Doreena is from Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, Ireland and has been writing from the age of twelve. She moved to Cork in 1980 and spent a lot of time developing her love of poetry, art and craftwork. Her writing is like a diary, reflecting personal events and marking life’s ever-changing emotional landscape.
When Doreena moved to Carlow she joined the “Carlow Writers’ Group”, where she contributed to their annual poetry collections. Including “Under the Beams” in 1993, “The River Rains” in 1994,
and “The Willow Harp” in 1995. Several years ago, Doreena became involved in a play writing
initiative sponsored by the Carlow Arts Office under the tutorage of artist-in-residence Bryan Delaney. She was one of five people chosen to showcase her work in VISUAL using professional actors under the direction of Tom Creed. She has written several short plays.
 
In 2011 as Chairman of “Carlow Emerging Writers” Doreena was instrumental in organizing a short series of writing workshops by writers Jean O’Brien, Enda Wyley and Mary O’Donnell aimed at
encouraging local writers in Carlow. Following on from which she organized a series of writing workshops hosted by Ferdia Mac Anna.
 
Doreena was chosen to be part of the initial team of writers to take part in a project with Kildare County Council to write the screenplay for a web TV mini series based around the horse racing
industry in Kildare. Doreena went on to join the Carlow Writers’ Co-op in 2012 and
has been an active member ever since and is a contributor to their anthology. This is a strong group of local writers who have won many awards and have had numerous publishing successes.
In 2016, Doreena along with three other members, travelled to Chicago for a 10-day trip to perform their work at colleges and art centres.
 
She is involved in regular poetry readings, collaborating in many writing projects at VISUAL and the local library in Carlow.
Doreena has been short-listed for the Fish Poetry Prize and she was long listed in their “Memoir” category.
In 2019 she was highly commended for her video poem “Gut Feelings” in the Doolin Poetry Video Prize.
Doreena is currently working on her first collection of poems.