Our Adjudicator: Tom Byrne, ADA
He has over 45 years involvement with amateur drama and competed in his first festival in 1979.
He started his drama life with the Leixlip Theatre Group and saw stints with the Dublin Youth Theatre and Dublin Shakespeare Society among others. He went on to establish Bradān Players, Leixlip and more recently Red Embers Theatre Company. Over the years Tom has directed one 120 different productions.
Tom has won numerous awards as a director and successfully qualified productions to the RTE All Ireland Finals in Athlone in 2009 and 2010.
He holds the unique record of qualifying productions to six successive All Ireland One Act Finals – directing winning productions in 2005, 2009 and 2010. In the finals of 2005 he not alone won with his production of “Small Box Psychosis” but also directed “Babels In Arms” which finished in third place.
He has written several works including a radio play “Howzee” – surrounding his experiences as a football referee. Other recent works include, "The Other Land" (Red Embers), "Searching for Baggio" (Gap Arts), "Hand Bag" (Claremorris Fringe), "Gear" (Theatre Express, Cork), "Borussia Monchengladbach"(Amigo Productions), "Third Choice Keeper" (Wexford Art Centre) and a one man play entitled "Being Robbie Keane".
Since taking up adjudicating in 2011 he has adjudicated at ADCI qualifying festivals through the four provinces of Ireland.
In addition he has adjudicated the Macra na Feirme national finals on three occasions: The 2016 All Ireland One Act Finals (Dundrum) and the 2018 All Ireland Confined Finals (South Wicklow – Carnew) and the 2024 RTE All Ireland Drama Finals (Athlone).
Tom is a member of the Association of Drama Adjudicators.