Maura Gilligan was born in India in 1954.  The Coolera Peninsula, Strandhill and Knocknarea in particular, became home for life when secondary school began in 1966.

Maura’s writing has been broadcast on RTE Radio One’s Arts Show, The Darkness Echoing and Sunday Miscellany. Her work has been published in anthologies including Force 10, The Cormorant, Badal, Café Writers, Full Stop and Christmas Stories.

Maura’s work as a community arts facilitator began with a scholarship to Pat Schneider’s Amherst Writers’ & Artists’ Institute training in Amherst, Mass. in 1996. Her back catalogue contains a wealth of participative Community and Arts in Health projects in visual art, spoken word, music and song, drama for radio, local history, storytelling, interview projects and short film.

Maura has facilitated intergenerational arts projects in healthcare and school settings where she has encouraged the emergence of the artist within individuals. Her work with the Bealtaine Festival and community arts projects has been displayed in exhibitions including From the Feet Up, at the Hawkswell; Faces of Sligo; and Cúram.

In 2020, Maura was awarded ‘Artist in Residence’ by Sligo Arts Service. As part of her residency, she wrote and composed a song Lighters of The Channel Lights, which was recorded in collaboration with musicians Ray Coen, Deirdre Correia and Anna Houston and exhibited at Returning, in the Yeats Building, Sligo.