Irish Ambassador congratulates Trinity for collaborative work in Europe

Posted on: 22 July 2019

Trinity academics collaborated with the University of Malta to host a seminar on leadership for health professionals in Malta last term.  Dr Elizabeth Curtis, School of Nursing and Midwifery and Dr Siobhan Corrigan, School of Psychology organised the seminar with colleagues in the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Malta.

His Excellency Mr Patrick Duffy, Irish Ambassador to Malta, speaking at the seminar opening said, “The Embassy recognises and supports the importance of collaboration between academics, students and third level institutions in Ireland and Malta. The Embassy is grateful for our recent meetings and discussions with the team in the University of Malta who in conjunction with partner universities in Ireland are developing the potential that exists for current and new lines of cooperation”. 

The seminar was the first collaborative event on leadership with the University of Malta but it has a longer history.  Dr Curtis introduced the seminar in the School of Nursing and Midwifery nine years ago and five years later, set up a Nursing Leadership Network.  Currently, the network consists of five members: Dr Elizabeth Curtis, TCD, Prof Martin Beirne, University of Glasgow, Dr Siobhan Corrigan, TCD, Prof Ruth Northway OBE, University of South Wales, and Dr Vivienne Byers, National College of Ireland.

Since its inception, the network has been engaged in applied work on leadership including a conference in 2016, three edited books, several joint and individual papers, annual seminars and occasional workshops for health professionals, mainly nurses. This work owes much to the group’s collective review of available evidence on leadership failures in healthcare and ongoing engagement with alternative critical literature and advocacy on distributed leadership (DL).  A key goal of the network is to expand this important work across Europe.

The Ambassador praised the network for their work on leadership, stating, “It was wonderful to learn of your pioneering work in the field of leadership in healthcare and the development of the network. The collaboration between the Faculty of Health Sciences and School of Nursing in the University of Malta and the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin, is an exciting one. It is a privilege for me to be present for this the first time the annual seminar has taken place overseas.  The overall links and potential of same between TCD and UOM are very interesting and if you or colleagues require any information from this end or if I can be of assistance please do let me know”.

Prof Martin Beirne, University of Glasgow, Prof Ruth Northway OBE, University of South Wales, Dr. Siobhan Corrigan, TCD, Dr. Elizabeth Curtis, TCD, His Excellency Mr. Patrick Duffy, Irish Ambassador to Malta, Dr. Roberta Sammut, Dean Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Malta and Dr. Vivienne Byers, National College of Ireland at the leadership seminar

Media Contact:

Sally-Anne Fisher, Head of Communications | fishers@tcd.ie | +353 1 896 3606