
Ronan Scully, The Global Tree Champion
Ronan Scully has being presented with many awards in recognition of his long history of selfless dedication to humanitarianism in the areas of charity, children’s rights and human rights including the Irish Young Person of the Year Award; the Galway Person of The Year; the Galway Mayoral Award; the Offaly Person of the Year in Dublin and Offaly person of the year in London.
He is renowned for his compassion and hard work with extensive experience as a volunteer and programme co-ordinator in developing countries, including for the Irish charity GOAL in Calcutta (Kolkata) India, Nepal, Ethiopia and Angola and is now the regional representative in the west and midlands of Ireland for Self Help Africa www.selfhelpafrica.org, an international charity that promotes and implements long-term rural development projects in Africa. His work takes him to schools, colleges, youth, sporting clubs and community organisations across the region raising awareness of issues in the developing world. Ronan has coordinated innumerable fundraising events that have raised millions of Euros for GOAL’s work and Self Help Africa’s projects. Up until the pandemic, he regularly travelled to visit donor projects in Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Malawi and India.
His interest in the National Park City Galway initiative is due to his leadership of environmental and sustainability rural projects in Africa including the ‘Plant One Million Trees’ programme which partners the planting of native Irish trees in Ireland by volunteers with a large scale planting in Africa that not only aims to tackle Climate Change but is also designed to support local communities by providing shade, shelter, food, fertiliser and income.
He is also particularly enthusiastic about developing and delivering educational programmes for young people as well as encouraging those from diverse religious, cultural and ethnic backgrounds to mix freely with one another, to build relationships and remove potential barriers between them.
A man of many talents, Ronan represented and captained his native county, Offaly, at every level from under-14 to senior, winning 10 Leinster provincial medals and two All-Ireland titles (at under-16 and under-21 levels). He has authored two books, Hold That Thought and ‘Time Out’, with the proceeds of both books going to charity. He also writes a weekly column called ‘Thought for The Week’ in a number of regional newspapers.