The Directors of Camphill Communities of Ireland

Camphill Communities of Ireland is governed by the Council, whose members are the Directors of the  registered company in the Republic of Ireland - Company Number 35672 , which is a company limited by guarantee. Camphill Communities of Ireland is registered as a charity with the Irish Revenue Commissioners: CHY 5861. Camphill Communities of Ireland is a Member of the Association of Camphill Communities of Great Britain and Ireland. The Board meets monthly to govern the affairs of Camphill Communities of Ireland.

Here is a short pen profile for each director:

Ambrose Kealy (Chairperson)

Ambrose was elected as Chairperson of Camphill Communities of Ireland in September 2023.

He was born on a family farm in Grange Con (West Wicklow) in 1954. He qualified as an accountant in 1979. He has worked in a number of organisations (O’Neill Foley & Co Chartered Accountants; Department of Social Welfare; Cantrell & Cochrane (C&C); Asahi; Johnson & Johnson (J&J); Fruehauf; Voluntary Health Insurance (Vhi)) in a career spanning 44 years.

He retired from full time employment with VHI, after 34 years service, at the end of December 2016. In that time, he held a number of senior finance positions in the company. In addition to his accountancy qualification he is a qualified Compliance practitioner and in that regard was appointed Chief Compliance Officer in VHI in 2012 while Vhi was successfully pursuing authorisation of its insurance activities by the Central Bank of Ireland.

He is a Director of Brainwave – The Irish Epilepsy Association and sits on the Benevolent Committees (Ireland and Worldwide) of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). Ambrose is married to June and they live in Naas. They have two sons. He is a regular golfer and walker and has a keen interest in many sports. He enjoys travel and maintains a keen interest in local, national and international politics, business and current affairs. He also enjoys reading fiction.

Marie Keane 

Marie Keane was the former Deputy Chief Executive of Beaumont Hospital Dublin and retired from the HSE in March 2017 and was Chairperson of Camphill Communities of Ireland from April 2017 until September 2023. 

Marie is the former Beaumont Hospital Director of Nursing and was heavily involved in overseas recruitment of nursing staff during this period. She was co-opted to the Board in early 2016 and has been influential in the current review of Camphill structures in the south of Ireland.

Paul O'Donoghue 

Bernard Haslam

Bernard has been involved with Camphill since 1993 when his daughter Sarah moved to the Camphill Community at Dunshane. He has served on Dunshane’s Local Committee since 2002, and is now the Chair of that Committee. He was a member of the Steering Group appointed by Council in 2010 to assist Dunshane Community transition safely through a major internal reorganisation.

Bernard lives in Malahide, Co. Dublin and is married to Mairin, a speech and language therapist, and has 4 children. He is a physics and maths graduate from UCD (1974) and has extensive international and senior management experience. He worked as a management consultant with Accenture, was a founding director of one of the first trading companies in the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC), was the Chief Information Officer - Europe for General Electric’s Global Consumer Finance business and, since 2006, has recently worked as an independent technology and business process consultant. Bernard held board directorships on both Irish plcs and overseas multinational company boards for several years. Bernard retired from full time work commitments this year and was elected to the Council in September 2017

Ian Kerr