Over recent years new social movements have emerged to address concerns about a dominant bio-psychiatric approach to mental health care. Key 'actors' in such movements are diverse, representing people who describe themselves as service users, survivors, patients, members of the mad community, carers, family members, practitioners, professionals, academics, and members of the public. Drawing from the Irish experience, this paper provides an overview of the emergence and subsequent work of the Critical Voices Network Ireland (CVNI). We give examples of initiatives aiming to critique and transform mental health systems in Ireland, followed by a discussion on the development of the CVNI as a critical platform and some observations about the politics of transforming the Irish mental health system.