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Songwriter, Storyteller and Local Historian - Audrey Chamness

I hold a BA Degree from Queen's University Belfast and an MBA from the University of Ulster. Whilst at Queen's , I was President of the Glee Club , the largest Society in the University and was a member of the Student's Union Society, the Student's Representative Council and a member of the editorial staff of Gown , the Student's newspaper.

I taught for 14 years up to University entry level and have been an external Lecturer for the University of Limerick. I worked in Industry for 20 years , holding positions as diverse as Training Manager, HR Manager, European Sales Manager and General Manager.

In my role as Sales Manager, I organised and ran Product exhibitions in :

NEC Birmingham

London Olympia

La Defense and Parcs des Expositions in Paris

Cebit in Hanover

Electronica in Munich

I have organised Trade Missions for Irish Companies to Chicago and Pittsburgh; Montreal and New Hampshire and Niagara , Toronto and Sault Ste Marie in Northern Ontario.

I was the first Chair of the Institute of Personnel Managers in North East Ireland and served on the National Council. I am a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development.

I am a member of the Irish Music Rights Organisation as a writer/composer and publisher. Apart from numerous individual songs and pieces of music, I have written 5 musicals; 4 of which have been successfully staged and two recorded.

Of these, there is a trilogy, based on Ireland in the 18th and 19th centuries; The Emigrants, Lament for the Land and Leave or Die. I have also covered this period in an 8 lesson course for Suite 101;

Emigration from Ireland to the US in the 18th and 19th centuries.

I have written for and broadcast with BBC Radio and TV, Ulster TV and Radio Telefis Eireann. Having been invited to give talks on Emigration across Ireland, I have since been invited to appear at a number of Irish Festivals in US; Butte ,Chicago, Cleveland and St. Paul , lecturing on Emigration and giving sessions on songwriting and story telling.

I am the author of a number of booklets; The Heritage of South Down and co-authored Christian Heritage in Ireland with Dr. Peter Harbison in 2006, for Bord Failte and Northern Ireland Tourist Board.

In 2005 , I was contracted by NITB to develop a waymarked trail throughout Counties Armagh and Down in Northern Ireland, highlighing major sites visited by Saint Patrick. As part of this project , I developed an exhibition which has toured in the US and was at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in July 2007, where I was a participant in the Northern Ireland delegation.

In 2005, I also attended the AGM of the North American Currach Association to invite their members to participate in an International Currach Event in Ireland. To date we have completed five annual competitions, with rowers travelling from Albany, Annapolis, Illinois, Milwaukee and Philadelphia to compete against local Irish rowers plus others from Australia, France, Germany and New Zealand as well as teams from Oxford and Cambridge Rowing Clubs.