Clare McGrath
Chair
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Clare is the Chairman of the Sports commission. Member of sport commission for 12 years, she is a member of Water Safety Ireland, Clare. She has been involved in organisation of Regional and National lifesaving competitions, both pool and beach for 15 years. She works with Clare County Council, as the Water Safety Development Officer, within the Environment Section. She is an active Water Safety Ireland instructor, examiner, tutor and international referee and she has worked as a referee at the highest level at European and World competitions. She is currently the Chairman of the Board of Swim Ireland.
Seamus O’Neill
Vice-Chairman
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Seamus started lifesaving at the age of 10 and became an Instructor in 1975. Seamus is an Examiner, Lifeguard provider, International Beach Referee, Tutor and currently Chairman of the WSI Sports Commission and has served on the Education and Swimming Commissions. He is currently Treasurer of Donegal Water Safety Area Committee.
Michael “Buddy” Cuddihy
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Micheal has been a member of the board since 1987. During this time he has served on many national and international committees and is currently the Chairperson of the Lifeguard Commission and Vice Chairman of the Sports Commission of the European region (ILSE). He is also an executive member of the European College of Referees. He has a special interest in promoting sport within international lifesaving and has brought teams to South Africa, Australia, the USA and mainland Europe to compete successfully in international events. He is currently Treasurer of Waterford Water Safety Area Committee
Paul Murphy
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Paul is from Dublin and Paul has been involved in Water Safety Ireland for over 35 years. He is involved in WSI as an Instructor, Examiner, Pool & Beach Lifeguard Provider and Swim Teacher Tutor, He is currently the Vice-Chairman and Certificates Secretary of the Dublin Water Safety Area Committee. Paul has also served WSI on different Commissions over the last 15 years and at present is the Secretary of the WSI Lifeguard/Lifesaving Commission.
Philip Keleghan
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Philip is from Co.Wicklow and has been involved in Water Safety and other aquatic activities for over forty years. He is an active Water Safety Instructor, Examiner and Swimming Tutor and is currently Vice-Chairman of Kildare Water Safety. He has a special interest in the development of strong local area committees and is currently working to develop an Inland Water Safety and Lifesaving Training Centre at Blessington. Philip is currently the Chairman of the WSI Education Commission.
Anne Ryan
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Anne is a Wexford Native, Anne is an Instructor and Volunteer with Water Safety Ireland since 1995. Among her many credentials within the volunteering ethos of Water Safety Ireland, Anne is also the Local Area Secretary, a Swim Teacher and Examiner and the Wexford Water Safety Area Committee Secretary. In addition to these activities, Anne finds the time to organise Cahore Outdoor Water Safety Week, with which she has played an active part since 1996. In addition to working on FETAC updates, Anne works on all matters assigned to the Education Commission of which she is Vice Chair and is the QQI representative.
Karen Morton
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Karen lives in Dublin and is a Marketing Mentor & Consultant as well as a speaker on topics such as Mentoring and Social Media. Karen’s career spans a mixture of multinationals (Dell, British Airways & Eircom) and fast growth start-ups (Monster.com) in a wide range of sectors. Karen spent 10 years at Dell in Marketing leadership roles including Chief Marketing Officer of Dell Financial Services. Karen’s areas of expertise include Marketing, Communications, Social/Digital, Strategy and general Commercial. Karen led the Dell Women’s Network for 3 years and sat on the Connecting Women in IT committee in Dublin. Karen is a graduate of the University of Limerick where she received an Honours Degree in Marketing & French. Karen is a previous Board member of the University of Limerick Alumni Association, Karen has a keen interest in water safety and was a Lifeguard at University.
Peter Cleere
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Peter is a native of Skeoughvosteen, Co Kilkenny. He is currently a member of Kilkenny Water Safety since 2014 and is currently a county councillor for the Kilkenny City East Municipal area for Kilkenny County Council. He is also currently Chairperson of the Kilkenny Carlow Education Training Board (KCETB). Peter has 17 years’ experience in the financial services industry and is a fully Qualified Financial Adviser (QFA) and also is a holder of the Professional Diploma in Financial Services. His leisure interests are primarily around GAA, where he currently is a player and an underage coach with his local club.
Anastasia Ward
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Anastasia, B.L. originally from Ballinasloe, County Galway, is a Barrister who qualified in 1994. In addition, she has worked as a consultant to the Office of the Attorney General and has lectured across a vast selection of subject areas in a wide variety of third-level institutions including the Law Society of Ireland and Griffith College Dublin. She also runs a small pharmacy chain in partnership with her husband. Anastasia swam competitively for a number of years in the 1980’s at a provincial level, and during this time, she also undertook lifesaving training. These experiences lead her to an appreciation of the importance of water safety generally, and of swimming as a life skill. Her leisure interests, apart from swimming, include cinema and classical music.
Tom O’Mahony
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Tom O’Mahony lives in Dunboyne, Co Meath. He is a retired civil servant and served as Secretary General of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. In a previous role in the Department of the Environment he was involved in the statutory establishment of Water Safety Ireland, then Irish Water Safety, in 1999. He is very active in the fields of sport (where he is President of St Patrick’s Athletic FC and a member of the Board of the Federation of Irish Sport) and music (as a recording artist under the stage name Tommy Keyes).