Committee – 2020
Pat Maher – Con Director
Pat has been working cons for a long time, but this is the first time they have let him run Gaelcon. He has been a Con Director 3 previous times but, as far as he is concerned he has now have arrived!! This will be Pat’s 6th Gaelcon as a member of the Committee, and somewhere close to his 20th as a volunteer. He was also there in 1989, when it all started.
Dr. Mike Cosgrave – Assistant Con Director & Treasurer
Started out playing historical miniatures and hex and counter board war games over 40 years ago, was led astray in D&D and has being playing variations on the same character ever since. A founder of WARPS, married a gamer, bred gamers. Coached Model UN internationally, part of the Irish team who won the Diplomacy Worlds, published academic articles on games in teaching, get paid to teach at UCC on courses which include, surprisingly, a fair bit of gaming and gamification.
TL:DR old, living the life
Xander Storey-Cosgrave – PR, Marketing & Outreach
Bella Storey-Cosgrave – RPGs and LARPs
Orla Ní Dhubhghaill – Social Media and Outreach
Robb Dunphy – Tech
Robb has been gaming in one way or another for about 35 years. Happily married with one child and ran his own tech company supporting schools for over 7 years. He also ran starship bridge simulation for a few Gaelcons. Somehow that lead him into being a guest lecturer in University of Limerick.
Tech Coordinator – Robb was brought on with the idea of having a fully functional computer and printer setup for Gaelcon. Then human malware happened.
Sabrina From – Volunteers
This is Sabrina’s first time on a convention committee; usually she can be found being “useful” as a volunteer. She has been known to play various board games and RPGs. This year, she has decided to see the volunteer side from a different perspective and thus joined the committee.
Níamh Kearney – Trade
Níamh is a convention organiser who theoretically likes (mostly board) games, though no-one can really prove the latter. She has been involved in running Dublin based conventions for the past 5 years. While this has included various committee positions Níamh can also occasionally be found just DOING things without being asked but these things are usually considered helpful, or so she says. This year she holds the venerable position of Trade Officer and hopes to ensure that everyone who wants to buy, sell or demonstrate something can do so seamlessly.
Tadhg MacCionnaith – RPGs & LARPs
Dan Ahern – Wargames
Oli Bird – Cardgames
Rumours abound that there exists a person named Oli, though few have actual proof. If said rumours are to be believed, he’s been playing collectible card games for nearly as long as they have existed as a concept, and running them professionally for the entirety of this millennium. Now he’s back in Gaelcon to rediscover his lost youth.
Rian Boyle – Special Events
Ioannis Koukoutsas – Project Manager
With a wide range of hobbies, I have plenty of volunteer experience, although this is the first time at Gaelcon. I have been playing RPGs since the mid-80s. And constantly adding more to that ever-growing list of hobbies and interests; Music, LARPs, Historic Re-enactment, Magic the Gathering, Board Games, and Historical fencing…. Career-wise, I usually work as a Project and Learning and Development Manager, specialising in Facilitation and Creative methodologies. The very first event I went to when I moved to Ireland in 2006 was Gaelcon and will always be special to me. I am very happy to be part of the crew and the opportunity to offer something back to our community.
Sean Donnelly – Volunteers
Sean has had plenty of experience in wrangling nerds over the years, from his time as DU Gamers President to assorted con work. As such, he’s here to wrangle some more nerds as Staff Co-ordinator! When he’s not busy telling other people what to do, you can find him writing far too many RPGs, or on a rare occasion actually playing them.
Ryan O’Toole – Operations & Front Desk
Ryan is a convention organiser who started out when he was 16 and has worked in many areas of conventions. He is a big anime fan and video game enthusiast. When he is running cons he tries to help everyone he can, even if that isn’t his area of expertise as the con organisers are a team.
Aidan Walsh – Webby/Design
Aidan. Aidan Never changes.
No really, we’re not sure how this is happening, we think he subsists on the joy and energy of congoers because we’re almost certain he was dead last year and then boom, he just walked into the con with a box of T-shirts. This year he’s back again! Is he a Lich? Android? The ghost of Gaelcon past? Who knows. — (Even this bloody bio is old! – yah I can edit this)
If you got to here and don’t know Aidan. Means you’re probably very, very young or social isolation means you don’t know the t-shirt dude or you read runes and aren’t aware of modern tech, which the current situation in the world… wouldn’t be surprising. He’s been about and running multiple cons yearly since 1997. Gaelcon Director twice and a bit, Leprecon Director, and his beloved, Leamhcon as Director.