Niall is Head of Research at Munster Technological University and Head of Blackrock Castle Observatory (BCO) with a life-long passion for astronomy and space science. This year BCO celebrates fifteen years of welcoming visitors to the exhibition, now numbering over 1.2 million. In 2017 he was the local lead for the International Space University’s Space Studies Programme, a nine-week intensive course for 130 international participants and over 300 visiting space science experts, making this the largest space science event held in Ireland. In 2020 Niall was awarded the Science Foundation Ireland “Research Image of the Year” award, in which techniques developed for astrophysics were re-used to examine how effective masks are against Covid-19. Niall was the academic representative on the Steering Group for the development of the National Space Strategy for Enterprise and is a Board member of the National Sculpture Factory.