Mary O’Connor
Federation of Irish Sport CEO
Mary O Connor is CEO of the Federation of Irish Sport. She is a native of Cork and has worked in sport all her professional life and is an avid sports fan.
In 2016 Mary graduated from University College Cork with a Masters in Voluntary and Community Sector Management. Before joining the Federation of Irish Sport, Mary worked with the Camogie Association as Director of Technical Development and Participation. She excelled in this role and led the association in to an unprecedented era of growth. Under her direction as Acting CEO of the Camogie Association in 2013, she successfully guided the association through change in the form of the new affiliation model for individual members, which saw camogie ensure a more equitable membership structure for all clubs.
Mary has represented her native Cork in both Camogie and Ladies football amassing a total of 12 Senior All Ireland medals over a 16-year dual intercounty career. She has won All Stars in both codes, national leagues and provincial titles and more recently was honoured with an Honorary Doctorate from University College Cork (2012) in recognition of her amazing contribution to sport in Ireland.
Michelle McCarthy
Office Administrator
Michelle is a native of West Cork and is the Federation’s Office Administrator and Company Secretary. She has a degree in Health and Leisure where she majored in Sports Development and has numerous years of experience in the sporting sector. Prior to returning home from Australia, she also completed a Diploma in Workplace Health & Safety. She has previously worked as a Public Relations Officer for GAA Australasia, a Leisure Centre Manager, Games Development Officer for Post Primary Schools in Cork as well as coaching and training various sporting teams.
Michelle’s responsibilities include managing the provision of our Board Recruitment and Garda Vetting services for Federation members, coordination of office activities and operations, ensuring compliance to company policies and procedures, managing of the accounts and maintaining office systems.
Email: michelle.mccarthy@irishsport.ie
Clare Louise O’Donoghue
Head of Commercial & Marketing
Clare Louise is the Federation of Irish Sport’s Head of Commercial and Marketing. She has comprehensive experience and in-depth knowledge in the areas of Client Relations, PR & Event Management, Sports Sponsorship and Stakeholder Engagement. Clare Louise overseas the engagement and growth of the Federation’s suite of commercial partners, she leads on the management of the major award ceremonies and drives the organisations marketing and communications.
Clare Louise accumulated over 15 years consultancy experience, as a co-founder of Niche Communications, working with a range of clients from national governing bodies, international sporting events to multinational corporations. During her time with Drury Sports Management as an Account Executive, Clare Louise was the media liaison on global golf events such as the WGC-American Express Championship, HSBC World Match Play Championship and the Smurfit European Open.
Previous roles include Head of Member Services at the Family Business Network Ireland (FBN) and Senior Events and Relationship Manager with the British Irish Chamber of Commerce, Clare Louise took the lead on driving membership growth for FBN and implementing innovative, informative and engaging online series of for its members as well as supporting the public affairs and advocacy team.
Clare Louise began her career in sports administration as Tournament Secretary and Executive Assistant at the Golfing Union of Ireland – Leinster Golf.
Fluent in Spanish, German and French, Clare Louise holds a BA (Hons) in Applied Languages, Translation and Interpreting from Dublin City University (DCU).