New chairperson Michael set to steer community-led Liffey Partnership

Ballyfermot-based community-led local development company Liffey Partnership announced a new Chairperson at a recent event.

Michael O’Riordan will take the reins of the Liffey Partnership following on from outgoing chairperson Jennifer Courtney, who left her role after six years.

Courtney had taken on the role in 2020, four years after she became a board of management member at the company.

The Cherry Orchard native was lauded in a statement from the partnership announcing her stepping down.

The Liffey Partnership stated: “Jenny, a native of Cherry Orchard and current CEO of Belvedere Youth Club in the North Inner City, is a committed voice for social inclusion in the local community and brought both expertise, insights and an action commitment to her role of Chairperson of Liffey Partnership.

“Her leadership of Liffey Partnership has enabled its position as a leader in community development, family services, employment, wellbeing and lifelong learning supports for local individuals and families.”

O’Riordan succeeds Courtney in the role of chairperson a year after joining the team’s board of management and following nomination and selection by his fellow Directors of the Board of Liffey Partnership.

Michael O’Riordan retired in 2023 after a long career spanning many disciples from his early work as a bricklayer to a training instructor to Training Centre Manager, to Community Services Manager in FAS in Dublin North.

He then was Area Manager for the Department of Social Protection in Finglas before he became Programme Manager for the Implementation of the actions in the Mulvey Report for Dublin’s North East Inner City in 2017.

O’Riordan is now set to steer Liffey Partnership in the opening months of their new D10 Food Alliance alongside the HSE, Dublin City Council and local councillors, the Department of Social Protection, the Society of Saint Vincent De Paul, Familibase and Ballyfermot Family Resource Centre.

The D10 Food Alliance was created after a report was published by the partnership in 2025 highlighting a high percentage of Ballyfermot and Cherry Orchard residents living below the food poverty line.

The group was formed after research published in June 2025 led by the Liffey Partnership showed 43.3 per cent of people in D10 were experiencing food poverty.

The new coalition was set up to take action on that stark figure, which is nearly five times over the national average, and provide better services for areas like Ballyfermot and Cherry Orchard.