national broadcasters RTÉ and TG4 between 1998 and 2013.
A law graduate, he holds an MBA, a Higher Diploma in Applied Communications and is a non‑executive director of GrowRemote, Ardán and Galway Culture Company.