Our Directors

Tommy Hayes

Chairman of the Irish Seed Savers and is a founding member of Irish Seed Savers. Irish Seed Savers Association was started by Tommy’s wife Anita at their home with Anita saving seed in her own garden.

Tommy Hayes has been at the forefront of traditional Irish music for over 30 years. He has been a member of a number of ground-breaking bands during his career.

He was a member of Stockton's Wing from the bands inception in 1977 to 1983 recording four seminal albums. He was also the original percussionist for Riverdance. The strong link between Traditional Irish Music and the land inspired Tommy to create a recent collaborative film, dance and music performance called Apples in Winter which is now available on DVD the proceeds of which are being donated to Irish Seed Savers Association.

Pattie Punch

Pattie Punch is the Humanities Librarian in the University of Limerick with responsibility for European Documentation. Her interest in older apples and seed savers was triggered as a child watching a very old orchard being grubbed out. The sense of destruction was in the air on that day but the memory of older folk's sense of waste and loss has remains tangible. We had lost part of the landscape, they had lost the joy of valuing fruit in season. I was too young to comprehend their loss', what started as historical interest, landscape, ecology and natural history interests has grown through her work into a belief in diversity. She is a committed educationalist with a conviction that 'craft and art' underlies all knowledge. The huge challenge of the internet, information technology and databases has driven libraries forward over the last 10 years, it now enables more networking and sharing in different areas than ever before. The sharing of information, experience, skills, knowledge and wisdom is a fundamental. Participation is everything.

Anita Hayes

Anita Hayes was born in the American Midwest and moved to Ireland with her husband Tommy Hayes in 1989. During her studies in Ecological Agriculture at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington she was shocked to learn of the risks to food security through the loss of genetic biodiversity and began to focus her studies in this area. Inspired by the Seed Savers Exchange in Iowa in the US, Anita found that there was no similar organization in Ireland. Acutely aware of the importance of the work, she decided to just give it a go in Ireland and so began Irish Seed Savers Association.

Tony Kay

Tony Kay recently took early retirement from his post as lecturer in the Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Limerick (UL). Before retirement he was delivering several Energy related courses including one on Energy from Biomass. He was awarded a Masters degree (with distinction) in Energy and the Environment by the University of Sussex in 1994. He was Chair of the UL Environmental Committee for 5 years until 2007.

On a community level he was a founder member of Raheen. Wood (formerly Cooleenbridge) Waldorf/Steiner school, East Clare community Coop and East Clare Men's group. He is currently on the Board of Management of ALFA (Active Learning for Adolescents) in Scarriff.

Together with partner Trudy they were WWOOF hosts for many years; and still maintain a 2 acre organic small holding close to ISSA in Capparoe, although this is now mostly woodland/grassland with a rather minimalist vegetable garden!

Ute Bohnsack

Agri-environmental consultant based in County Clare, and involved in the Rural Environmental Protection Scheme. She works as a technical translator, course instructor for MSc in Applied Biology at NUI Galway. She has an academic training in landscape planning from the University of Hanover, Germany.

Her main interest is the development of cultural landscapes and the interaction between agriculture and natural resources. Having been involved with farming and growing for some 20 years, she owes much of her awareness of the value of landraces, both crop plants and livestock, and their importance in maintaining our planet's biodiversity to us.

Vicki Wood

Practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine and movement therapy, living in County Clare. Originally from England, both parents had a passion for the countryside and gardening. Living in different countries; there has always been gardening, either herbs on a roof terrace or growing bio dynamically on the farm.

The interconnectedness and interaction between human beings and their environment is fundamental, so natural heritage and biodiversity are obviously important. Realising the influence that old apple tree had on me as a child makes me understand the importance of our educational programme, educating the next generation so they may treasure their natural environment.

Clare O' Grady-Walshe

A native of Co Wexford, and a graduate of University College Cork, receiving a Masters Degree in Sociology, specialising in the area of Latin American politics. She presently coordinates AfrI's (Action from Ireland) development education programme. She is also a director of the charity Children in Crossfire. She has served on the Heritage Council and the Irish Aid Advisory Committee. "I believe that the most radical thing an individual, family and community can now do is to save their own seeds and grow and eat their own food". The challenge is to spread the word and the seeds everywhere Now!