The following members were reappointed to the Board of NI Screen.
Members
Róise Ní Bhaoill
Róise Ní Bhaoill was Director of the Irish language charity, the ULTACH Trust. She has served on a range of committees and boards including Iontaobhas na Gaelscolaíochta (The Trust for Irish-medium Education of which she was Chair), Colmcille (promoting Irish and Scottish Gaelic links), the European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages, the Raidió na Gaeltachta Commission, Oireachtas na Gaeilge and various panels and subcommittees of the Community Relations Council, the Human Rights Commission and the Arts Council. She is Chair of the Irish Language Broadcast Fund.
She is the author of Ulster Gaelic Voices: Bailiúchán Doegen 1931, a collection of recordings of some of the last native speakers of Irish in Ulster. She also authored Taisce Focal, Scéalta beaga do dhaoine móra for adult learners of Irish and Ceol Leat! for the Irish-medium preschool sector. She has edited the MERCATOR Dossier on the Irish language in education in Northern Ireland and was joint-editor of Gaelic-medium education provision: Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man and the bilingual short story collection Bás in Éirinn | May You Die in Ireland. She edited Our Tangled Speech, a collection of essays on language and culture and has also published creative work in the Irish language.
She holds no other public appointments.
Susan Picken
Susan Picken is director of the Cathedral Quarter Trust, a cultural regeneration agency working in and around Belfast’s historic city centre Cathedral Quarter. Amongst the projects the trust delivers is Belfast’s yearly Culture Night event, the city’s largest free arts event with annual audiences of over 90,000.
Between 2008 and 2017 Susan was head of the Queen’s Film Theatre (QFT). Part of Queen’s University, the two-screen QFT is Northern Ireland’s only dedicated cultural cinema delivering a world-class, year-round programme of feature films, documentary, archive and specialised films and event. During Susan’s time at the QFT, she managed all aspects of programming and operations, building audiences of around 100,000 each year and overseeing the cinema’s full conversion to digital technology.
In 2012, Susan oversaw the introduction and set-up of Film Hub NI, part of the British Film Institute’s (BFI) Film Audience Network, a major UK wide audience development project based around a series of regional and national film hubs. Film Hub NI delivers a range of audience development and screening based support across NI and has had a significant positive impact upon film culture in the region.
Prior to this, Susan had many years’ experience working in cultural cinema in London. Roles included running events at London’s National Film Theatre (now BFI Southbank) and running the film programme at the Hospital Club, the members’ club for the creative industries.
She holds no other public appointments.
Michael Fanning
Michael Fanning is an award winning producer and director who has produced a range of current affairs and factual programmes for broadcasters across the UK and Ireland. He is managing director of Below The Radar, a Belfast based TV production company. He joined Below The Radar in 2006 having spent five years working in news and current affairs at UTV.
He holds no other public appointments.
Richard Hanna
Richard has recently stepped down from the position of Director of Education and Language in the Ulster-Scots Agency.
He joined the Ulster-Scots Agency in 2017 having retired from The Northern Ireland Council for Curriculum Examinations and Assessment where he held the position of Director of Education Strategy.
In his role in CCEA he was responsible for developing policy advice related to curriculum, assessment and reporting and for providing support and guidance to schools. He was also responsible for implementing statutory assessment and reporting arrangements in Northern Ireland schools.
Richard held a number of management positions in CCEA which included responsibility for leading the development and support for qualifications, on-screen marking of examinations and the development of adaptive computer-based assessments in literacy and numeracy.
Before joining CCEA, Richard was a post-primary teacher for 18 years.
He holds no other public appointments.