FFN Festival Speakers | 2026
About Barry
NPWS Assistant Principal • Agricultural & Environmental Scientist
Dr Barry O’ Donoghue hails from just outside Tralee, is a mountain man from the Stack’s Mountains and grew up there farming with his family. There, he still manages an area of semi-natural grassland, scrub and a rare example of ancient native woodland for nature.
Barry holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in agriculture and environmental science and a PhD on Hen Harriers, a species with whom Barry’s name has become synonymous in Ireland and internationally.
Conservation Programmes & Agriculture Policy
Barry works as Assistant Principal with the National Parks & Wildlife Service, with remit, among other things, for agriculture. There he manages and coordinates a number of streams of research and policy, as well incentives to support landowners support nature. Barry has been an architect of various programmes including Corncrake LIFE, the Hen Harrier Project, the Curlew Conservation Programme, the Breeding Waders EIP and various other initiatives.
Supporting Rural Communities & Heritage
She graduated from Zoology at Trinity College, Dublin and is a postgraduate student in food policy at City University, London. Received the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award from Listowel Food Fair and Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the year in 2001.
Food, Farming & Rural Life
Barry has a deep interest in landowners and communities, particularly in isolated, rural areas seeing them as a central part of future efforts for the protection of nature, water, soil and heritage, in all its forms.
See Barry at the Festival
Join Barry at the Farming for Nature Festival and hear his insights on food, farming and rural life.
