Jun 21, 2024
Arguably, the Olympic Games is the most captivating competition in World sport. The 2020 games in Tokyo reached a global audience of over 3 billion people. And some of Ireland’s most memorable and iconic sporting achievements have unfolded on the Olympic stage. From John Treacy’s 1984 silver medal in Los Angeles to Katie Taylor’s 2012 gold in London. Ireland is proud of the team that the Olympic Federation of Ireland will send to this summer’s games in Paris, and those athletes inspire the nation.
After the ‘Dare to Believe’ campaign by the Olympic Federation of Ireland was announced as the winner of the Best Sports Sponsorship at the 2024 Irish Sport Industry Awards, Roisin Jones, Programme Manager at the Olympic Federation of Ireland and Philip Greene, Sponsorship Manager at PTSB Spoke to the Federation of Irish Sport.
“Our programme is all about bringing the Olympics to the classroom and to the community”, explained Jones.
“We do this by utilizing our amazing Olympic ambassadors and bringing them out to schools and community clubs, and getting them to share their journey in sport. That journey may not have been that easy, so we’re showcasing their dedication and their resilience. And really we’re just trying to inspire the next generation of children to believe in themselves to be something bigger and brighter.”
It appears there is something about Irish Olympic athletes which is deeply inspiring. Kellie Harrington’s story reached far beyond her putting on boxing clubs and entering the ring, and Rhys Mclenaghan’s journey did not start on the pommel horse.
“Those are amongst a few of our ambassadors but they’re really good at relating to kids and sharing what they were like when they were eight, or nine, or ten years of age. They were once sitting in those same chairs. And I suppose breaking down that barrier of the high performance athlete and allowing them to say ‘I was once in your shoes.’
“It’s not about just winning an Olympic medal, its about those Olympic values of friendship, striving for excellence and respect and getting kids to see that they try their best. We see the amazing Olympic moments, but they’re not built overnight.”
The support PTSB has placed behind the Dare to Believe campaign has made its success possible, and Greene spoke of how excited the team at PTSB are for the upcoming games.
“It’s incredibly exciting. I think for ourselves as title sponsors of the team, but for the entire country I think. This is likely to be the last European based games until 2040, and its a real opportunity to get behind our athletes in prime time slots on television and in a time zone that suits our supporters here and in Paris.”
Greene reflected on why PTSB wanted to be involved with the magic of the Olympic Games.
“It was something that was actually very important for us in PTSB when deciding to become title sponsor of Team Ireland was the unifying power of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. You look at other sports which are wonderful, but maybe have a slight bit more tribalism about them, than the Olympic games which brings together such a pure expression of pride, which is fantastic for us to be able to celebrate as a country together.”
Jun 20, 2024
Field of Vision is an innovative sports technology company, founded by Tim Farrelly, David Deneher and Omar Salem. The team is guided by sports industry veteran Tom Sears. In 2022, Field of Vision was among Time Magazine’s Best Inventions and their partners include Manchester City Football Club and the Australian Football League. After Field of Vision was announced as the Best Initiative to Promote Inclusivity in Sport & Physical Activity, Deneher spoke to the Federation of Irish Sport.
“Field of vision was started during the Covid lockdown when my co-founder Omar saw a viral video of a fan bringing his blind friend to a football game and tracing the position of the ball on his hand.
“And we thought we could do this with technology, so we started Field of Vision. We use AI to track all the key information from the sports game in real time and then we track that back to our device, which moves around based on where the ball is on the pitch and when the shots, tackles and passes, occur.”
At the core of Field of Vision’s mission is the belief that there does not need to be separation between vision impaired sports fans and the magic and power of sport.
Deneher spoke about where the company is on its journey and what it’s like to win this award.
“It’s really great to win this award because we’re three college students who never had any prior experience of working with visually impaired people. So the number one thing that we’re concerned about in our company is inclusivity. If Field of Vision isn’t actually of benefit to visually impaired fans then what would be the point. So winning this award is just fantastic acknowledgment of the work that we are putting in and showing us that we are on the right track”.
Deneher and his team at Field of Vision are incredibly optimistic about the future.
“What we want is that in the future, if a visually impaired fan wants to watch a live sports game in their living room, they can sit down and open our app, and the same as we do with Sky Sports, pick whatever game is on and they’re FOV device will move. We want to expand to achieve this, we want to expand to different sports, more stadiums. Over the course of the next 12 months we want to expand to three stadiums.”
Jun 19, 2024
The Federation of Irish Sport is delighted to announce the renewal of its partnership with OSK for a third successive term until January 2027. OSK offer audit, accounting and financial management services to the Federation’s extensive and diverse membership consisting of 110 National Governing Bodies and Local Sports Partnerships. The Federation is proud of this long – standing partnership which has gone from strength from strength since it was commenced in 2010.
Speaking about the renewal, Federation of Irish Sport CEO Mary O’Connor commented; “We are delighted to be renewing our partnership with OSK for a further three years. Since joining forces with the Federation in 2010, OSK have been an important and valuable part of our partnership suite. They are tried and trusted by many of our members for their audit and accountancy needs and we are delighted to be able to continue to endorse their work. We look forward to working closely with the team in OSK to continue to develop our partnership and add value to all FIS members over the next three years”.
Deirdre McDermott, Audit Partner at OSK said; “OSK is delighted to announce the renewal of our partnership with the Federation of Irish Sport, to continue to provide audit, accounting and financial management services to sporting bodies throughout Ireland. This reaffirms our commitment to sport in Ireland. The team in OSK comprehends the intricacies involved in managing sport’s Governing Bodies. Our extensive experience and passion for sport equips us to offer pragmatic solutions while ensuring full compliance with all regulatory requirements and obligations. We look forward to continuing to provide our financial expertise to the members of the Federation, fostering their continued success.”
OSK is the official Audit and Accounting partner of the Federation of Irish Sport (FIS) and the preferred supplier of these services to the Federation’s members:
More information is available here:
https://www.osk.ie/sectors/sport/
Federation of Irish Sport partners provide invaluable support which enables the Federation to excel in its mission to effectively represent the Irish sports sector and be ‘The Voice of Irish Sport’. The Federation is excited to further build its relationship with OSK over the period of this agreement.
Jun 14, 2024
Emma Meehan is the founder of Galway based start – up Precision Sports Technology, which was the Best New Sports Business of the Year Award winner at the 2024 Irish Sport Industry Awards. Meehan describes herself as being obsessed with movement and dedicated to maximizing enjoyment of exercise. Emma’s entrepreneurial journey is totally inspiring. In 2018 she graduated from Galway University with a first class honors in computer science and information technology and subsequently spent three years as a software engineer at Cisco before founding Precision Sports Technology at the ATU Innovation Hub.
Meehan was named in Sport for Business’ 30 Under 30 Future Leaders in Tech 2022, Irish Times 50 People to Watch Ireland 2023, Sunday Independent 30 under 30 2023 and the Sunday Business Post 30 under 30 2024. Speaking to the Federation of Irish Sport, Meehan expressed her delight.
“I am absolutely thrilled to bits. I really didn’t expect to be here and it’s a massive honor to be recognised as Best New Sports Business at the Irish Sport Industry Awards. We’re thrilled to get this recognition from such a fantastic group of people.”
Precision Sports Technology has driven innovation in sports tracking.
“We have a software platform for real-time exercise feedback and analysis. With our app, you can know exactly how well you’re supposed to be doing your exercise. But your therapist or your strength coach can also get instant accurate measurements on how well you’re moving. So they know whether they actually need to intervene with your not, or whether you’re safe just to continue doing your rehab or exercise programme.”
In 2023, Output Sports was the winner of the Best New Sports Business of the Year Award, and recently its co-founder Dr. Martin O’Reilly outlined to the Federation that Output Sports technology is used by over 700 sport organisations and that they are on track to capture of 20 million measurements with the system this year.
Meehan is familiar with Output Sports work and said that Output Sports have demonstrated that there is a pathway for new Irish sports businesses’ to establish themselves as global players.
“We’ve just launched in the last couple of months, so we have our first paying customers. But really our goal is to break out of Europe and hit the US. We’re starting in sports now, but we hope to go into the global physiotherapy and gym fitness markets.”
Just a week after the 2024 Irish Sport Industry Awards, Meehan joined John Morley for a live in-studio interview on his ‘Galway Talks’ programme on Galway Bay FM. Despite only having officially launched the business in January, Precision Sports Technology client list is impressive and growing.
“We can’t name names, but we have a team that won the Champions League.” In terms of expansion plans in Ireland, Meehan is open minded.
“I think GAA is probably one of our bigger opportunities in Ireland. Especially since Precision Sports Technology is a software platform. We can tailor and scope our features as needed. Obviously the Champions League teams have any amount of budget for investing in technology, so we will give them all the bells and whistles. But we can also build a custom platform.
“If you’re a GAA strength and conditioning coach and you want to track 30 athletes and get these kinds of metrics and these kinds of exercises, perfect. And we’ll do the high end customisation for affluent teams internationally.”
Meehan summed up the journey she has been on with Precision Sports Technology so far.
“This time last year it was myself and two student interns from the university. Now we have ten of us on the team and international hires… It’s uphill from here”.
Jun 10, 2024
There are few men or women who have dedicated their lives to Irish sport, who command the respect, admiration and authority of Sarah Keane. Before being appointed as the first CEO of Swim Ireland in 2004, Keane qualified as a solicitor and worked with leading Irish law firm Matheson. Now, alongside her primary role leading one of Ireland’s largest sport National Governing Bodies, she is a board member of European Aquatics and World Aquatics, a Commission Member of the Central Bank of Ireland and, in her second term as the first female President of the Olympic Federation of Ireland. Remarkably, Keane never envisaged having a career in sports. Speaking to the Federation of Irish Sport, Keane’s profound modesty remains a feature of who she is.
“I feel very privileged and grateful, I love working in the sports industry and I love being part of something that I feel makes a real difference in people’s lives. We have a great sector and I work with great people.”
At last year’s Irish Sport Industry Awards, she accepted the award for National Governing Body of the Year on behalf of Swim Ireland, who embraced innovation and opened Ireland’s first ever Pop – Up Pool providing a unique swimming opportunity for 14,000 people who would not otherwise have had access to a pool.
In August 2022, the Irish Independent published an interview with Keane. It highlighted that during Keane’s tenure as Swim Ireland CEO the organisation has gone from just two employees to a staff of 39 with revenue of around €4.5m.”
“I think for a long time sport was run out of peoples kitchens and very dependent on the volunteer effort. Whilst we are still very dependent on the volunteer effort, a lot of our volunteers are really unpaid professionals and sport has had to modernise to become more fit for purpose as society has changed.
“I think therefore it’s important to recognise that governing bodies are companies. We have to operate with good governance and with business sense… Sport is a business as well as something we enjoy”.
In 2017, Keane was elected as the first female President of the Olympic Federation of Ireland. In March, it was announced that Sarah Keane would stand down after the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. She is incredibly optimistic about the prospects for the team that Ireland will send to Paris and the last Olympic Games on European soil for two decades.
“The athletes are really what this is all about and the people who surround them, their family, their coaches, their governing bodies and everybody who supports them. One of the things I love is their communities really get behind them and celebrate them. That means we have so many different people from so many different backgrounds supporting what these athletes do.
“And they strive for excellence. This is an Irish team that will go to compete, not just participate at these Olympic Games. We’ve had substantial government investment and great work by Sport Ireland, the Olympic Federation, our partners and sponsors and everyone behind us to put forward a united, well prepared, best in class Irish team. I think there is going to be a lot for the nation to get behind and a lot of these people have their own stories as well, they are people first and athletes second. I’m super excited.”
When asked whether she could define a moment over the last two decades, where she has experienced the magic of sport, Sarah reflected on her journey.
“I suppose for me, a lot of my magic moments are in a boardroom, or a room. I know if we do this, it’s ultimately going to change the face of something and make that culture change.
“I love all the performances, every single one of them and I love the people involved. I think that they’ve all got their individual stories and that’s one of the best things that has happened over the last number of years, is that our Olympians are more than happy to talk and that is what inspires kids and young people and older people to get involved in sport. I don’t know if I would call it battles, but it’s that work that goes on behind the scenes, by so many people across the country that inspires me.”
