Meet the Team Top of Page

Meet the Team

Noel Dempsey

Chairman

Martin Harte

CEO

Noel Dempsey is a former Irish Fianna Fáil politician. He was a TD for the Meath and Meath West constituencies from 1987 to 2011. Noel also served as Minister for Environment and Local Government (1997–2002), Minister for Education and Science (2002–04), Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources (2004–07) and Minister for Transport (2007–11).

Noel has served as Chairman of The Temple Bar Company since 2014.

Martin Harte is CEO and co-founder of the Temple Bar Company. Martin also acts as Festival Director of the annual TradFest Temple Bar, one of Ireland’s largest and most diverse festivals of traditional, folk and world music, and Dublin’s’ Festival of Politics.

Martin has a wide range of experience in Public Affairs, Tourism, Arts and Urban Management having spent over 20 years working in the Temple Bar area. More recently he has become involved in TV production with Ireland In Music, a new TV Music Show on RTE and podcast production and development.

Claudine Murray

Chief Marketing Officer

Ainsley Kavanagh

Digital Communications Manager

Claudine Murray has over 20 years’ experience in marketing with a strong focus on Festivals and event management.

She has worked on a number of events with the Temple Bar Company including TradFest Temple Bar, Festival of Politics, Temple Bar Tailgates, Blooms Day, Croke Park Classics, and the Temple Bar Summer Night Market.

Passionate about events, live music and culture Ainsley joined the Temple Bar Company in 2021 as part of the digital marketing and social media team for TradFest Temple Bar 2022. A recent graduate of the MSc. in Marketing Practice from UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, Ainsley is also an alumna of Ireland's leading music industry college, BIMM Dublin, holding a first-class honours B.A in Commercial Modern Music.

Ainsley has worked on a number of projects for the Temple Bar Company to date, including TradFest Temple Bar 2022 and 2023, Latvia Day 2022, the weekly Temple Bar Markets and the Moore Street Markets (Halloween, Christmas, TradFest, Valentine’s Day and St Patrick’s Day).

Claudine Murray

Chief Marketing Officer

Cultural Event Manager & Curator

Cat Lane

Community & Cultural Administrator

Cat Lane

Cultural Event Manager & Curator

Community & Cultural Administrator

With many years promoting and managing live events in Ireland, Christina has developed and nurtured the eco-system of arts in Ireland, at a grass roots level.

Both a musician and digital marketing professional herself Christina can work in several aspects of a project and enjoys going the extra mile to deliver a campaign.

Cat Lane recently joined the company during TradFest 2023. An honours master’s graduate of Culture, Tourism and Society from the Erasmus University Rotterdam and IADT alumni, with a first class honours in English, Media and Cultural Studies. Cat’s interest and focus is on the interplay between culture, heritage, community and tourism.

She is our Community and Cultural Administrator, liaising with community stakeholders, developing cultural and artistic projects to brighten up the Temple Bar area and assisting creatively and practically in the office and with all our many cultural projects and events.

TradFest Team

Aidan Butler

Podcast Producer

Artistic Festival Director

Kieran Hanrahan is one of Ireland’s most respected tenor banjo players in Irish traditional music. Over the years Kieran has helped to found a number of bands: Inchiquin, Stockton’s Wing and The Templehouse Ceili Band.

Kieran presents Ceili House, one of RTE Radio’s traditional Irish music show. Kieran also works as an advisor to Ceolthas, is Artistic Director of Scoil Egise (part of Fleadh Ceoil Na h ‘Eireann) and was recently appointed Chair of Chair of Culture Ireland Expert Advisory Committee.

A senior music producer for RTE Radio 1 For 16 years, Aidan Butler was responsible for such diverse programmes as Country Time, Roots Freeway, Ceilí House, In Concert, In Session and Jazz on the Bay series. He was also the main producer behind the Radio 1 Playlist and Album of the Week, becoming one of the main supporters of new Irish music.

Described by Hot Press as Ireland’s John Peel due to his zeal for discovering untapped talent, he gave radio debuts to the likes of James Vincent McMorrow, Gavin James and Lisa Hannigan.

Festival Artistic Director

Kieran Hanrahan

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Environmental Team

Patryk Michalski

Area and Markets Manager

Patryk Michalski joined Temple Bar Company in 2019. He has a BA in Events Management graduate from Dundalk Institute of Technology.

He is the Temple Bar Area and Markets Manager. He oversees the environmental team and liaises with businesses in the area and Dublin City Council on environmental public domain issues.