About

John Gallagher B.Eng (Hons)

John graduated from Queen’s University, Belfast with an honours degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Like many, his interest in lighting began in school while working on school shows and local amateur productions. However it was while at university that John began to work professionally as a freelance theatre lighting designer.

While he has continued to work on a wide variety of theatrical and other productions, John is perhaps best known for his experience in television lighting and vision engineering. He is arguably one of Ireland’s most highly trained and experienced professionals in these disciplines. John’s television career began when he joined the lighting department in RTE.

In January 2001 John moved to BBC Northern Ireland where he worked as a Vision Engineer. During this time he was particularly involved in lighting and became established as their leading lighting programmer / operator. He was also involved in a wide variety of vision engineering work for both studio productions and outside broadcasts. Two years later, in January 2003, John took up a position as a Lighting & Vision Supervisor in BBC Television Centre and Elstree Studios, London. He worked on major network productions for both BBC and other companies, such as Channel 4. These included shows such as Blue Peter, Top of the Pops and Eastenders. He later returned to BBC Northern Ireland as a Resource Coordinator where he was responsible for lighting direction, technical management and vision supervision on a wide variety of productions. This background in engineering and technical management has provided John with a breadth of experience and knowledge, providing him with the ability to work and advise on a huge variety areas and elements of television.

Since John left the BBC in January 2006 he has enjoyed great success as a freelance television Lighting Director and Vision Engineer. To meet rising demand, John established John Gallagher Productions Limited in February 2007.
John is now recognised as one of the foremost Lighting Designers in Ireland, particularly in the Television sector, as well as continuing to be highly regarded in the UK. With a huge body of work across the TV networks his work spans genres – from drama, to light entertainment, to major national and international events.

John has recently worked extensively as a Production Manager for the UK City of Culture 2013. He managed a wide range of events including The Turner Prize 2013 (launch and awards show), various concerts including Status Quo, Buena Vista Social Club, London Symphony Orchestra and Elvis Costello as well as the closing concert Relief of Derry.

John is a member of the Society of Television Lighting and Design www.stld.org.uk And The Institution of Engineering and Technology

Pádraig Ó Duinnín BA Dip Mus

Based in Belfast, Pádraig was the Events Manager for the first UK City of Culture, Derry~Londonderry. In this role, he has been responsible for delivery of large-scale indoor and outdoor events including the Lumiere Festival of Light, the Turner Prize, Music City Day and the Return of Colmcille along with the presentation of artists including Primal Scream, Elvis Costello, Danny Boyle, Sam Shepherd, Saoirse Ronan and many more. Prior to taking on this project, he managed the production of Northern Ireland’s newest international arts festival, the inaugural Enniskillen International Beckett Festival.

While working with the Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queen’s up until February 2012, Pádraig was responsible for the delivery of the largest arts festival programme on the island of Ireland and towards the end of his time there served as Acting Director of the Festival.

Ulster Bank Belfast Festival – 2005 – 2012

As manager of Programme and Operations and latterly, Acting Director at the Belfast Festival he has been responsible for delivering some of the most significant arts events in Belfast in recent years including the visits of Ennio Morricone, José Cura and Russia’s Mariinsky Orchestra to the city. He coordinated the Belfast leg for touring companies including the National Theatre of Scotland, The National Theatre, Footsbarn Theatre Company in addition to visiting speakers and performers such as Cherie Blair, Seamus Heaney, Michael Nyman, Marianne Faithfull, Michael Palin, Peter Hain, Paddy Ashdown and many more.

He has planned and managed a number of large scale outdoor events including a 10-night run of Macbeth in Belfast’s docklands, ‘The World Famous’ company’s fireworks display to 15,000 in Belfast’s Ormeau Park, the annual visit of the Spiegeltent to Custom House Square in the city and most recently the Enchanted Garden evenings which entertained 18,000 children and adults at the Botanic Gardens.

Lagan Legacy Ltd. – 2007 – present

Pádraig is chairman of Lagan Legacy Ltd., a floating maritime museum on the river Lagan. In January 2011 Lagan Legacy launched The Belfast Barge, which in addition to the museum contains a multi-purpose event space. This role is conducted in a voluntary capacity.

Private Consultancy – 2005 – present

From 2005, Pádraig has provided consultancy and advice to a number of commercial organisations, festivals and arts organisations throughout Ireland including The Naughton Gallery, the Queen’s Film Theatre and many more. In the Autumn of 2012, he was invited to return to the Belfast Festival to produce their 50^th anniversary closing event at Belfast City Hall which saw nearly 5,000 people taking part in the celebrations. Earlier that same year, he produced and managed the world’s first Samuel Beckett Festival in Enniskillen generating rave reviews from the New York Times, the Financial Times, ABC Australia and the Guardian.

In 2007 he was engaged to implement the launch activities of Northern Ireland’s newest designer retail centre, the £70m ‘Outlet’ at Bridgewater Park. In this year he also delivered the largest ever-outdoor concert in Armagh city to mark the conferral of the ‘Freedom of the City’ to Archbishop Robin Eames, a leading figure in the Northern Ireland Peace Process.

Galway Ensemble in Residence Ltd. – 2003 – 2005

As a founding director of Galway Ensemble in Residence Ltd. Pádraig was part of a small team that leveraged €1m in a public/private partnership to attract world class musicians to Galway to live and work in the west of Ireland. As the subsequent project manager of the residency he contracted members of the Oslo Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic and the last surviving members of the Amadeus Quartet (regarded as the greatest string quartet of the 20^th century) to take part in events in Galway. He also organised the welcome performance for Nelson Mandela’s visit to NUI, Galway in 2003, programmed a unique collaboration of some of Ireland’s finest traditional and classical musicians for Irish television station TG4 and organised performances in Paris, London and throughout Ireland.