Local Organising Committee

Dr. Colm O’Reilly

Conference Chair

Director, CTY Ireland

Dr. Colm O’Reilly is the Director of the CTY Ireland, at Dublin CityUniversity. Colm has worked in the area of gifted and talented education for over two decades, both directly with gifted students at the Centre and as a scholar in the field. He has written articles and book chapters, been published in gifted education journals and has presented keynotes at numerous conferences in Europe and worldwide. Colm is the President of the European Council for High Ability (ECHA) and serves on the executive committee for the European Talent Support Network(ETSN). In 2019 he led a team of European experts in designing the firstEuropean Union online course for teachers of gifted students in regular classrooms (EGift). During Colm’s tenure as Director of CTY Ireland theCentre has won numerous educational awards including Best EducationalOutreach programme in Ireland on two occasions. He serves on the advisory board for the Center for Gifted Education at the College ofWilliam and Mary, with whom he collaborated to commission the first report on teachers’ attitudes to gifted students in Ireland, followed by are port focused on parents and gifted students themselves. In 2023, he was awarded the prestigious Harry Passow International Award forLeadership in Gifted Education, by the World Council for Gifted andTalented Children. Colm is the first European recipient of this award.

In 2018, Colm was the ECHA Conference Chair for the Dublin conference.As the proposed ECHA 2026 Conference Chair, he brings a wealth of expertise, experience and dynamic engagement to the committee.

Daryl Hanberry

Partner, Head of Tax & Legal, Deloitte

Daryl Hanberry is a Partner and Head of Tax & Legal for Deloitte in Ireland with over 20 years’ experience serving clients across a broad range of industries, including Technology Media and Telecommunications, financial services, and consumer business. Daryl has spoken on various tax issues and written published articles for the Irish Taxation Institute and Chartered Accountants Ireland. Daryl is a former editor of various tax manuals for the Irish Taxation Institute. Daryl is the Chairperson of the Academic Advisory Board for CTY Ireland and leads Deloitte’s sponsorship of various programmes and scholarships for the Centre’s programmes. Daryl held a number of roles with the Centre for over ten years, beginning as a student and ending as a course instructor.

Dr. Orla Dunne

Assistant Professor, DCU School of Inclusive and Special Education and CTYI Academic Programme Manager

Dr. Orla Dunne is the Residential Programme Manager at CTY Ireland and a former student of the programme. Orla has worked with CTY Ireland for ten years, leading the residential team, managing student pastoral care on the summer programmes and producing research. In 2018, Orla played a key role in organising the ECHA Conference in Dublin, in particular the concurrent conference for the Youth Platform of the European Talent Support Network. Orla’s research focuses on gifted LGBTQ young people and is the first of its kind in Europe. She has published articles, written book chapters for major gifted education textbooks, presented at numerous conferences internationally and regularly delivers seminars and workshops in educational and corporate settings. She was the recipient of an Advance HE Global Impact Grant, to create open access materials on working with gifted LGBTQ students. Orla currently sits on the board of directors for ShoutOut, an organisation in Ireland that promotes inclusion through LGBTQ educational programmes.

Deirdre Jacob

Founder, Parent Advocates of Exceptional Children

Deirdre Jacob is the parent of a CTY Ireland student who is twice exceptional. She has spent several years advocating for the development of a National Plan for ‘gifted education’ in the Irish context. She is the founder of the Parent Advocates of Exceptional Children group, who lobby politically to have the educational needs of Exceptional and Twice Exceptional/Gifted students on the national agenda. In her professional life, Deirdre is a CORU registered Professionally Qualified Social Worker with a number of publications in the areas of Community Development, Integrated and Primary Care. She lectures in the School of Social Work and Social Policy in Trinity College Dublin, where she graduated with her professional degree in Social Work and a Master’s degree in Applied Social Research. Deirdre has a lifelong interest in social justice issues and education, and has advocated for the needs of ethnic minority groups at European Union level. She has a special personal interest in education as one of the pillars towards achieving ‘self-actualisation’ and its role in the socio-structural determinants of health.

Dr. Aoife Brennan

Assistant Professor, Head of School of Inclusive and Special Education, DCU

Dr. Aoife Brennan is an assistant professor and Head of School of Inclusive and Special Education in DCU Institute of Education. She previously worked as a mainstream and learning
support/resource primary teacher and as a Literacy Advisor with the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST). Aoife teaches across a number of undergraduate and postgraduate teacher education programmes up to and including doctoral level. She has chaired a number of programmes including the Professional Diploma in Special and Inclusive Education, Diploma in Inclusive and Special Education and the Masters in Special Educational Needs. Her research interests include inclusive pedagogy and differentiation, inclusive approaches to literacy instruction, teacher education for inclusion, professional learning for inclusion, professional learning communities, and inclusive school leadership and collaboration for inclusion.