Kate O'SullivanKate O'Sullivan, who has died suddenly aged 60, was the chief executive of Carmichael Centre for Voluntary Groups and was due to retire from this role at the end of June.
Carmichael Centre houses 45 voluntary organisations in two buildings in Dublin 7 and provides services to more than 400 voluntary and community organisations nationwide.
Kate (née Shepherd) O'Sullivan was born in Penrith, Cumbria, and educated at Ambleside School in the Lake District and then at Benenden School in Kent. After leaving school, she spent a year with Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO), teaching in Pakistan. She then attended Trinity College Dublin and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Mod) in General Studies and a H Dip in Education. She taught for a short time and later ran her own catering business.
She married Pat O'Sullivan in 1970 and they had two children, Carol and James.
O'Sullivan was for many years on the council of the Friends of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, where her son James was a chorister. For two years, she cooked meals two or three days a week for the choristers at the cathedral school.
She loved music and was a supporter of the arts. Each year, she took friends to hear the competitors in the Axa Dublin International Piano Competition. She also treasured her home in Italy and enjoyed every opportunity she had to spend time there.
In the early 1980s, O'Sullivan became involved with the Irish Association for Gifted Children - An Óige Thréitheach - as both her children were involved in the association's activities. She was the association's representative on a committee of small voluntary organisations that were looking for accommodation.
In 1988, the Community Services Project (CSP) was established in conjunction with Dublin Corporation at Christchurch Place and 18 small organisations set up headquarters there. However, in summer 1989, the CSP was served with notice to leave the premises and this prompted urgent action by the CSP, led by O'Sullivan. Desks, chairs and typewriters were placed on the street - blocking traffic at rush hour. Minister for health Rory O'Hanlon then announced in the Dáil that he had asked the Eastern Health Board, with Dublin Corporation and his department, to find accommodation for the voluntary groups. Accommodation was found in the former doctors' residence of the Richmond hospital.
In March 1990, the CSP moved to Carmichael House in North Brunswick Street. O'Sullivan became chairwoman of Carmichael Centre for Voluntary Groups. In February 1992, she became the first director of the centre and was subsequently appointed chief executive in 2002.
In 1994, Dublin Corporation approached the centre about taking over a derelict 18th-century building, formerly the Linen Hall Building, Coleraine House, next door to the Kings' Inns.
O'Sullivan took on the restoration of this listed building and saw to it that it was faithfully restored using a Fás community training project and funding from statutory and philanthropic organisations. The restored building was ready for occupation in 2000. It provided accommodation for additional groups and enabled the centre to provide a wider range of training and support services.
Carmichael Centre, also a listed building, was in need of extensive upgrading and O'Sullivan, undaunted by this work, managed its repair and restoration. The beautifully refurbished Carmichael House was officially opened by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern on May 17th, 2004. He said the most important function of the centre lay in the spirit of mutual assistance - the way in which members can network together, share information and draw support from one another.
"With such supports in place, voluntary groups can concentrate their energies on what they do best - serving people," he said.
O'Sullivan's diligence in sourcing funding for all these projects was prodigious, and included fundraising through the organisation of the annual Good Friday concert in St Patrick's Cathedral. She believed in the interdependency of us all and lived by the motto of the centre, ar scáth a chéile a mhaireas na daoine - in each other's shadow people live.
Among O'Sullivan's other achievements was the establishment of the Volunteer Resource Centre in 1997, now called Volunteering Ireland. She was also a board member of the Irish Charities Tax Reform Group, a founding member of The Wheel, a support and representative body connecting voluntary and community organisations around Ireland, and an adviser to Macro Building Management Ltd.
O'Sullivan was a member of the steering group for the White Paper, Supporting Voluntary Activity, and a member of the implementation and advisory group of the White Paper. She was also a member of Dublin City Enterprise Board and spoke at national and international conferences on volunteering and the role of the voluntary sector.
O'Sullivan was the driving force in the development of Carmichael Centre and in its commitment to responding to emerging needs and gaps in support for the voluntary and community sector.
She had a passion for volunteering, appreciated the real difference that volunteers could make and believed in the power of the sector as a vehicle for social change. She supported and mentored many people and organisations, encouraging groups to do things better and to make a difference.
O'Sullivan was a pioneer of affordable shared services and facilities for voluntary and community organisations. She will be remembered by thousands of people whose lives she touched through her exceptional contribution to Carmichael Centre and the voluntary sector in Ireland.
She will be greatly missed by her husband Pat, daughter Carol, son James, daughter-in-law Michelle, grandson Avner and her brothers Charlie and Bill.
Kate O'Sullivan: born October 6th, 1946; died May 18th, 2007