Leitrim Guardian 2027 recognises two women making a lasting difference

The Secretary of the Leitrim Guardian is pleased to announce that the Guardian Committee has selected Orla Keegan and Fionnuala Maxwell from the public nominations received, as the recipients of the 2027 Leitrim Guardian Persons of the Year Award.

A life of preserving traditional arts - Fionnuala Maxwell

Born and raised in Glebe, Drumsna, Leitrim, she grew up in a rural farming family with a strong tradition of singing and music, particularly on her mother's side.

She studied English and German and later completed a Higher Diploma in Education, teaching for a number of years before gradually moving towards a career centred on traditional arts, research and community work.

A traditional singer with a deep interest in the songs, singers, stories and musical heritage of Leitrim, she has researched, recorded and published extensively on the county’s cultural heritage. Her work includes Sing a Leitrim Song, Tending the Flame, The Rakes of Music, Shannon Waters Flow, and the Memory Meitheals podcast.

Her contribution has been recognised with Arts Council Traditional Arts Bursary Awards and a Leitrim County Council Heritage Award, among other supports.

In 2023, she founded and became creative director of The Leitrim Larks, a community singing initiative that brings people together through traditional and local song and encourages songs to be passed between generations.

Her work increasingly combines singing, research and community participation, with projects involving children, older people, Traveller communities and singers and musicians from across Leitrim and further afield.

She is a Heritage in Schools specialist in traditional music, song and folklore, working with primary schools to introduce children to traditional song and local heritage, and she has performed, taught and presented traditional songs both in Ireland and abroad, collaborating with many singers, musicians, writers and cultural organisations.

In 2026, she chaired the organising committee for the Connacht Fleadh Cheoil in Mohill — sixty years after the town first hosted the Fleadh in 1966.

More recently, she has been developing her own creative practice further, with a growing focus on songwriting and creating new work rooted in place, memory and traditional song.

She continues to live and work in Leitrim, in Killyfad, Annaduff, and much of what she does is inspired by the people, places, songs and stories of the county. With an inspiring ability to balance motherhood, community work and her professional work with children, she, like all mothers, deserves credit for the many roles she carries.

She is mother to four children: one in university, two in secondary school and the youngest in primary. Her husband is the practical one, building and creating houses, who brings with him a great love of Leitrim, of family, football and community

A Life of bringing a better quality of life to Community: Orla Keegan

Born in Dublin in March 1965 to Noel and Eileen Blessing, Orla carries Leitrim in her blood. Her father, Noel, was born and bred in Aughavas, while her mother Eileen was a native of Rathcarn, Co. Meath.

When Orla was 12, the family moved from Dublin to Glasson, Athlone, where she attended Our Lady's Bower in Athlone town.

After school, she went to Cathal Brugha Street in 1983, completing a course in hotel reception and tourism. She worked in hospitality for two years before a new chapter called — relocating to London in 1986.

In London, she changed direction, working in accounts within the oil industry while completing her accounting technician exams at night. It was there too that she met her future husband, Shane Keegan of Cloone, Co. Leitrim. They married in 1995.

Returning to Ireland in 1996, Orla began what would become a long career in community development, working with Leitrim Development Company — formerly County Leitrim Partnership — until 2020.

During that time she continued her studies at St Angela’s College, Sligo, achieving a Diploma in Management and Leadership in the Community and Public Sector. Since 2021, she has worked part-time in financial administration with the Leitrim Volunteer Centre in Carrick-on-Shannon, a role which allows her to deepen her voluntary work.

At heart, Orla is a family woman. She is mum to three children — Eoghan, Ellen and Eva — and with Eva and her partner Oisín, she is the proud and much-loved grandmother of little Éanna. Volunteering has been the golden thread through her life in Leitrim:

As chairperson of the McCartin School of Dancing committee, she helped fundraise and organise for 100 Irish dancers to represent Leitrim in the New York Parade in 2008.

She was a founder member of the Little Rascals Playgroup serving the parishes of Aughavas and Cloone, securing funding to kit out the playgroup and to employ a playgroup leader and assistant.

For the North West Hospice, she put together a committee that organised sponsored walks and exclusive ladies’ evenings, including a lunch for 100 women in the Landmark Hotel in 2023 which raised €6,000 each for North West Hospice and SHOUT.

She served as Chairperson of the Luby Family Fundraiser Committee, organising a fundraising event for a family who lost their partner and father, Mick, aged just 42, to an acute form of leukaemia, leaving five children behind.

Since 2024, she has volunteered as co-ordinator for the Team Hope Christmas Shoebox Appeal in Co. Leitrim. Together with a dedicated group of volunteers, they checked and sent 1,674 shoeboxes to disadvantaged children in 2024 and approximately 1,625 in 2025. In December 2024, Orla travelled to Romania with Team Hope to distribute shoeboxes herself, and in 2026 she worked with colleagues in the Leitrim Volunteer Centre to organise knitters to knit for the campaign. For Orla, volunteering is the heartbeat of a county like Leitrim.

“Volunteering keeps communities and groups active, it harnesses local skills, it reduces isolation, it provides services and jobs for our residents, thereby bringing a better quality of life to our Leitrim residents,” she says. Having worked in financial administration in the community and voluntary sector since her return from London, she has learned from the best.

“I thoroughly enjoyed my work with County Leitrim Partnership and Leitrim Development Company for 24 years and now Leitrim Volunteer Centre. Working with some great people over the years taught me the importance of giving something back and how we can all make a difference. A strong community is one that looks out for each other.”