PPI Ignite Network at TCD
PARTNER UNIVERSITY
Trinity College Dublin
Contact this team
- University PPI page ↗
- LinkedIn ↗
THE TEAM
Who to talk to at TCD
Prof Eimear McGlinchey
Academic Co-Lead
Dr. Eimear McGlinchey is an Assistant Professor in Intellectual Disability and a faculty member at the Global Brain Health Institute. Her research is based at the Trinity Centre for Ageing and Intellectual Disability, focusing on the area of brain health in individuals with intellectual disabilities, particularly in the context of dementia in those with Down syndrome.
With a background in Psychology, Dr. McGlinchey leads the PREVENT Dementia – DS project, which is part of the Horizon 21 European Down syndrome Consortium. This project is focused on identifying early biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease using a variety of methods, including neuroimaging, blood-based, and cognitive biomarkers. Eimear was co-PI on a project to develop best practice guidelines for post-diagnostic dementia support for people with an intellectual disability.
Eimear works internationally to support people with Down syndrome and works to address inequities faced by this population. Eimear is also co-applicant on the IDS-TILDA study, a longitudinal study on ageing in people with an intellectual disability. For over a decade, Eimear has worked to ensure that people with an intellectual disability are included in the research process as advisors at all stages.
In addition to her research, Dr. McGlinchey contributes to the academic community as an educator. She teaches within the undergraduate and postgraduate programs and supervises a range of students, from undergraduates to PhD candidates. She also coordinates several MSc courses in Ageing Health and Wellbeing in Intellectual Disability, Dementia, and Community Health at the School of Nursing and Midwifery. She has a number of publications and has disseminated widely through national and international conferences.
Prof Éilish Burke
Academic Co-Lead
Prof Éilish Burke, RGN RNID BNS MSc PhD, is a Professor in Intellectual Disability Nursing and co-director of the Trinity Centre for Ageing and the Life Course in Intellectual Disability, in the School of Nursing and Midwifery. Her research focuses on bone health, osteoporosis, health assessment, inclusive healthcare screening methods and accessible health promotion.
Prof Burke is a co-applicant on the IDS-TILDA supplement and previously served as director of research for the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Trinity. She is the lead on a number of modules on the Masters in Ageing Health and Wellbeing in Intellectual Disability.
Declain Meenagh
PPI Co-Lead
Declan Meenagh has extensive experience in advocacy, engagement and PPI work. With Fighting Blindness, he worked across departments on projects, taking the lead in assistive technology, as a user of the technology, to help internal and external projects with accessibility checking. Mr Meenagh has advised the Health Service Executive, the Department of Health, the WHO and pharmaceutical companies on the patient perspective of sight loss, rare disease and health policy.
He also supported 500 people with sight loss to access support groups during the Covid-19 pandemic. Mr Meenagh served as a member of Dublin City Council from 2020-2024.
Dr Liz Farsaci
Programme Manager
Dr Liz Farsaci is the new PPI Manager for Trinity College Dublin. She comes from the Centre for Health Policy and Management in the School of Medicine at Trinity, where she has worked as a Research Fellow. In this role, she researched health policy, universal health coverage and health financing. She also established a teaching collaboration with the Institute for Global Health Sciences at University of California San Francisco. She completed her PhD in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Trinity, investigating service users’ lived experiences of access to midwifery care.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, she worked as a community health worker in Dublin’s CityWest testing site, engaging with members of the public around Covid testing, public health guidelines and infection prevention and control. She previously worked for a number of years as a news reporter, most recently for the Irish Mirror, where she specialised in health and court reporting, and occasionally Love Island contestants.