Jacqui Browne
Board Member, IFIC Ireland and the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC)
Disability Advocate • Patient Voice Champion • Mentor • Sister • Friend
Jacqueline Anne Browne, known to all of us as Jacqui, died peacefully at home in Fenit, Co. Kerry, Ireland on 23 June 2025. She was surrounded by her loving family and supported by the Kerry Palliative Care Team.
Jacqui served on the Boards of both the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC) and the IFIC Ireland national hub. Her voice and insight were instrumental in shaping how we understand the role of lived experience and disability rights in the design of integrated care. She was an influencer of policy, a teacher and reminder to us all to remember the voices less heard.
Her work across a 35-year career as a disability equality consultant, patient advocate, and national leader was anchored in an unshakable belief: that disabled people should be fully resourced and fully recognised in decisions that shape their lives. She never stopped reminding us who wasn't yet in the room, and why that mattered.
“If people are genuinely passionate about building an inclusive Ireland based on principles of rights and equality then we need to create ways for the voices of young disabled people to be resourced and heard, including the voices of disabled people with complex needs and supports... They have no right to use us as passive ‘props’ or ‘pawns’ for political or fundraising, reducing us to less than human.”
(Jacqui Browne, Independent Living Movement Ireland (ILMI) Secretary, February 2022)
Her work in co-creating the DPO Network and guiding the development of Ireland’s forthcoming National Disability Strategy was groundbreaking. She believed in real co-creation, not tokenism. And she made sure others believed in it too.
“We need to be brave to admit that no-one has the answers, and part of finding the answers is to journey in partnership to explore them.”
(D/PER Disability Symposium, 2024)
Jacqui was born in Tralee and raised in a close and loving family. Her story began not with policy or public life, but as a determined and affectionate little girl who faced extraordinary challenges from birth. A thalidomide survivor, Jacqui experienced early isolation, speech and hearing barriers, and more than 40 surgeries throughout her life. She learned to lip read by feeling the vibrations of her family’s voices on their chests. She was warm and tactile, stubborn and funny, and she threw herself into every activity with gusto. From basketball and hockey to convincing her parents she should drive a Honda 50 motorbike to school, crutches strapped to the side, when walking was no longer an option.
Her early education was disrupted, but she forged her own path. She worked in banking before earning her BA in Economics and Politics from UCD and later a Master’s in Education from Trinity. Her career as a disability consultant spanned local and national organisations, EU policy work, training, mentorship, and public speaking. But most of her work happened behind the scenes, driven not by profile but by purpose.
Her home in Fenit, sitting on the edge of Europe on the Wild Atlantic Way, was where Jacqui felt most at peace. Her home there reflected her enduring love for the sea. Sailing was one of Jacqui’s great passions. It was a statement of freedom, resilience, and her deep connection to nature. Despite the physical challenges she faced, she sailed with the same determination she brought to everything. In 2010, she took part in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, joining the crew of the Cork Clipper for three stages of the 35,000-mile race. She helped steer the team to victory between South Africa and Australia. And in a dramatic turn, she was among 16 crew members rescued after the yacht ran aground on a reef in the Java Sea in the early hours of the morning. Jacqui, ever calm under pressure, made it to safety with her teammates using life rafts, later recovering in Indonesia. She even managed to pick up with a crew and joined another boat to finish the race.
Her love of sailing was rooted in the desire to keep moving forward, no matter the conditions, and to meet challenge with grace. That same spirit guided her advocacy, her friendships, and her view of what a fairer world could look like.
Jacqui always wanted to bring others to the table. She mentored constantly. She listened deeply. She never sought the spotlight, but when she spoke, she lit the way. She joined the IFIC network when we met with her in Kerry General Hospital as part of a study visit to the Palliative Care Unit. She was invited to join the IFIC Ireland Steering Group and her contributions to IFIC’s work became core to our understanding of the impact the disability community can have on advancing integrated care. She contributed to IFIC’s academy as a teacher and mentor, to our conferences as a policy voice, to our webinars and meetings as the voice of the less heard. She joined the IFIC Board in October 2022 and has played a pivotal role in the Foundation’s strategic direction over these past years.
Just a few months ago, Jacqui shared the stage at the All-Ireland Conference on Integrated Care in Dublin with colleagues from the integrated care community and officials from the HSE. As always, she was unafraid to speak truth to power and use her seat at the table to widen the conversation beyond it.
“One of the first things we have to do is include the patient voice, include the diversity of voices around the table. Too often, too long organisations, including voluntary organisations, have spoken for us and about us. But it hasn’t been our voice and that needs to change rapidly.
“What do we mean by culture? Yes, we have to deliver a service and you are under that fire brigade pressue of delivering a service this whour, this minute, every minute of every 24 hours of the day. But there has to be a space and time to allow people to communicate, to allow people to have a dialogue, and to allow people to look not just at developing strategies and about a lovely, glossy brochure, but actually developing conversations about what could we do differently or how could we work together and why?
“We talk in Sláintecare - right care, right place, right time. What is that? What does it look like? How does it feel for me as a patient, as a recipient of a service?”
(AICIC25, 2025)
To those of us who worked alongside her in the world of integrated care, Jacqui offered clarity, warmth, rigour, and resolve. She reminded us, again and again, that inclusion is not a gesture. It is the work.
We extend our deepest condolences to her family, friends, colleagues, and to all who loved her.
Rest in peace, Jacqui. We will carry what you built forward.
Watch Jacqui’s contribution to the All-Ireland Conference on Integrated Care (AICIC25) in March 2025 https://vimeo.com/1097511115
For those that want to give something in Jacqui’s memory her preferred charities include: Kerry Hospice Foundation and the Irish Guide Dogs.
Jacqui Browne
International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC)