Team, Board & Governance

The Members of the company are Anthony Haughey, Peter McKenna, Cian Murphy, Lorcan Sirr, Dominic Thorpe, and Mary Shine Thompson.

Anthony Haughey chairs the board. He is an artist and a lecturer at the Dublin Institute of Technology where he supervises practice-based PhDs. He was a Research Fellow (2005-8) at the Interface Centre for Research in Art, Technologies and Design at the University of Ulster Belfast, where he completed a PhD in 2009. His work has been widely exhibited nationally and internationally.

Peter McKenna was appointed as the Stadium Director of Croke Park Stadium in 2001. Prior to joining Croke Park, Peter held the position of Chief Executive of Smurfit Publications, Smurfit Publishing and Design and iVenus.com. Peter was appointed to his current position of Stadium & Commercial Director for the GAA in 2011. Under this remit he is tasked with steering the Association’s sponsorship, media rights, licensing and general games promotion. In 2013, Peter won the Marketer of the Year Award. In addition to his work with the GAA, Peter is a Director of Fire Station Artists’ Studio, Chairman of the IIFT, and sits on the advisory board of One Young World. Peter is a Chemical Engineering graduate from University College Dublin.

Cian Murphy has worked at the Central Bank of Ireland since 2015. He is the Head of Function in the Markets Policy Division where he has policy oversight for investment firms; primary and secondary markets; trading venues; emerging risk; and shadow banking.  He also supports the Central Bank’s Director General for Financial Conduct in her role on the Board of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO). Cian represents the Central Bank at committees in ESMA and IOSCO, as well as the European Systemic Risk Board’s Joint Expert Group on Shadow Banking where he chairs the sub-group on policy. Previously, Cian spent 5 years working for HM Treasury in the UK, where he worked on public expenditure and financial stability issues. Cian spent two years on secondment to UK Financial Investments where we worked on the team that began the UK Government’s privatisation programme for Lloyds Banking Group. Cian has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from University College Cork and a Masters in Marketing from London Metropolitan University.

Dr Lorcan Sirr is a Senior Lecturer in the Technological University Dublin where he teaches and researches housing and related subjects. He is a frequent contributor to media discussion and debate on housing issues. For three years he was a columnist with The Sunday Times and now writes for all the major publications including The Irish Times, the Irish Independent, the Irish Daily Mail, the Sunday Independent and thejournal.ie. He is a board member of the Irish Refugee Council and sits on the Research Committee of the Residential Tenancies Board. Lorcan holds an MA in literature from the Katholiek Universiteit Leuven in Belgium, and an MA and PhD in planning and development from the University of Manchester.

Mary Shine Thompson recently completed her term as a member of Dublin City University Governing Authority and is a member of DCU Council of Trustees. Over the past decade she has supported DCU in embedding the visual arts in its culture. She formerly lectured in English and chaired Poetry Ireland, and continues to contribute to literary debate. She qualified as a barrister in 2016 and is a director of Restorative Justice Services.

Dominic Thorpe is an Irish visual artist who works primarily through performance art. He also works with drawing, video, photography, installation, collaborative and relational-based processes. Much of his work addresses contemporary and historical human rights and institutional abuses. His recent work has explored representations of perpetrators and perpetrator trauma through performance art. He has shown and performed work widely internationally and in Ireland, including at the Bangkok Cultural Centre, Performance Space UK, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Galway Arts Centre, SASA Gallery Adelaide and Mobius Boston. Thorpe has completed a number of residencies, including at the Nordic Arts Centre and Fire Station Artists’ Studios Dublin, and was the first artist-in- residence in humanities at University College Dublin. Thorpe has worked in a number of public collections including that of t the Arts Council of Ireland.

Fire Station Artists’ Studios is governed by a voluntary board of trustees including former residents, practicing artists and professionals from the private and academic sector.

In September 2015 the Board of Directors committed to working towards compliance with the Code of Governance for Community and Voluntary Organisations www.governancecode.ie and with the Principles of Good Fund Raising drawn up by the Irish Charities Tax Reform Group (ICTRG).

Our Child Safeguarding and Welfare Statement can be found here.

Our Privacy Notice can be found here.

Fire Station Artists’ Studios was incorporated on 17 July 1989 as a company limited by guarantee. The company operates under the registered business name Fire Station Artists’ Studios. Our Company Number is 147539

The Revenue Commissioners granted charitable status to the company in December 1992 with the reference CHY 10179.

As per the Charities Act, 2009, the company is a registered charity since October 2014. By virtue of Section 2 of the Act, the directors of the company are deemed also to be the charity’s trustees. Our Charity number is RCN 20025786.

Click here to view the company’s Constitution (Memorandum & Articles of Association).

The company has six employees. The remuneration of the two highest paid employees lies within the range €41,000 – €60,000.

Click here to view the Directors’ Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2021.

Strategic plans guide the staff and board in bringing the organisation forward each year in each area of support for professional visual artists.

The board and staff at Fire Station Artists’ Studios adhere to a policy of reviewing and updating our strategic plan on a regular basis. This keeps us focused and allows us to evolve while remaining connected with all our stakeholders.

Read FSAS Strategic plan 2017-2021 here.

Our mission

Our mission is to enable contemporary visual artists with recognised potential to sustain a practice of quality and integrity. We do so through providing affordable residential and studio spaces, practical and evolving resources, professional support and development opportunities in a unique building in the heart of Dublin’s historic north inner city, with a local, national and international remit.

Our Values