To mark the UN International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026, Mary Robinson will deliver a keynote address entitled “Women Farmers as Agents of the Change We Need in Farming.” 

She will be joined by Sinéad McPhillips, Secretary General of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, who will chair a panel discussion featuring Hannah Quinn-Mulligan, Professor Karen Keaveney and Aoife Franklyn. The panel will offer their reflections to Mrs Robinson’s address, bringing perspectives from farming, rural development, sustainable food systems and public policy to a discussion of how Ireland can build a more resilient, equitable and sustainable agri-food future. 

Mary Robinson is a co-founder of Project Dandelion, which is a women-led global campaign for climate justice, Adjunct Professor for Climate Justice at Trinity College Dublin, and a member of The Elders. She served as President of Ireland from 1990-1997 and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997-2002. She is a member of the Club of Madrid and the recipient of numerous honours and awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom from the President of the United States Barack Obama. Between 2013 and 2016, Mary served as the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy in three roles; first for the Great Lakes region of Africa, then on Climate Change leading up to the Paris Agreement and in 2016 as his Special Envoy on El Niño and Climate. Her Foundation, the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, established in 2010, came to a planned end in April 2019. 

A former President of the International Commission of Jurists and former chair of the Council of Women World Leaders she was President and founder of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative from 2002-2010 and served as Honorary President of Oxfam International from 2002-2012. She was Chancellor of the University of Dublin from 1998 to 2019.  

Mary Robinson serves as Patron of the International Science Council and Patron of the Board of the Institute of Human Rights and Business, is an Ambassador for The B Team, in addition to being a board member of several organisations including the Mo Ibrahim Foundation and the Aurora Foundation. Recently she became joint Honorary President of the Africa Europe Foundation. Mary’s memoir, ‘Everybody Matters’ was published in September 2012 and her book, ‘Climate Justice - Hope, Resilience and the Fight for a Sustainable Future’ was published in September 2018. She is also co-host of a podcast on the climate crisis, called ‘Mothers of Invention’. 

Chair Biography  

Sinéad McPhillips was appointed Secretary General of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine on 2nd October 2025. Sinéad entered the public service as a school leaver beginning as an Executive Officer in her current department in 1986. She has also worked in the Department of Energy and as a researcher with the Association for Criminal Justice Research and Development. 

Returning to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, she served in a range of roles before being appointed as the Department’s Chief Economist in 2015. From 2017 to 2023 she was Assistant Secretary General leading Ireland’s agri-food strategy and sectoral development for the meat, dairy and drinks sectors.  In 2024, she became head of EU, UK and International Affairs, leading on policy negotiations at EU level, engaging with the UK and Northern Ireland on agri-food issues, and managing the Department’s overseas representation network.  

Panellist Biography  

Hannah Quinn-Mulligan is an organic dairy and beef farmer based at Tory Hill House in County Limerick. Farming alongside her mother and grandmother, she runs an organic micro-dairy that processes milk into products sold through the farm shop, alongside organic beef, pork and eggs. Her work is rooted in the belief that farming for value rather than volume can support both viable family farming and positive outcomes for nature. Hannah has also worked as a journalist and presenter with RTÉ, the BBC and the Irish Independent. 

Professor Karen Keaveney is Associate Professor and Head of Rural Development in the School of Agriculture and Food Science at University College Dublin, where she also directs the MSc in Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development. A human geographer and qualified regional and urban planner, her research focuses on community-led local development, rural governance and co-design for evidence-based policy. She was a member of the European Commission’s Rural Pact Coordination Group from 2023 to 2026 and chairs the National Decarbonising Zone Advisory Group. Karen previously lectured in Rural Spatial Planning at Queen’s University Belfast and is a member of the Royal Irish Academy Geography and Geosciences Committee. 

Aoife Franklyn is a researcher, consultant and project manager working across environmental policy and sustainable food systems. Her interests include agroecology, ethics of care, policy coherence across agriculture, environment, food and health, and pathways for food-system transformation. She has worked across South East Asia, Afghanistan, Africa and the EU with organisations including UN Environment, the UN Development Programme, governments, universities, research institutes, civil-society organisations and indigenous communities. 

Most recently, Aoife led the Research and Youth groups for the Conscious Food Systems Alliance, supporting awareness-based approaches to food-systems transformation. She contributed to the curation of the first global Conscious Food Systems Summit in Bhutan and co-facilitated sessions on research co-creation with indigenous peoples and farming communities, farmer wellbeing, and the role of women and young people in transformation. She holds an MSc (Hons) in Environmental Policy and is developing UKRI-funded PhD research on soil care and agroecological transitions in southern England.