Dr. Tina Aughney

Tina has managed the All-Ireland Daubenton’s Waterways Survey since 2006 and the Brown Long-eared Bat Monitoring Scheme since 2007. She works for BCIreland on a part time basis.

Under Tina’s management the All-Ireland Daubenton’s Waterways Survey has developed into a monitoring scheme with a large and committed volunteer base. By liaising on a county level with local authorities and community groups, promoting the project with local press and radio stations, and presenting training courses throughout the island, Tina has trained in excess of 2,000 volunteers since 2006. This scheme continues to thrive with over 400 waterway sites surveyed across the island providing extensive information on the distribution of this species.

Tina has an honours degree in Environmental Science from NUI Galway and completed a Ph.D. thesis on the impact of the Rural Environmental Protection Scheme (REPS) on lowland farm habitats in the west of Ireland. For her extensive work in relation to bats and facilitating members of the public to become actively involved in the conservation of Irish bat species, Tina was awarded Distinguished Recorder of the Year 2011 by the National Biodiversity Data Centre.

She is an active volunteer for other national monitoring schemes including the Butterfly and Bumblebee Monitoring Schemes run by the National Biodiversity Data Centre. She lives near Virginia and in her spare time can often be found cycling the roads near her house or swimming in Lough Ramor.

David Clarke

David joined Bat Conservation Ireland in May 2023 as a Bat Ecologist.

He has over ten years’ experience working in environmental education and conducting research in a range of ecological fields. David became interested in bats while working and living in New Zealand. During this time, he initiated and coordinated two research projects examining the presence and distribution of long-tailed bats in the wider Auckland region, a species classed as ‘Nationally Critical’ and needing urgent conservation action to protect remaining populations. Both projects involved active collaboration with communities, ecological consultancies, local and regional authorities, and universities.

David has an honours degree in Environmental Science from the University of Galway, and a Ph.D. in Acarology, also from the University of Galway.

He lives in Co. Mayo and enjoys fishing, hiking, and playing hurling.

Dawn Quinn

Dawn joined Bat Conversation Ireland in 2019 as its part-time Administration Manager.

She has over 20 years’ administrative and financial experience, working in both the private and NGO sectors.

Dawn has worked in variety of different roles including managing and implementing administrative systems, volunteer management, project and network coordination and event management in the human rights, social justice and international development sectors.

She holds an honours degree in Audio Visual Communications from the Institute of Technology Tallaght and a Master’s Degree in Comparative Ethnic Conflict from Queen’s University Belfast.

She lives in Co. Kildare and loves going for canal and forest walks with her dog.

Dr. Niamh Roche

Niamh has managed the Car-based Bat Monitoring Scheme since 2004 and the Lesser Horseshoe Bat Roost Monitoring Scheme since 2012. She works for BCIreland on a part time basis.

Under her direction the car-based scheme has grown from a pilot project covering fewer than 10 survey squares, to an island-wide survey with a committed surveyor base. She has also presented BCIreland’s work at national and international conferences. She was lead author of the book Irish Bats in the 21st Century. Niamh has also been the main organiser of several national bat conferences. More recently Niamh has been involved in analysing long-term bat trend datasets collected by BCIreland monitoring schemes to see if predictions can be made about how they are likely to change with future climate change.

She has a degree in Environmental Biology from UCD and a Ph.D. from the University of Warwick which examined bat activity in broadleaved woodlands.

She lives near Slane and loves cooking for family and friends with her own home-grown vegetables and fruit.