The Team

Professor Sean Kennelly MB, BCh, PhD, FRCP(Lond), FRCPI is a consultant physician in geriatric and stroke medicine in Tallaght University Hospital. He is clinical lead for the older persons community/acute hospital integrated care service and director of a specialist memory assessment and support service. He is Clinical Associate Professor of Medical Gerontology in Trinity College Dublin (TCD), and a principle investigator in the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London and Ireland.

He has extensively published in his main research area of brain health and dementia. He has served as chief and principle investigator on several international clinical trials in early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. He is chair of Dementia Research Network Ireland (DNNI), an inter-disciplinary research forum for Irish dementia researchers, and a member of the clinical and research advisory panel for the Alzheimer's Society of Ireland.

Prof Mary McCarron is the Director of the Trinity Centre for Ageing and Intellectual Disability, the Principal Investigator on IDS-TILDA, Director of the National Intellectual Disability Memory Service and is the Chair of Ageing and Intellectual Disability at Trinity College Dublin. She has previously been the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences and Head of the School of Nursing and Midwifery. Professor McCarron is Policy and Service Advisor on Dementia to the Daughters of Charity Disability Support Service. She has published widely on the lived experience of people ageing with an intellectual disability, the prevalence of dementia among this population, and their palliative care needs.

As the inaugural winner of the 2019 Health Research Board Impact Award, Prof McCarron’s inclusive approaches are internationally recognized as an exemplar for ensuring meaningful involvement of persons with intellectual disability in the research process. In addition, Prof McCarron’s award-winning approaches to the design of care facilities and to technology innovations are improving quality of life for people across the continuum of dementia.

Dr Janette Tyrrell MB BCh BaO BA Mod, MRCPI, MRCPysch , MDis a Consultant Psychiatrist who specialises in the psychiatry of intellectual disability. She is based at St Michaels House in Dublin where she is part of the Mental Health Intellectual Disability Team, The Dementia Outreach team and she is the Psychiatrist to the Cara Unit (a residential unit for people with dementia and intellectual disability).

Her professional interests include Dementia in people with Intellectual Disability, Assisted Decision Making and Ethics. Janette is a member of several working groups in these areas both within St Michael’s House and the HSE.

Dr Tyrrell has a particular focus on dementia in people with intellectual disability and she was involved in the earliest studies in Dementia and people with Down syndrome in Ireland alongside Professor Mary McCarron in Trinity College. This work formed the basis of her research in this area and her Doctoral thesis. Dr Tyrrell has published several papers in this area and has been involved in Dementia special interest groups, book chapters and lecturing at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Evelyn is a Registered Nurse in Intellectual Disability Nursing (RNID) and has a particular interest in ageing, care of the older person with intellectual disability (ID), and promoting person centred care for people with dementia.

As one of the first Clinical Nurse Specialists in ID and Dementia, she manages the day-to-day operations of a service wide Memory Clinic for the Daughters of Charity Disability Support Service. She plays a lead role in assessing the symptoms of dementia, contributing to final diagnosis in consultation with other practitioners, and offers training in dementia care to all levels of staff, family, and peers.

Evelyn works closely with IDS-TILDA at Trinity College Dublin, and is involved in research for the study of the complex interrelationship between pre-existing impairment, physical, psychosocial and environmental factors that affect healthy ageing in persons with an intellectual disability.

Pamela Dunne CNSp, RNID, MSc, works in the Memory Clinic in the Daughters of Charity Disability Support Service providing an outreach service in Dublin, Limerick and Tipperary. She has 35 years experience working with children and adults with an intellectual disability (ID) in a variety of roles ranging from teaching, social and recreational to nursing.

In her current role as a Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNSp) in dementia in intellectual disability she works closely with people with an ID, their families, the multi-disciplinary team and support staff in providing a comprehensive service offering baseline screening, dementia assessment and diagnosis and follow up care and supports for those diagnosed with dementia.

Pamela's research interests include aging well with an intellectual disability and psycho-social approaches to care. Pamela has led out on an award winning project 'Creating Digital Life Stories using iPad technology' in the Daughters of Charity Disability Support Service. Pamela holds a Masters in Dementia from Trinity College Dublin.

Marianne is a Chartered Health Psychologist and has worked with Brothers of Charity Services, Ireland - Western Region since 2003, based in County Roscommon. Marianne works as part of a multidisciplinary team supporting adults ageing within the services and has a particular interest in supporting people with intellectual disability ageing with complex needs, including dementia. Marianne co-ordinates service supports for adults living with dementia and intellectual disability in County Roscommon. Marianne is active in promoting the inclusion of adults with intellectual disability in community dementia and ageing supports. She is a founding member of the County Roscommon Dementia Alliance Network and the Chair of the County Roscommon Social Prescribing Network. Marianne is a Director of Roscommon Leader Partnership and is a member of the county steering committee for the County Roscommon Age Friendly Strategy.

Marianne is currently undertaking a PhD by research into modelling positive ageing for people with ID within a biopsychosocial model, using the IDS-TILDA longitudinal dataset. She is committed to promoting the use of the biopsychosocial model as a holistic model for supporting successful and healthy ageing for all.

Dr Eimear McGlinchey is an Assistant Professor in Intellectual Disability in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, and a Senior Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute.

Eimear’s background is in Psychology and her primary area of interest is in the promotion and maintenance of brain health in people with an intellectual disability, with particular focus on the area of dementia in people with Down syndrome. Eimear’s work in the area of dementia and Down syndrome includes investigating early biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease using neuroimaging, blood- based and cognitive biomarkers and Eimear is PI of the PREVENT dementia – DS project. This project is part of a collaborative international study with the Horizon 21 European Down syndrome Consortium.
Eimear’s work is based in the Trinity Centre for Ageing and Intellectual Disability and she is also the research lead with the National Intellectual Disability Memory Service.
Eimear teaches on the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in the school and provides supervision to undergraduate, masters and PhD students. She is Course Coordinator for the Ageing Health and Wellbeing in Intellectual Disability MSc, the Dementia MSc, and the Community Health MSc in the School of Nursing and Midwifery. She has a number of publications and has disseminated widely through national and international conferences.

June is responsible for the development of strategic, funding, profile, collaboration and event opportunities for the Trinity Centre for Ageing and Intellectual Disability (TCAID), quality assurance and impact assessment and supporting flagship projects, such as IDS-TILDA and the National ID Memory Service within the Centre. June holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) with Imperial College London and has extensive experience across multi-disciplinary Research, Education, Advocacy and Outreach. June joined Trinity College Dublin in 2009 and has previously worked as an Executive Officer with the Trinity Centre for Bioengineering and a Marketing Executive in the Medical Device industry.

June is supporting the strategic development and communications functions of the National Intellectual Disability Memory Service.

Emma is Clinical Administrator for the National Intellectual Disability Memory Service at Tallaght University Hospital. Her role is to schedule the patient appointments for the clinic and the administrative work that goes into the efficient running of a patient-focused service.

Phone: Emma Donnelly at (01) 414 4994

Email: emma.donnelly@tuh.ie