MBE for Feeney native

The 46-year-old is among a number of local people receiving New Year honours.

Eddie, originally from Feeny, is the son of the late Bridget Lynch from Park, and attended St Canice’s Primary School in Fincairn and then St Columb’s College.

He has worked in the private, public and voluntary sectors for 25 years, including being Director at Kingston Centre for Independent Living, a manager at the BBC for three years and spend six years on a government Ministerial Advisory Committee.

He left home in 1987, aged 18, to attend Aston University in Birmingham where he studied Management and went on to complete a Masters in Disability Studies at Leeds University. Now Chief Executive for Bromley Mencap, Eddie lives in Windsor, Berkshire, with wife Jane and 14-year-old daughter Bridget Enya.

Asked for his reaction to learning he had been nominated for an MBE, Eddie said: “It was totally unexpected and very humbling to receive the award. A Chief Executive is only as good as the team around him and I have a wonderful group of trustees, staff and volunteers. They have been the driving force behind the development of a wide range of person centred services for vulnerable and disabled people over the years. The beneficiaries are the most important people of all. They are very inspirational people.”

Eddie, humbled by the honour, dedicates the award to the people he has worked with and helped over the years.

“I feel it reflects not just my work, but the wide range of inspirational people I have had the privilege of working with over the last 25 years. The award will be received in 2016 at an Investiture, which will be organised by the Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood in St James’s Palace.

The MBE is one of several awards Eddie has received.

In 2011 he won the national Guardian newspaper Public Services Award for Families, Carers and Communities. Eddie has been Chief Executive of Bromley Mencap for 12 years.