Fiona has served on Birr 20|20 Vision since 2018, with a particular focus on the Arts Pillar of the organisation.
Fiona is a creative entrepreneur both in business and the Arts. She is well known in Birr for establishing, with her husband Joe Breen, the renowned Spinners Town House and Bistro. This establishment had an international reputation during their tenure, with the business highly recommended in many national and international guidebooks. She also previously served as a Director of Offaly Enterprise Board.
However, Fiona is possibly better known in Birr for her work in the Arts. As a devisor and performer Fiona Breen’s practice flexes between ecology, autobiography and history. She has contributed to countless productions, in almost every conceivable role, with her most recent performance work including Gull (Dublin Fringe Festival, 2022) and Root (Dublin Theatre Festival, 2021), the latter of which she devised alongside her daughter, Shanna May Breen. Other notable recent work includes The Meadow, a site-specific soundscape Fiona composed in 2019 that focused on Birr Workhouse Graveyard. Fiona was also recently one of only five lucky participants chosen to complete the 10th Pan Pan International Mentorship Programme with Susanne Kennedy. She is currently working on ‘My Brother, Your Sisters’, a new performance about her missing brother Peter.
Fiona passionately advocates for Birr’s Arts and is heavily involved in several of the town’s festivals. She previously served as a Director on Birr Theatre and Arts Centre board. She is .currently on the judging panel for Offline short films section. As the Arts Pillar for Birr 20|20 Vision Fiona is also helping spearhead, along with an active community committee, the Birr Creative Court project, which aims to refurbish and re-purpose the vacant Birr Courthouse as a centre for creative professional practitioners in the visual, performing and digital arts.
