Reappointment of Historic Buildings Council Members

1.  The Member position attracts no remuneration, however there is a provision for out-of-pocket expenses.

2.  These reappointments have been made in accordance with the Commissioner for Public Appointments for Northern Ireland’s (CPA NI) Code of Practice. All appointments are made on merit and political activity plays no part in the selection process. However, CPA NI requires the political activity of appointees to be published. Any relevant details are provided in the below biography.   

3.  Biographies:

Dr Kyle Leyden

A native of Cookstown and formerly a barrister in the Irish and Northern Irish jurisdictions, Dr Leyden is now Lecturer in Early Modern Visual Culture and Architectural History at The Courtauld where he also teaches Art and Heritage Law. In addition to providing legal advice on planning, architectural heritage and tourism issues, he has worked with many of the major heritage bodies of the UK and Ireland on research, public engagement and tourism projects. He served as a Trustee and Director of the Lissan House Trust in Cookstown, and has lectured in the History of Art and Architecture at the University of Notre Dame in London and University College, London. He has written on art and architectural history in a wide variety of publications, most recently as researcher and co-editor of Mark Girouard’s Dictionary of English Architecture and Hamish Miles’s catalogue raisonné of the paintings of Scottish artist David Wilkie. He does not currently hold any other public appointments and has not undertaken any political activity in the past five years.

Dr Donal McAnallen

Dr McAnallen is Library & Archives Manager for National Museums NI (NMNI) and as chief custodian and public advocate for special collections he has managed a number of projects to raise the library’s profile including the digitisation of collections and generation of new content for the NMNI website, and the research and writing of Irish and Ulster-Scots trails for Ulster Folk Museum. Dr McAnallen joined HBC due to his local history experience. He is a committee member of the O'Neill Country Historical Society and Editor of the society's annual journal. He is also a part-time lecturer in History for University College Cork. He does not currently hold any other public appointments and has not undertaken any political activity in the past five years.

Mr Liam McKinley

Mr McKinley worked for both the public and private sectors for up to 20 years on large scale capital infrastructure projects, including previously working as a Local Authority manager with responsibility for the procurement of Environmental and Educational capital projects. Mr McKinley applied for HBC due to his interest in history particularly around the North Antrim Coast and his desire to engage people in local history. He does not currently hold any other public appointments and has not undertaken any political activity in the past five years.

Mrs Carol Ramsey

Mrs Ramsey is a chartered Town Planner, who previously worked in planning within both local and central government. In these roles she contributed to the formulation and implementation of strategic planning policy to achieve sustainable development, the processing and managing of planning applications in rural and countryside settings, as well as working on major regeneration projects in Belfast. She currently is a Board Member on Belfast Healthy Cities and holds a public appointment as a Member on the Ministerial Advisory Group for Architecture & the Built Environment. She has not undertaken any political activity in the past five years.

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