Niamh Devaney helped manage the video recording of lectures and then filled in as director of the Yeats International Summer School in Sligo when the manager departed suddenly. She flawlessly handled all the technical and logistical details for events over two weeks, solving problems effortlessly. Niamh also straightened out accounting and website issues. She provided a pleasant working environment for student volunteers and splendidly managed outside student events. Niamh communicated effectively externally and made strategic decisions that will benefit the school's future. The letter writer recommends Niamh highly for her managerial, administrative, technical, interpersonal, and executive skills.

1. 10 December 2015
Re: Niamh Devaney
To whom it may concern:
This is to recommend Niamh Devaney, who has asked me for a letter based on my
experiences working with her at the Yeats International Summer School in Sligo.
I have just stepped down from a three-year post as Director of the oldest and largest literary
summer school in Ireland. In 2014, Niamh was brought in to help manage the video
recording of all lectures. In 2015, after the sudden departure of the manager of the school,
Niamh offered to fill in to direct the on-the-ground management. It is not an understatement
to say the fortnight could have been disastrous. Instead, it was a signal success. The hundred
or so fulltime students, and an equal number of part-time attenders, from nearly twenty
countries around the world, all left with the sense that everything ran effortlessly, that the
summer school made sure their experience was utterly warm and full. With a cool head and a
perfect sense that she was never too busy to listen to any student and take care of any issue
with perfect ease, Niamh was the major contributor to this success.
In terms of what she was doing behind the scenes, here are some of the skills she
demonstrated:
• All the technical details for the twenty lecturers, half dozen readings by poets and
authors, launches, and other events, as well as the final production of one of Yeats’s plays,
were handled flawlessly.Niamh worked with a large number of people, all of whom had
various immediate needs, solving every problem while giving the impression that
everything was done effortlessly.
• Despite not having full information or training in advance, Niamh managed during the
running of the school to straighten out various accounting issues and also sort out several
glitches on the web site.
• Whenever I as Director needed anything, Niamh had it done with no fuss and instantly,
from small details like ordering taxis or making restaurant reservations, to larger ones like
producing a report for the meeting of the Board. Every morning when I arrived, Niamh
handed to me a list of announcements so that all logistics for the many events and details
was clear. All issues, from first aid to accommodation problems to buses to equipment to
calming anxieties, were handled.
• Student volunteers, of whom there were about a dozen, reported to me that Niamh
provided for them an interesting and pleasant working environment. Student help was
noticeably effective throughout the two weeks.
• Outside events for students, from field trips to the social club each evening, were
splendidly managed. Niamh gave a sense that this was all great fun, even in the midst of a
Ollscoil Luimnigh, Luimneach, Éire | Guthán: +353 61 23 3071 | Ríomhphost: cc@ul.ie | Twitter: @ccatul | Gréasán: www.ul.ie/cc
University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland | Tel: +353 61 23 3071 |Email: cc@ul.ie | Twitter: @ccatul | Web: www.ul.ie/cc
OLLSCOIL LUIMNIGH
UNIVERSITY of LIMERICK
Scoil an Chultúir & na Cumarsáide
School of Culture & Communication

2. Harper 2
fortnight when she was working nearly through several nights and with a significant
amount of behind-the-scenes tension.
• External communication was very good. Tweets were frequent, a good buzz created and
managed on other social media. Between the two weeks of the school,, a full-colour
newsletter went out, written, formatted, and distributed by Niamh.
• Effective decisionmaking was evident everywhere. Niamh kept an eye on the most
important matters, including keeping track of ideas and initiatives, such as a link with a
major university system in the USA, that will be of greatest value to the future of the
school.
Niamh has the following professional qualities, which I recommend to you:
• managerial ability: she manages people well, even under difficult circumstances;
• administrative ability: she prioritises well, focusing on the larger picture even while taking
care of small details;
• technical abilities, from the organisation of physical space (stages, rooms) to web site and
other IT arenas;
• interpersonal skills: Niamh gives everyone the sense that they matter, and the work of the
arts is fun as well as worth the commitment we all make to it;
• executive abilities: at an early stage in her professional career, Niamh has a keen sense of
the larger picture and a consummate professionalism in her management of the daily affairs.
This is a young woman who will go places. I recommend her very highly.
Sincerely yours,
Professor Margaret Mills Harper
Glucksman Chair in Contemporary Writing in English