The Committee

James Brophy - Chairperson, Hotel Liaison, Programming

In the autumn of 1999 James started hanging out in the Flying Pig. There he met RoB McGregor and Pádraig Ó Méalóid and through these two reprobates was introduced to the whole seedy underbelly of the Dublin science fiction culture. Including the Sci-Fi Club. As his wealth and modest abilities would allow, he would help out from time to time in the endeavours of handing out flyers, making posters, selling books, photocopying, talking to guests, dealing with hotels and so on. Quite by accident, he arrived on the Octocon committee in January of 2000. He was raw, uncouth and ignorant of much, but has since been trained up to be a model citizen of the new republic.

Recently his Urqheart like schemes paid off and he has become Chairperson.

Pádraig Ó Méalóid - Treasurer, Dealer & Guest Liaison

Pádraig has previously been on the committees for Octocons 2, 4, 5, 6 and 10, and briefly appeared on committees 7 and 11. This probably makes him the longest serving committee member.

He is still enjoying what he calls his mid-life year off, which is now heading for its second summer. Besides being a sort of jack-of-all-trades on the Octocon committee, he is involved with the Octocon Archive, does a little of this and that for the James White Award, and has some small involvement with the Temple Bar Book Market, and, most importantly, co-founded SciFiClub in December 2000. His latest project is a campaign he is launching to persuade RTE to show more SF. Write to him care of SciFiClub, and he'll tell you all about it.

He intends to launch Slovo Books on the Internet within the next year. Or two.

He has a lot of friends called James.

He'll tell anyone that listens that he hasn't had a drink for about four years now, or a cigarette for two. Sickening, isn't it?

Deirdre Walsh - Membership Secretary

Deirdre came to Octocon for the first time in 2000, and liked what she saw. Indeed, she has often been heard to say that it was the best £20 she ever spent. Her interests include fantasy novels, SF TV, sushi, ice cream, and one of the other committee members. She ended up on the committee due to the fact that all the membership details were on her computer, and she found herself doing the work *anyway*. Deirdre got her first computer - a Vic 20 - at the age of 7, and has upgraded regularly since. Hailing originally from Waterford, Deirdre has spent most of her life in Portmarnock, but has recently relocated to Donnybrook, at least temporarily. Her ambition in life is to have a lot of cats (and teddy bears).

David Stewart - Publicity/Promotions officer

Renaissance man, respected technology journalist, science fiction fan and SMOF are just some of the words to describe David Stewart. Idiot is another. After swearing never to be on another ConCom after the 1997 Eurocon, and again after the 1998 Octocon Lite and yet again after the 1999 Octocon X, he has agreed to take on Press & Publicity duties for Octocon 12. He also edits and distributes the SF in Ireland e-newsletter (send an e-mail with the word 'subscribe' in the header to sfnews@lostcarpark.com) and contributes crosswords to the LostCarPark Website. In his spare time, he works as a freelance journalist for Business & Finance, ComputerScope and the Irish Independent among others.

Bairbre "Bob" Tynan

'89 - Read the Hitchhiker's Trilogy. Counted the number of books. Decided to become a physicist.

Late '94 - Went to Trinity, with Sole Aim of reading DUFSC's library of 3,000 books.

Early '95 - Finished reading Battlefield Earth - fell into a coma.

Late '95 - Watched B-5 for 37 hours running.

'96 - Discovered Neal Stephenson. Bought a skateboard.

'97 - Involved in Trincon 2. Lost Jonathan Carroll between the meal and the pub.

'98 - Lost soul in a dangerous game of "Study or Fail Exams". Sold into Corporate Wage-Slavery by parents.

'00 - Did security for the radio play at Octocon 11. Had run-in with cleaning lady.

'01 - Joined the Octocon Committee. Showed self to be both eager and capable of lateral thinking. Impressed no-one.