Meet the team, discover our stories

Colm Mac Con Iomaire is an Irish musician and composer. His father’s people came from the Connemara Gaeltacht. On his mother’s side there was classical instrumental music on the violin and piano. His first musical collaboration happened while he was still in school, a contemporary trad band Kíla. Playing in Kíla was accompanied by a long spell busking with band members in Dublin streets. A friendship with another busker Glen Hansard was followed by a leap into the professional mainstream and a new role, playing fiddle with the wildly popular Frames. From there, he was invited to write scores for films and has released his own solo albums. His new record is titled The River Holds Its Breath / Tost Ar An Abhainn.

Suzie Lopez supports the empowerment and compassion empathy education allows students. Focusing on encouraging young writers at the crossroads of Transition Year, Suzie founded the annual Edna O’Brien Young Writers Bursary at the Museum of Literature Ireland. A passionate Joycean, Suzie has been grateful to be on N4 Ireland board for several years.

Colum McCann is President and Co-Founder of Narrative 4, which he began to help shape in 2004. He is the author of six novels and three collections of stories. Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, has been the recipient of many international honours, including the National Book Award, the International Dublin Impac Prize, a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres from the French government, election to the Irish arts academy, the 2010 Best Foreign Novel Award in China, and an Oscar nomination. In 2017 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts. His work has been published in over 40 languages. His most recent novel, Apeirogon was a New York Times bestseller, and winner of several international prizes.

Rachel Gleeson is N4 Ireland’s Executive Director and has a keen interest in people in how we interact with each other and how our stories intertwine and have a profound effect on one another. A student of Psychology, she comes from a background of early childhood care and it was in seeing the interactions of these young minds that inspired her to take up her studies in understanding human relationships and behaviours. She believes strongly in the power of human relationships, the power of connection and the sharing of our stories. She has been a member of the N4 Ireland team since 2019, becoming Executive Director in 2025.  She lives in Limerick, Ireland with her husband, her son Harris and their cat Indie.

Leonie is a nonprofit and international development professional with almost three decades of experience. She most recently led the growth of the Ifrah Foundation, advancing its mission to end gender-based violence through strategic partnerships with governments, UN agencies, and NGOs. Previously, she spent ten years at a migrant support organisation in Limerick, influencing policy locally and nationally while overseeing critical services for diverse communities. Leonie also spent over a decade with UNESCO in Paris, supporting World Heritage initiatives and serving in the Secretariat of its Executive Board. She holds a B.Soc.Sc. from University College Cork and an MSc in Development from the London School of Economics, where her research focused on migrant integration in Ireland. A fluent French speaker, she is passionate about equity, cultural exchange, and community-building. Leonie lives in Ireland with her two teenagers and loves to travel and garden.

James Lawlor has been part of Narrative 4 since 2014, serving as the founding director of Narrative 4 Ireland. In this role, he established and led school-based programs that reached a wide range of young people, including the development of the Empathy School Award.

He is a graduate of Queen’s University Belfast, the University of Limerick, and University College Cork, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in 2020.

In 2025, James transitioned to the global team as Senior Director of Global Marketing, where he continues to advance Narrative 4’s mission on an international scale.

Richard is a secondary school teacher. For the last number of years he has been working in a probation service as an art teacher. He has been working with Narrative 4 as a trainer since 2017. Richard has facilitated a number of Story Exchanges, including students of the probation service and the Gardaí and an inter-generational Story Exchange between men and boys in Moyross, Limerick.

Sheila is an Artist, Visual Arts Lecturer and Art Psychotherapist based in Limerick. She is passionate about the power of the arts to facilitate individual and collective transformation. 

She works with a diverse range of marginalised groups. She founded, with James Lawlor, the Girls Stories Project at Narrative 4 in 2017, a support group for young migrant women new to Limerick City.