Fingal County Council Arts Office announce the recipients of the National Mentoring Programme 2026
Fingal County Council Arts Office is delighted to announce four writers have been selected for the Irish Writers Centre National Mentoring Programme 2026. Each writer will receive mentoring from an established writer over the course of 2026.
The Fingal recipients selected are Margaret Anne Suggs, Owen Churcher, Shona Doyle-Woods and Trudie Gorman.
Founded in 1991, the Irish Writers Centre is Ireland’s leading resource and development organisation for writers. Its vision is to support the life of the writer at every stage of their career. As one of the largest writer mentoring programmes in Ireland, the national mentoring programme has an enormous impact on a writers’ journey by providing essential professional support and this year saw an increase of over 150 applications from around the country. The programme is aimed at both emerging and established writers.
Fingal County Council Arts Officer Sarah O’Neill said: ‘We are pleased to announce four Fingal Writers have been selected to participate in this year's prestigious National Mentoring Programme. We have no doubt this developmental opportunity will provide a creative outlet for our writers to progress their work under the guidance of a mentor.’
About Margaret Anne Suggs:
Recipient Margaret Anne Suggs commented: ‘It feels like a windfall to have been awarded a place on the National Mentoring Programme. I feel doubly lucky to have the talented and indefatigable Claire Hennessy as my Mentor! Through this programme, I hope I’ll be able to express meaningful, heartfelt stories aimed at our most important audience, children.’
Margaret Anne Suggs is an illustrator, author and lecturer. The Dandelion’s Tale – An Allegory of Migration, was nominated for the Yoto Carnegie Medal in Illustration and Robin and Pip was selected for the 2025 Golden Pen of Belgrade Exhibition. Her work reflects themes of migration, belonging and nature. Mags is a member of Illustrators Ireland and is the Administrator of the Silent Book Collections for IBBY Ireland. She was the Jury Chairperson for the 2023 Bratislava Illustration Biennial and is serving on the 2026 International Jury for the Hans Christian Andersen Awards. Her illustration work is held in the National Library.
About Owen Churcher:
Recipient Owen Churcher said: ‘It’s an honour to receive the support of the Irish Writers Centre and Fingal Arts under the National Mentoring Programme 2026. I’m a relative novice when it comes to plotting and character development over a novel length manuscript. To have an experienced writer act as a sounding board and mentor, and to offer their experience-rooted insights is invaluable.’
Owen Churcher is a children’s book author and graphic design tutor working in north Dublin. He studied photography and multimedia. Owen worked in a series of bookshops, and in online learning before teaching. Owen is currently collaborating on a new series of picture books with his wife, the award-winning author and illustrator, Niamh Sharkey. Their titles together include: A Field Guide to Leaflings (Templar 2021) Hello Bird (Templar 2024) and their latest title Penguin TV (Gill Books 2025), shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards.
About Trudie Gorman:
Recipient Trudie Gorman Commented: ‘I hope to draw on the support of mentoring to go deeper into developing my creative nonfiction manuscript. This manuscript uses fractured structure and poetics to explore the duality between care and abuse in the systems designed to care for sick body-minds. Mentoring will provide me with much-needed structure and guidance.’
Trudie Gorman is a writer, activist and youth worker based in Dublin. Her debut poetry collection Trust the Damage was shortlisted for the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award 2023. In 2022 she was awarded a residency with Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris and in 2023 she was a Dublin Fringe Festival Artist in Residence. Trudie was selected for Poetry Ireland Versify Series in 2019 and was also shortlisted for the Creative Future Writing Award 2019. Her writing has been published in Poetry Ireland Review, Banshee, Poetry NI, Two Metre Review, Unapologetic Magazine, The 32: An Anthology of Irish Working-Class Voices and Washing Windows V: Women Revolutionise Irish Poetry, 1975-2025. She has performed her work across Ireland and the UK. She wrote the script for the interdisciplinary show Chronically Hopeful, which premiered at the Philarmonie, Luxembourg in November 2025
And recipient Shona Doyle-Woods commented: ‘Receiving advice on my novel from an established writer who understands the craft is a pivotal support. I’m very grateful to the Irish Writers Centre and Fingal County Council for this opportunity.’
Shona Doyle-Woods lives in Dublin. Her fiction has been published in journals such as The Ogham Stone, The Belfast Review, An Capall Dorcha, and The Bangor Literary Journal. She placed second in the Allingham Flash Fiction Competition and was shortlisted in Historical Novel Society UK’s First Chapters Competition. She has an M.Phil. in Creative Writing from Trinity College, Dublin, is an alumna of Granta Workshops, and she received an Agility Award from the Arts Council. Her work in progress is a novel set in the north-east.
For further information on the Irish Writers Centres national mentoring programme or the Fingal recipients please see: