The Irish Sangha Trust is a registered charity (CHY No. 20123), established in 2011 to support and foster teaching and meditation in the Theravadan Buddhist tradition in Ireland. The Irish Sangha Trust is non-profit Buddhist organization, entirely dependent on the generosity of the public for voluntary donations.

We host regular meditation workshops and retreats led by renowned Buddhist teachers from different parts of the world. We also hold regular meditation sittings, where you can practice with like-minded spiritual friends and share your meditation and Dhamma practice experience within our community.

Support can be vital in establishing an effective and consistent practice, especially in the early stages. Meditating on a regular basis can help you to lead a more productive, meaningful and satisfying life. The wisdom and peace of mind that develops through practice can bring happiness that eclipses all others.

For more information, please contact us at info@irishsanghatrust.ie.

Our Visiting Teachers (in alphabetical order)

Venerable Ajahn Ariyasilo

Ajahn Ariyasilo was born in England and migrated to Australia in 1974. He became interested in Buddhism in 1975 and lived at Wat Buddha Dhamma in 1980 for few years. From there, he moved to Perth to help with the construction of Bodhinyana Monastery and took higher ordination under Ajahn Jagaro in 1986, making him the first to be ordained at Bodhinyana Monastery. He went to stay in New Zealand for three and half years with Ajahn Viradhammo before he took up residence at Amaravati Monastery in England under Ajahn Sumedho. He has mostly been influenced by Ajahn Sumedho's teachings at Amaravati monastery in UK. He stayed there till 2005 with a short visit to Australia in the late 1990s. He has also spent short periods at various other small monasteries.

Venerable Sister Ajahn Brahmavara

Sister Ajahn Brahmavara (Susan Pritchard) was born 6 August 1964 in Reading, England. She studied medicine at Sheffield University, trained as a doctor in Auckland, New Zealand and worked as a GP in Shropshire. She started meditating while she was a medical student under the guidance of SN Goenka and spent a few years in India at Goenka centres, studying Pali, sitting and serving on retreats. She came to live at Amaravati in October 2000 as a retreat centre manager but soon after arriving requested anagarika ordination. She ordained as a siladhara in October 2004.

Venerable Ajahn Dhammanando

Ajahn Dhammanando grew up in Carshalton, Surrey, a fairly typical suburb of South London. He attended Mitcham Grammar school and went on to study English and History at Keele University in Staffordshire at a time when the curriculum there was broad and multi-disciplinary. He was aware of certain deep questions, barely articulated, on the inside, however he did not pursue a spiritual quest to find answers as the religions which he encountered in the UK appeared to him only marginally relevant. It was after graduation on going to Thailand as a volunteer teacher for VSO that he found some initial signposts, although at that time he had almost no understanding of Buddhism. In 1985 he took a year off work in order to spend time as an Anagarika in Amaravati and Chithurst monasteries. Four and a half years ensued during which he studied for an MA at Essex University, among other things. The realisation gradually dawned that Going Forth was what he really needed to do and that his more worldly interests were of lesser importance. In 1991 he returned to Amaravati to re-ordain as an Anagarika.

In July 1993 he took Upasampada with Luang Por Sumedho at Chithurst and trained initially with Ajahn Sucitto as his Acariya. Between 1997 and 2004 he went on to train in Switzerland, then Italy, followed by a return to Amaravati and then to Chithurst again before going overseas to Australia and New Zealand, spending time in different monasteries in Australia before living two years at Bodhinyanarama in Wellington.

He returned to the UK in May 2007 to be nearer his parents and, ever since then, he has been resident at Amaravati but has also made occasional trips abroad to teach in France, Slovenia and Hungary. Currently he makes regular teaching visits to a local prison in Bovingdon and assists in receiving school groups at the monastery.

Venerable Sister Jinho

Ven. Jinho took ordination in the Chinese Chan (Zen) tradition with Master Sheng Yen in 2000, training intensively in the Dharma Drum Mountain Monastery in Taiwan for six years. Meanwhile, she studied at the Dharma Drum Buddhist University for four years, majoring in Buddhist doctrines, Vinaya (Buddhist precepts) and Chan practice. She arrived in England in 2007 and and wrote a dissertation on Buddhist monasticism in Britain with the University of Bristol. She taught Zen meditation, spiritual healing group and Dharma reading groups at the Multifaith Chaplaincy Centre of Bristol University.

Metta

Ajahn Metta was born 1953 in Germany and has been a Siladhara (nun) in the Theravada tradition for more than 20 years. She lived at Amaravati and Chithurst Buddhist Monasteries in England, which are part of the Thai Forest Sangha of Ajahn Chah. She is one of the senior nuns and has been teaching in Europe and the US for several years. She has now disrobed and live in Germany.

Bhante Rewatha Thero

Venerable Rewatha Thero is a Theravada Buddhist Monk for 33 years. He is a trained RE teacher and completing his Msc in teaching mindfulness based approaches in health care and education at the university of Bangor. Bhante has a M.A in Buddhist Philosophy, BA in Indian Philosophy and Post Graduate diploma in Education.

Rewatha Thero is a tutor of Counselling and psychological services at the university of Glasgow and teaches MBSR courses for staff and students of  Glasgow Caledonian University, University of Glasgow, Maryhill Burgh Halls and COPE a mental health charity in Drumchapel. He is a subject specialist teacher (religious, moral and philosophical studies) in secondary schools for west Dunbartonshire and East Dunbartonshire City Councils.

Bhante is a certified mindfulness teacher to deliver Paws.B course for primary school children by Mindfulness in Schools Project. In addition to the secular mindfulness courses which Bhante has taught throughout the world including: Scotland, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and America, Bhante also provides courses to universities, charitable and educational facilities. He has created several courses for those who have completed MBSR and MBCT.

He is currently developing a course to teach mindfulness for 4-5 years old children as a classroom intervention with Department of child and adolescent psychiatric of university of Glasgow.

Noirin Sheahan

Noirin has been practising meditation under the guidance of Bhante Bodhidhamma for almost thirty years. Born in Dublin in 1954, she is now retired from her work in a Dublin hospital, originally as a medical physicist / engineer and more recently as meditation teacher. She has taught vipassana under the guidance of Bhante Bodhidhamma in Gaia House, Sunyata and other centres in Ireland, and is a senior teacher at Satipanya Buddhist Retreat, Wales.

In July 2013 Noirin underwent surgery for throat cancer in which she lost her voice box. She now has the distinction of being the first person to teach the Dhamma using an electro-larynx! Though this sounds mechanical, most people understand it well enough after a while. Noirin now prints her Dhamma talks and these are then read aloud by those attending evening classes / day retreats. For longer retreats, the Dhamma talks are pre-recorded by a friend. .

More info about Noirin is here: http://www.satipanya.org.uk/teacher/noirin-sheahan/

Sunone Leong

Sunone Leong is an experienced traveling meditation teacher, who has undergone five years intensive meditation training with Burmese teachers.

Venerable Luang Por Tiradhammo

Ajahn Tiradhammo is one of the most senior monks in the tradition of Ajahn Chah. He became interested in Dhamma in his student years while travelling through Sri Lanka. Going to Thailand and meditating at Wat Umong, he took ordination at Wat MMeung Man in Chiang Mai with Venerable Tong in 1974. In 1975 he moved to study with Ajahn Chah at Wat Pah Pong and Wat Pah Nanachat. He went on several tudong journeys through the northeast of Thailand and the mountains of Chiang Mai, visiting many famous forest meditation masters.

Venerable Tiradhammo was invited to England in 1982 to help with developments there. He spent two years at Chithurst Monastery, and three years in charge of Harnham Vihara in Northumberland. In 1988 he helped establish Dhammapala Monastery near Bern, Switzerland and also later at its new location in the Bernese Alpine village of Kandersteg where he was the senior monk until 2005. In July 2005 he assumed the position of senior monk at Bodhinyanarama, Wellington, New Zealand where he remained as abbot for six and a half years. He is currently of no fixed abode.