Athletics Ireland Board Seeks Expressions of Interest for the Following Positions From 2025 to April 2027
The Board of Athletics Ireland seek expressions of interest from suitably qualified and experienced individuals to the following positions.
- The Board, co-optee positions and an independent position
- The High-Performance Committee
- The Finance & Audit Committee
- The Governance Committee
- Coaching & Development Committee
- Marketing Committee
- Participation Committee
Terms of Reference for the respective committees are available here https://www.athleticsireland.ie/about/committees/
Please send a one-page letter only detailing the role for which you seek appointment and reasons for your suitability to congress@athleticsireland.ie
Applications close Monday 5th May 2025.
CLUB SPOTLIGHT SERIES: FERRYBANK FLYING WITH MULTI-EVENT APPROACH
IN THIS NEW WRITTEN SERIES, ATHLETICS IRELAND WILL HIGHLIGHT CLUBS FROM ACROSS IRELAND THAT ARE DOING EXTRAORDINARY THINGS IN THEIR COMMUNITIES AND FOR PERFORMANCE.
FERRYBANK ATHLETICS CLUB, HOME OF RECENTLY ELECTED ATHLETICS IRELAND PRESIDENT BRÍD GOLDEN, HAS BEEN A STALWART OF THE SPORT SINCE 1980. THE SUCCESS OF THE CLUB CONTINUES TODAY WITH ITS BRIGHT AND VIBRANT CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE WATERFORD COMMUNITY.
Ferrybank AC has achieved a lot in the 45 years since it was founded, with two Olympians hailing not just from the club but the same family, and multiple Irish vests claimed by its members.
The Waterford-based club has broken the mould of the Irish tradition of distance running, and boasts an impressive list of internationals who have donned the national vest in hurdles, sprints, field, and multi events.
Something club secretary Yvonne Nölke says is an intentional decision.
“It is starting them young. It really is about having the ability to offer multi-eventing to the kids and not deciding, like some clubs to really just be a distance club,” Nölke told Athletics Ireland.
The club secretary credits Athletics Ireland’s newly elected president Bríd Golden, with ingraining a multi-event approach into their coaching systems.
Golden was an accomplished athlete herself, holding the national heptathlon record from 1990 until it was broken by Sharon Foley in 1997.
She also coached Kelly Proper, who brought the heptathlon national record back to Ferrybank in 2013.
Golden and Proper are synonymous with the club, but you can’t see the green and white Ferrybank vest without thinking of its most prolific member in recent years, Thomas Barr.
Barr is a perfect example of why the Ferrybank multi-event approach works. Barr dabbled in high jump and, by his own admission, wasn’t a spectacular youth athlete but certainly showed promise.
It’s easy to see for the likes of Barr, or Proper that without the start at Ferrybank, they may not have achieved what they did.
If they had ended up in a “distance club” and not learnt the skill of hurdling from Golden, which Nölke explains they track, it could well be a different story.
“We make sure that the coaches with the younger groups are preparing the kids because little things you pick up on sometimes, we find their hurdling isn’t good at all.
“So then we have to look back at the younger age group and say, ‘we need to be working more on their three striding’ and maybe do a little bit of training courses for the coaches.”
