Orla Tinsley
Award-Winning Journalist, Activist & Storyteller Transforming Healthcare Through the Power of Voice
why book orla?
- Orla Tinsley has transformed real-world systems — leading a national campaign that changed healthcare provision in Ireland and sparked legislative reform.
- She blends the rigour of journalism with the heart of lived experience, leaving audiences empowered to use their own stories to influence culture, leadership and wellbeing.
- Orla connects with authenticity, humour and humanity, inspiring audiences to act with purpose — from corporate teams to students and healthcare professionals worldwide.
“Orla captivated our attendees. Her remarks were so motivating and inspiring – she was funny, thoughtful and really held everyone’s attention with her own story. She encouraged the group to think about their own opportunities and impacts individually and collectively and left us all on a high. I cannot recommend her highly enough – for any audience. She is a standout speaker.”
Caitriona Fottrell, President and CEO, The Ireland Funds
Biography
Orla Tinsley is an award-winning journalist, activist, author, educator and multimedia artist whose storytelling has influenced public policy on both a national and international stage.
Since the age of 18, Orla has worked tirelessly to improve healthcare in Ireland through her writing in The Irish Times, public speaking, and numerous media appearances. Her early campaign for better cystic-fibrosis care led directly to the creation of Ireland’s first national centre for cystic-fibrosis care, a landmark that inspired the development of further specialist units across the country. Her memoir, Salty Baby (Hachette), became an instant bestseller and was shortlisted for Best Newcomer at the Irish Book Awards.
In 2018, Orla’s RTÉ documentary “Orla Tinsley: Warrior” followed her as she awaited and underwent a double-lung transplant in New York. The film’s impact was immediate and profound — over 9,000 people registered as organ donors in the days after its broadcast, a surge described by the Irish Kidney Association’s CEO as unprecedented in more than a decade. The documentary went on to receive a New York Film and TV Award nomination, and Orla was later honoured with the Public Relations Institute of Ireland’s Lifetime Achievement Award for her work on organ-donation awareness.
A merit-based scholarship recipient at Columbia University, Orla earned an MFA in Creative Writing, the terminal degree in her field.
She has lectured and spoken internationally on storytelling, resilience, and advocacy, including at Columbia University, NYU and Fordham University, and has been recognised with honorary doctorates in Literature from University College Dublin and the National University of Ireland for her outstanding contribution to writing, activism and public life.
Her many accolades include National Young Person of the Year, Tatler Woman of the Year, the Pfizer Outstanding Award for Healthcare, the Spirit of Ireland Award (The Ireland Funds), and The Bar of Ireland Human Rights Award.
Orla’s mission is to inspire others to find courage in creativity and to challenge systems through the power of story — showing that compassion, persistence and collective action can lead to lasting change.
Topics
Healthcare Equity
Drawing from her lived experience as a commentator, campaigner and writer, Orla explores how to drive change within complex or resistant systems. This talk highlights the power of interdependency, collaboration and timing in high-stakes environments — lessons relevant to leaders, teams and changemakers alike.
Critical Care and a Critical Mind: Interdependency in a Time of Crisis
When systems resist accountability, how can individuals make their voices heard? Orla examines the courage and clarity required to raise critical truths within powerful institutions, offering practical tools to foster trust, collaboration and meaningful reform.
Flipping The Script: How to Tell Your Story and Change Your Outcome In Uncertain Times
Life’s challenges are often defined by the narratives we choose to believe. Orla shows how reframing personal and organisational stories can lead to resilience, innovation and unexpected success — a message illustrated through her own journey rewriting the outcome of her life and Ireland’s healthcare story.
Learning To Live While Dying
Drawing on her experience of two life-saving transplants, Orla speaks with depth and compassion about mortality, dignity and interconnectedness. This powerful keynote invites audiences to reflect on what it means to live — and lead — fully, with empathy and courage.
Orla Tinsley
Masterclasses
You may want to go deeper with your audience. Masterclasses can be tailored and developed to suit your audience needs, be it a 90-minute Masterclass, a half-day or full-day workshop or a full online or face-to-face programme. Please contact one of our expert team to discuss.
Creative Writing Masterclass – Your Narrative, Your Life
In this interactive workshop, participants learn how the stories we tell ourselves shape how we live, lead and connect. Orla guides attendees in uncovering and drafting their own narratives — personal, professional or community-based — and provides tools to refine and share them with purpose. By the end of the session, participants leave with a first draft and a renewed understanding of storytelling as a force for transformation.
Resources
Books
“Orla Tinsley is without question the living embodiment of how words really can change the world.”
Professor Regian Uí Chollatáin, UCD
testimonials
“We were very privileged to have Orla address our Global Young Leaders Summit in New York in both January 2015 and again in January 2019. Orla captivated our attendees. Her remarks were so motivating and inspiring – she was funny, thoughtful and really held everyone’s attention with her own story. She encouraged the group to think about their own opportunities and impacts individually and collectively and left us all on a high. We were fortunate to hear from many speakers over a couple of days, and Orla’s remarks were the standout. I cannot recommend her highly enough – for any audience. She is a standout speaker.”
Caitriona Fottrell, President and CEO, The Ireland Funds
“Orla Tinsley is without question the living embodiment of how words really can change the world.”
Professor Regian Uí Chollatáin, UCD
“Orla Tinsley is a master of the art of storytelling. As a professor, I want to teach each of my students that their voice matters. Orla Tinsley’s appearance as an inaugural speaker in Fordham’s Irish Women Writers Symposium showed them first-hand why it’s worth finding the courage to tell their stories and what a difference one person’s voice can make. As they learned the story of how Orla advocated for herself and others in Ireland’s healthcare system and beyond, and how she transcended great odds to survive and thrive with cystic fibrosis, they realized that their lives too had given them hard-won wisdom that could be shared to improve their communities and to empower themselves. She connected equally with those who had undergone difficult experiences in the healthcare system and those who were learning about them for the first time. From Orla’s visit, my students learned the immense power of connection, advocacy, and healing that lies in words and stories. Orla Tinsley is an essential guide for our times as a journalist, memoirist, advocate, and activist.”
Keri Walsh, Director of the Institute of Irish Studies, Fordham University
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