About

Mary works with individuals, teams, organisations and communities dealing with disconnection, division and dereliction in the place making and regeneration arenas.

Participants love Mary’s energising, capacity building place-making experiences. Shedding light and lifting spirits, these are rooted in her commitment to a world that works, full of vitality and belonging.

Leaders, and their teams, take the ball she offers and run with it - achieving significant positive change.

Are you concerned about overcoming loneliness, segregation and dereliction? Feeling lost, or at a loss, when it comes to generating more resilient teams and communities, flowing freely through public spaces that feel safe? Deeply committed to connecting people and places in spaces full of life and light where everyone belongs, Mary Kerrigan is the speaker, trainer and coach to unlock your blocks.

At 25, Mary graduated with first class honours in architecture, from Liverpool University, winning the Sikorski Prize. Drawn to work with, Liam McCormick, one of Ireland’s leading 20th century architects took her to Derry in Northern Ireland - then a deeply divided city, still in the midst of the ‘Troubles’.

There, she found her calling connecting people and places. For over 30 years, engaging people of all backgrounds, she helped create a city that works better for everyone.

Before the 1998 Belfast Agreement was a line on a page, she created the possibility of connecting Derry’s ancient walled city on one side of the River Foyle, with a public park and military barracks, where the British Army was headquartered, on the other.

Engaging and enlisting 100s of stakeholders in this possibility - she ultimately shifted the context from divided city to connected city.

One element was a footbridge across the River Foyle.

Derry’s beautiful Millennium Peace Bridge* opened in 2011. By its 3rd birthday, 3 million people had crossed in both directions. Today it is held to be the most successful peace building infrastructure project in Western Europe.

In 2024 Mary, with community stakeholder partners, successfully won and led ‘Hometown Architect - Reimagine Moville’ funded by the Irish Architecture Foundation.

In 2015, Mary designed and lead Heritage Streets Alive ©. This engagement, empowerment and co-envisioning process effectively expands participants’ capacity to create a new future, together.  Nine years on, transformative change, envisioned during this process, has been realised by all three grass roots communities.

In 2000, a Sustainable Communities Millennium Fellowship took her to 14 European cities, where she set up and met key actors delivering successful sustainable urban regeneration.

In 2018 she was awarded a Getty Scholarship, Los Angeles.

In 1993 Mary completed a Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings Scholarship [London], becoming the first SPAB Scholar to practice on the island of Ireland. 

A chartered architect since 1987, Mary practiced architecture across Ireland for 20 years - including co-founding and leading her own partnership for 10 years.

She is the first Education Officer appointed to a Townscape Heritage Initiative in N.I.

An advisor to government in Northern Ireland for 10 years, Mary has held diverse roles in stakeholder engagement; in education at 1st, 2nd and 3rd levels, and is a published author of adopted rural and conservation area design guidance.

A graduate of Mastery Foundation School for Leadership, and a certified coach in transformational leadership, Mary holds a 1st class Honours B.Arch; and B.A. (Architectural Studies) Honours degree (both from Liverpool University). The former includes a one year exchange programme to the University of Oregon, School of Architecture and Allied Arts, USA.

* The Derry Peace Bridge was designed by

Wilkinson Eyre, Architects, London