Ann Beckett Award
Ann Beckett Award Trophy
Who was Ann Beckett?
Ann Beckett was the first professionally qualified Occupational Therapist to work in Ireland. She set up Occupational Therapy departments first in Cherry Orchard Hospital and then in the Central Remedial Clinic where she worked for 16 years. Following that, she taught in the first Irish Occupational Therapy College, St. Joseph’s in Dun Laoghaire. She was a co-founder of the Association of Occupational Therapists of Ireland in 1965. Ann was an outstanding Occupational Therapist and was devoted to people, nature, music and her profession. Through her work she enriched many lives with her humanity, humour and practical approach to life.
What is the Ann Beckett Award?
The Ann Beckett Award Committee was set up by a group of Ann’s colleagues with the purpose of:
- Celebrating the life and work of Ann
- Showcasing Occupational Therapists’ practical occupation based interventions.
The Ann Beckett Award celebrates Occupational Therapists’ innovative, occupation based and practical interventions that demonstrate the core principles of Occupational Therapy. It is not an academic award but an acknowledgement of therapists who, through their work, demonstrate the core principles of Occupational Therapy in practice. The Committee look for practical projects which showcase active engagement in meaningful activity and demonstrate creative ideas which involve clients and inspire colleagues.
For more information on Ann Beckett, please see the recently published book chapter:
Pettigrew, J., Cahill, M. and O'Mahoney, J. (2025). Ann Beckett: A Pioneering Irish Occupational Therapist. In R. McMurray & É. Ní Shé (Eds.), Women in Health Management. Global Revolutionaries (pp. 111-123). Routledge.
Podcast link with Andrew Semple, Chairperson, Ann Beckett Committee: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1856994/9226529.
How to Apply for the Ann Beckett Award
Members of AOTI can apply or be nominated by their colleagues and clients. Please find award application form, entry rules and guidelines below:
Completed entry forms should be returned:
- Email: [email protected]
- Post: Suite 320, GEC, Taylor’s Lane, The Liberties, Dublin, D08 ET2R
Closing date for receipt of applications - 31st March each year
The Ann Beckett Award is kindly supported by O’Neill Healthcare.
The Ann Beckett Award 2026 Winner
The Ann Beckett Award Committee is delighted to announce the winner of the 22nd Ann Beckett Award
Ciara Langan
Ann Beckett Award 2026
Grow Your Roots - A Community Garden Project
The prestigious 2026 Ann Beckett Award has been awarded to Ciara Langan, Senior Occupational Therapist, Primary Care Services HSE Dublin South West for her outstanding project titled “Grow Your Roots’ – a community garden project for internationally displaced refugees. It was obvious to the Ann Beckett visiting committee that what has been created is far more than a garden and that Ciara went the extra mile, going beyond her everyday remit to bring the project to life.
Visiting the City West Campus International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS), Ciara witnessed the occupational deprivation experienced by older Ukrainian adults within that setting, i.e. strict routine and limited facilities for any meaningful activities. Underpinned by her awareness of occupational justice, her understanding of the context and the collective needs of those receiving services from Primary Care, Ciara started a weekly gardening group. Working creatively with limited resources and in collaboration with many people including Irina, the Four Districts Day Centre manager, and Rathcoole Health Centre, this has developed into a flourishing community garden called ‘Grow Your Roots’.
It has become a thriving community for people displaced by war, offering comfort, support, and strength through shared purpose and collaboration. In the face of difficult circumstances, the garden creates opportunities for connection, healing from trauma and a sense of belonging. Strong community connections, alongside support of resources such as CE/Tús schemes, have helped establish sustainable foundations for the project. ‘Grow Your Roots’ is a heartening example of the power of occupation to develop positive health-enhancing skills, enhance social integration and foster a sense of belonging among people who have been forcibly displaced from their homes.
Ciara's project reflects the values of the AOTI Ann Beckett Award. It makes us proud of the profession and confident that a new generation of leaders continue to ensure innovative and life changing practice by Occupational Therapists.
Ciara will be presented with the specially commissioned Ann Beckett Award trophy at the AOTI Annual Conference dinner on Thursday October 1st in the Radisson Blue Hotel, Cork. She will also showcase her award-winning project at the opening plenary session of the conference.
The Ann Beckett Committee would like to thank all the other applicants for their excellent projects. The highly commended and short-listed projects will receive their certificates at the conference dinner. All the projects reflect the values of the AOTI Ann Beckett Award and follow the foundations that leaders like Ann Beckett have laid, to ensure innovative, life changing and occupation based practice by Occupational Therapists.
The Ann Beckett Award is kindly supported by O’Neill Healthcare.
AOTI Ann Beckett Committee
Previous winners of The Ann Beckett Award
- 2025: won by Catherine Daly for her project - Yellow Days - a poetry group and collection by the Harbour Poets
- 2024: won by Leonie Boland and Sarah Quinn for their project Supported Volunteering. Working Together
- 2023: won by Emma Connolly with her project Flourish and Be - a sensory inclusive, bespoke Occupational Therapy led hairdressing salon
- 2022: won by Alice Moore & Helen Lynch with their project CRANN Inclusive Playground Project Design by inclusion, inclusion by design
- 2021: won by Noreen Barry, Niamh McCormack, and Irma O’Keeffe for their project “Our Space, Our Skillset"
- 2020: won by Charlotte Sullivan, Amanda Carstairs and Hannah O'Leary for their excellent and innovative project The WOW Group ‘Working together, Organising together, Welcoming new adventures together’
- 2018: won by Helen Corrigan for her project Experiencing Success – A Gymnastics Group Partnership Programme for Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
- 2017: won by Della Murtagh for her project Occupational Therapy Special Hands Summer Camp.
- 2016: won by The Discover Recover Theatre Project in Wexford project group that was led by two occupational therapists Mairead Connaughton and Paula Lowney, and Niall O’Muiri a community mental health nurse.
- 2015: won by Trinity College Dublin Careers Pathways Initiative, a transition to employment project for students and graduates with mental health difficulties
- 2014: won by Jenny Smith and Neasa Caulfield for with their Sharing Skills project
- 2013: won by Fiona Mulholland & Brendan Rooney, Central Mental Hospital, Dublin for The Hen Project
- 2012: won by Rodrigo Frade, Sligo/Leitrim Mental Health Services, for the development of a Men's Shed for Sligo Town
- 2011: won by Margot Barry and Patrick Hynes, Sensational Kids, for their very practical, activity based Social Skills Group for children aged 7 years to 12 years who presented with various difficulties including Asperger’s Syndrome.
- 2010: won by Theresa Peacock for the Organic Garden & Relaxation Area for mental health service users she established
- 2009: won by Rosemary Dillon for the Motorbike Restoration Project where participants with acquired brain injury stripped, restored and reassembled a vintage motorbike
- 2008:won by Alice Rajaratnam for the Drawing Smiles Programme, a new approach to enhancing perceptual and learning skills, self-confidence, motivation & stress regulating ability for those with spina bifida and hydrocephalus.
- 2007: won by Mary McGrath for the Home-based Memory Rehabilitation Programme established in Belfast City Hospital to provide cognitive rehabilitation in the area of memory for persons with early stage dementia and support for their caregivers.
- 2006: won by Eithne Kenny for Seating for Doing to maximise independence in a long term care unit through innovative seating and mobility systems.
- 2005: won by Frances Corozza Paediatric Powered Mobility, a team approach to powered mobility in the Central Remedial Clinic.
- 2004: won by Linda Welford for The Otters Programme, a sensory motor and pre-handwriting scheme in a local school.
