BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Clare McGrath

Clare McGrath

Chairperson

Clare is a lifelong member of Water Safety Ireland and Swim Ireland. Having served on the Swim Ireland Munster Regional Executive in various roles including Secretary and Treasurer. She was Swim Ireland President 2009/2010. I was a Swim Ireland board member from 2012 to 2014 and served as Chairman to the SI board from 2014-2019. As Chairman of the Board, Clare played a very active role in the organisation, ensuring strong governance and good practice.

She is currently a member of the board of Water Safety Ireland, for a 5 year term and appointed as Chairman of the Lifesaving Sport Commission, responsible for all Regional and National competitions, National squads and International teams.

Clare is an international “A” Referee for lifesaving sport and has been invited to be Chief Referee and Deputy Chief Referee at World and European Championships, and European Junior Championships. Acting as director of competitions, for the, very successful, European Junior Lifesaving Championships, held here in Ireland in September 2018. She currently works with Clare County Council, Environment Team as Water Safety Development Officer. Her remit is all items relating to the beaches, supervision of beach lifeguards, blue flags, beach trading licences, beach byelaws.

Peter O’Brien

Peter O’Brien

Peter has held a number of senior positions in the youth, community and voluntary sector. He has a diploma in management from the Smurfit Business School at University College Dublin and was Director of Dun Laoghaire Youth Service until 2001. He became involved with Special Olympics Ireland as a volunteer before joining the management team of the 2003 World Games as Director of Support Services with responsibility for volunteers, families and the Host Town programme. Peter was appointed by the government in 2002 as Chairman of the National Children’s Advisory Council to monitor the implementation of the Children’s Strategy.

In 2004 he joined Special Olympics Ireland as Director of Support Services and member of their management team before taking a career break on his appointment as P.A. to the Minister for Social and Family Affairs and subsequently P.A. to the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport. Peter returned to Special Olympics Ireland in 2011 as Director of Training and Volunteers with additional responsibility for Safeguarding until his retirement in 2020. He continues his interest in disability sports as a member of the Leadership Council of Special Olympics Europe/Eurasia and as a volunteer with his local Special Olympics club. A former rugby player, Peter coaches disability rugby at his club Seapoint RC where he is a member of the executive filling the role as the Club Welfare Officer and currently the Club Covid19 Safety Officer.

Peter is a member of a number of committees in the Irish Rugby Football Union including Disability Rugby and the Spirit of Rugby. He is Chairman of the IRFU Safeguarding Working Group for Mini and Youth Rugby. As a former Mandated Person and National Children’s Officer for Special Olympics Ireland he is a Safeguarding Tutor with Sport Ireland.

Maeve Buckley

Maeve Buckley

Leading Sport

Maeve has had an impact on the sports sponsorship industry over a long period, and has worked with iconic teams and major projects such as Ryder Cup, FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Liverpool FC. She has a deep understanding of the European and Irish sport industry, and works on strategic development with national governing bodies and European/international federations. Maeve was previously a Board Member of the National Sports Campus, and was voted one of the Most Influential Women in Sport. She holds an MBA from the Instituto de Empresa in Madrid and has a BA (Hons) degree from UCC.

Darina Barrett

Darina Barrett

(Partner, KPMG)

Darina Barrett is a chartered accountant and has worked in professional practice and international financial services for over 30 years.

She is an advocate for diversity and inclusion and is a member of the steering committee of the 30% club and the steering group for the ICAI.

She is a mother of 4 sporting teenagers. She enjoys open water swimming and is a committee member of Dublin Swimming club.

Mary McMorrow

Mary McMorrow

(Operations Manager, Swim Ireland)

Mary McMorrow is Operations Manager with Swim Ireland, a position she has held for three years. She is also Company Secretary for the organisation and was one of the key drivers behind the organisation’s adoption of the Governance Code. Prior to working in sport, she worked as a Sales Manager in the FMCG Sector. She holds an M.Sc. in Business and HR.

Tom O' Mahony

Tom O' Mahony

Tom O’ Mahony retired from the position of Secretary General of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport in 2015, following a career of over 40 years across a number of Government Departments.  He holds Masters degrees in both economics and public administration.

Enda Lynch

Enda Lynch

Head of Enterprise, Munster Rugby

Enda Lynch is a commercial and sponsorship veteran with some of Ireland’s leading brands. Enda’s current role oversees a new business venture for Munster Rugby, the High-Performance Leadership programme, in partnership with University of Limerick.
Previously Enda was Head of Commercial & Marketing with Munster Rugby overseeing all revenue generation and marketing for the organisation for over five years. Prior to that, he was a sponsorship expert, working across a number of sponsorships such as the Irish Rugby team sponsorship, The O2, GAA All-Stars, Ferrari team sponsorship, Champions League etc. for brands both domestically and internationally for over 12 years including O2, Vodafone and Digicel.

Graham Russell

Graham Russell

Head of Sport, Louth County Council

Graham is the Head of Sport in Louth County Council, a role he has held since 2014, which includes the management of Louth Local Sports Partnership. He graduated from the Dublin Institute of Technology in 1996 with a degree in Leisure Management and has 30 years experience working in the Sports and leisure industry. He managed various sporting and community facilities in Dublin and Louth, between 2002 and 2014.

In 2009 Graham was appointed to the Board of Louth Local Sports Partnership. In 2014, he was tasked with restructuring the provision of sports services in Louth to incorporate the Local Sports Partnership into an integrated Sports Unit. This unique structure has increased Louth Local Sports Partnership’s capacity to deliver by ensuring a more effective and efficient delivery of the Sports Units remit.

An advocate for the provision of sustainable sporting and physical activity opportunities for people of all abilities, Graham has overseen the development of a range of accessible facilities, with inclusive staff and a wide range a inclusive opportunities that have created a culture of inclusivity. Widely acknowledged for their inclusive culture, the Sports Unit and Local Sports Partnership in Louth have received several National awards for their integrated approach to the provision of services and opportunities for people with disabilities.

In 2019, Graham was appointed to the Board of the Federation and represents the National Network of 29 Local Sports Partnerships.

Sinead McNulty

Sinead McNulty

Sinéad McNulty is the CEO of the Camogie Association. Sinéad is a Dublin native, and a graduate of the Leisure Management and MBA programmes at TU Dublin (DIT). Prior to moving to the Camogie Association, Sinéad was the Head of Sport at TU Dublin (City Campus/ DIT) for 11 years, where she lead the prioritisation of sport and sports facilities in the new Grangegorman Campus, developing playing fields in Grangegorman and Broombridge locations, and securing Large Scale Sport Infrastructure Grant funding in 2019 for the initial stages of development of the new Sports Centre on campus.
Sinéad’s sports background combines experience in Local Authority and community sports development practise with leisure consultancy, having worked in sport development roles in Dublin City Council and Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, and as a leisure consultant with Holohan Leisure before joining TU Dublin (DIT) in 2008.
Sinéad has significant experience on boards currently serving on Advisory Board of Dublin City Sport and Wellbeing Partnership and previously as a board member of Student Sport Ireland chairing the Finance & Governance committee. As independent Chairperson of the Government Grant Scheme – Scheme Implementation Group, supporting intercounty Camogie and Ladies Gaelic Football players, Sinéad worked to drive change in Government supports for women’s sport, and also served as a member of the GAA’s Towards 2034 Committee. She is a member of Round Towers GAA Club in Clondalkin, where she played Ladies Gaelic Football and has served as a member of the executive committee, the development committee (new facilities and government grant aid) and most recently has joined a High Performance working group.

Murrough McDonagh

Murrough McDonagh

Murrough has worked in the Irish sports sector for over 20 years and is Mountaineering Ireland’s CEO since 2016. Previously, he was worked with National Community Games for 8 years and with the IRFU for 9 years in a number of roles. Murrough has been involved in sports as a participant, in Gaelic football, soccer, judo and rugby, where he also volunteered in club committees over the years with the IRFU. Murrough’s spare time nowadays is taken up with his young family who are all involved in multi-sport activities as well as days out on the hills.