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 2025 Winner
The Ann Beckett Award Committee is delighted to announce the winner of the 21st Ann Beckett Award
Catherine Daly
Ann Beckett Award 2024/25
Yellow Days – a poetry group and collection by the Harbour Poets
Congratulations to Catherine Daly, winner of the 2025 Ann Beckett Award for her outstanding project Yellow Days – a poetry group and published collection by the Harbour Poets. This year’s award is especially significant as it marks the 21st anniversary of the Ann Beckett Award, established to honour excellence and innovation in Occupational Therapy in Ireland.
Catherine, with her trademark energy and enthusiasm, was inspired by her own experience of writing and reading poetry publicly. What began as a conversation about creativity and brain health grew into a funded programme in collaboration with published poet Grace Wilentz. Together they supported clients with memory impairment to write poetry, creating a nurturing space where participants explored brain health, strengthened executive function and built friendships through meaningful occupation.
The group wrote and shared their own poems, with the reflective environment encouraging expression across the full range of human emotions. Participants described gaining new perspectives on themselves and their lives. The project exemplifies the principles of collaboration, inclusion and empowerment that are at the heart of Occupational Therapy.
Yellow Days was a collaboration between the Memory service based at Clonskeagh Hospital and Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council Arts Office. You can download a copy of the Yellow Days poetry collection here.
Catherine will be presented with the specially commissioned trophy at the AOTI Annual Conference Dinner on Thursday 2nd October in the Mullingar Park Hotel. She will also showcase her award-winning work at the conference’s opening plenary session. You can book your place here now.
The Ann Beckett Award Committee would like to thank all the other applicants for their excellent projects. These projects reflect the values of the Ann Beckett Award and follow the foundations that leaders like Ann Beckett have laid, to ensure innovative and life changing practice by Occupational Therapists.
The Ann Beckett Award is kindly supported by O’Neill Healthcare.
AOTI Ann Beckett Committee
Catherine Day pictured with Cllr. Jim O’Leary, Cathaoirleach, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and the members of the Harbour Poets group at the launch of the Yellow Days poetry collection on 16th January 2025.
Image (L-R): Roger; Nicky O'Reilly; Majella Quinlan; Mary Kinsella; Cllr Jim O'Leary, Cathaoirleach Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council; Catherine Keogh, Senior Occupational Therapist; Anne Bushe; Harriet Conlon; David Finnucane and Máire Davey, Assistant Arts Officer, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.
Previous winners of The Ann Beckett Award
- 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.
