Pat Donlon is a former director of the National Library of Ireland. She lectured on children's literature at University College Dublin from 1979-1989 and in 1997 received the Children's Books Ireland award for distinguished services to Irish children's literature. She is currently senior visiting fellow at the Institute of Irish Studies, Queen's University, Belfast, where she is writing the history of children's literature in Ireland. She has been nominated Sandars Reader in bibliography at the University of Cambridge for 1998-1999.
Dr Richard Kearney was born in Cork and is a professor of philosophy and chairman of the Film School at University College Dublin. He has written and edited 20 books on philosophy and literature, including most recently States of Mind and Poetics of Modernity. He has written two novels, Sam's Fall and Walking at Sea Level and a volume of poetry, Angel of Patrick's Hill. He has been a member of the Higher Education Authority and of the Arts Council.
Julia Neuberger was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge, and Leo Baeck College, London. She became a rabbi in 1977 and served at the South London Liberal Synagogue for 12 years. She was a Fellow at Harvard Medical School in 1991-1992, is a member of the British General Medical Council, and has been chancellor of the University of Ulster since 1994. She is the author of several books, the most recent of which is On Being Jewish. She divides her time between homes in London and west Cork.