Caroline Currid

Caroline Currid (born 1980 or 1981)[1] is an Irish sports psychologist. Her record of four All-Ireland titles with four teams based in three provinces across two sports has made her a much sought after figure within sporting circles.[2]

Caroline Currid
Born1980 or 1981[1]
EducationMaster's degree in Sport psychology
Alma materOpen University
University of Jordanstown
OccupationSports psychologist
Years active(2007 - present)
Known forHer involvement with five
All-Ireland winning teams:
Tyrone (2008)
Tipperary (2010)
Dublin (2011)
Limerick (2018)and 2020

Early life

Currid is a native of the village of Grange, County Sligo.[2] Having worked in banking, she sustained a cruciate ligament injury in 2005. It was then her interest in sports psychology began as a means to bring about her own recovery from injury. She quit banking and studied for a psychology degree via the Open University and went on to study for a master's degree in sports psychology at the University of Jordanstown.[2] With the Sligo football team, Currid won an All-Ireland Junior Ladies' Football Championship medal in 2006.[2] She had lost the two previous finals.[1]

Career

Currid began her involvement as a sports psychologist at inter-county level within the GAA by making an advance towards Tyrone manager Mickey Harte in 2007; he agreed and Currid was brought aboard.[2] Currid worked with rugby union player Paul O'Connell from 2008 until he retired in 2016; though initially not accepting of her ideas when she drove to Limerick to meet him in August 2008 O'Connell remained aware of her work with Tyrone and telephoned her after watching their 2008 All-Ireland victory the following month to inform her that he had changed his mind and wished to work with her.[2]

Thus began a run that would lead to Currid working with four All-Ireland winning teams in the Gaelic games of football and hurling; these are as follows: the Tyrone county football team that won an All-Ireland Senior Football Championship in 2008, the Tipperary county hurling team that won an All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship in 2010, the Dublin county football team that won an All-Ireland Senior Football Championship in 2011 and the Limerick county hurling team that won an All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship in 2018.[3] The Tyrone team overcame a Kerry team that was favourite to achieve a three-in-a-row, the Tipperary hurling team had not won a senior All-Ireland for nine years, the Dublin football team had not won a senior All-Ireland for sixteen years, while the Limerick hurling team had not won a senior All-Ireland for forty-five years. The Tipperary and Dublin All-Ireland victories came in the second year of her involvement with the teams.[1]

When the Limerick hurling team bridged a forty-five year gap to win a senior All-Ireland title in 2018, team captain Declan Hannon directly referred to Currid in his victory speech, declaring: "She has just been phenomenal with us for the last two years. She has always been there for us, always there to keep us up and pick us up when we are down. She's after inheriting 36 new babies!" Match analyst Liam Sheedy, whose Tipperary hurling team had been assisted by Currid to an All-Ireland title eight years previously also took the opportunity to bestow praise upon Currid, saying: "She deserves massive credit, that is four times now! Tyrone, Dublin, ourselves and Limerick. I do think the Limerick teams over the years didn't have the inner belief but they went behind to Kilkenny, went behind to Cork. There is no doubt about it, she has worked on their inner strengths. Their mindset today was 'we are coming up here to play!'"[4]

Also in 2011, Currid worked with Cork's first-time hurling champions Carrigtwohill and Galway Senior Football Championship finalists Tuam.[1]

Currid also worked with David Rudisha, the 800 metres runner from Kenya, before his victory and world record at the 2012 London Olympics, focusing on how to maximise performance on competition day.[5][6][7][8][2] She was struck by the way the Kenyan athletes lived in the moment, which gave a high level of clarity to their performance.[9]

References
  1. Foley, Cliona (24 December 2011). "The power of positive thinking: Tyrone football in 2008, Tipperary hurling in 2010 and Dublin football this year all had two things in common. They won senior All-Irelands and had Caroline Currid on their back-room team. Cliona Foley meets the 'performance coach' bringing innovative thinking to the GAA". Irish Independent. Retrieved 24 December 2011. Currid, a petite 30-year-old from Grange who won a junior football All-Ireland with Sligo in 2006 after losing the two previous finals, immediately addressed the elephant in the room.
  2. McGoldrick, Sean (19 August 2018). "Four All Ireland titles with four different counties - Meet the most sought-after women in the GAA". Irish Independent. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  3. Dennehy, Cathal (1 September 2018). "In a game of inches, gurus of the mind could make all the difference". Sunday Independent. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
  4. Brosnan, Maurice (19 August 2018). "Liam Sheedy Hails Behind-The-Scenes Currid Who Helped Limerick To Glory". balls.ie. Archived from the original on 4 September 2018. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  5. http://www.kotinospartners.com/about/our-team-and-partners
  6. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 10 January 2019. Retrieved 9 January 2019.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. http://botswanaunplugged.com/10674/i-wont-return-home-soon-nijel-amos/
  8. McGoldrick, Sean (19 August 2018). "Four All Ireland titles with four different counties - Meet the most sought-after women in the GAA". Irish Independent. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  9. https://www.accreate.com/insights/entry/ireland-vs-all-blacks-who-will-be-the-victor
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