Siobhán has been involved in the sport of Olympic Target Shooting since 2007. She was awarded University Pinks, the highest sporting achievement in Trinity College Dublin, and has competed at a High-Performance level as part of the Irish squad at European and World Competitions.
She is an internationally qualified coach under the International Shooting Sport Federation. Concurrently she has been involved in sport administration at club level as secretary, children’s officer, club captain, the Target Shooting Ireland general secretary, and a member of the OFI Member Federation Committee.
Siobhán was involved in the successful international grant application which funded Olympic standard equipment that allowed her sport to open a national training centre. As part of her occupation as the senior data manager of a large research study she gained valuable skills and knowledge that are applicable in sport.
She works with data protection, data analysis, efficiency of protocols, risk and compliance, and management of complex IT databases and systems.
As an athlete, coach, and administrator, Siobhán has been afforded invaluable experience from different perspectives that have allowed her to adapt policies and procedures to better serve all involved focusing on long-term sustainability of activities and appropriate governance policies.
| Skill Set | Detail |
|---|---|
| Risk / Compliance | From an occupational standpoint, I work with critical level data of a highly sensitive nature as part of an active national research study. My role involves assessing data protection risks on a day-to-day basis and producing appropriate standard operating protocols that mitigate the risk of any data breaches or loss of data.
I am regularly involved in the writing of Data Protection Impact Assessments which include risk assessments where any potential risks would be highlighted in terms of impact or likelihood, and solutions / mitigating actions put in place that would reduce this risk within reason. As part of formulating these assessments it’s vital to consider available resources and burden for any mitigation to ensure the project is still manageable. This is important in today’s sporting environment also as administrative burden becomes more intensive – ensuring that any risk assessments and policies enacted are not so intensive that compliance becomes burdensome and thus reduces the likelihood that athletes, coaches, volunteers, clubs, and federations will comply as required. |
| Sports Administration | I have been involved in sports administration since 2008 at club and national level. I was the secretary, chief range officer, and captain of the Dublin University Rifle Club – these set of roles involved membership management and communication with members on a daily basis, management of range officer rosters and training of new range officers, safety assessments of the club facility, overall management of the club activities, and overseeing novice and senior squads in the club.
I started out as the Airgun Coordinator as part of Target Shooting Ireland. This role involved competition coordination across all affiliated clubs and event management of the National Airgun Championships. I established a monthly classification list for all active athletes in the sport, and managed the logistics and administrative duties required for sending any athlete or team to international airgun competitions. The role additionally involved acting as the liaison for training plans and progress for athletes who put forward expressions of interest for the national squad for Air Rifle or Air Pistol shooting. I was subsequently elected as General Secretary of Target Shooting Ireland. This role involves direct communication with all affiliated members and clubs, management of annual affiliations, insurance policies, and Garda vetting applications. I oversee the general email and respond to queries about the sport. During my tenure as General Secretary, I was heavily involved in the write up of the Target Shooting Ireland Strategy Plan submitted as part of a Sport Ireland recognition application. I have also been involved in writing multiple successful grant applications. These include successful awards from the Olympic Federation of Ireland discretionary funding calls for high performance equipment, the European Shooting Confederation for Coaching course funding support, the International Shooting Sport Federation for Olympic standard electronic target equipment worth c. €85,000 and Olympic standard Air Rifles and Pistols worth €25,000. I have also assisted member clubs with formulating grant applications to Local Sports Partnerships which have seen success in awarding funding for Youth and Paralympic equipment. Most recently I was elected to the OFI Member Federation Committee where we worked to identify key areas to focus on where opportunities or challenges have been faced by member federations and subsequently make recommendations to the OFI Executive Committee areas where they could use their role to call for reform. |
| Governance | My regularly activities as General Secretary of the Target Shooting Ireland have a direct involvement in ensuring good governance procedures are in place and being followed. I played a key role in overhauling all of our National federation policies to ensure good governance in recent years. This involved updating and generating policies from scratch that cover international selection, equality, safeguarding, bullying and harassment, anti-doping, athletes code of conduct, complaints and disciplinary appeals, and international selection appeals. I provide guidance for affiliate clubs who seek to update their policies in line with best practice also review their policies to ensure they are of an acceptable standard and to also ensure the clubs can manage their own activities appropriately without micromanagement. I have worked hard to ensure the National federation is an example of good and transparent governance and an accessible federation to support our clubs and members in achieving the same.
I oversee all athlete and club activities to ensure policies are being followed. I have also overseen the push for the committee of all clubs affiliated with Target Shooting Ireland, and the Target Shooting Ireland executive, and all coaches, have up to date safeguarding qualifications and Garda vetting in place before involvement in any events. I manage announcements, documentation and procedures for all Annual General Meetings in line with the National Federations constitution. I also oversee any updates that are voted in for the constitution and ensure they are submitted to the relevant parties, such as our International Federation and the Companies Registration Office. |
| Information Technology | I have an extensive background working with IT systems and have a diverse skillset in this area.
I work in data analysis and on a day-to-day basis use statistical software such as Stata, R, and SPSS to analyse epidemiological, biomarker and genetic data, and signal processing from activity monitors similar to Fitbits in datasets that combine to over two billion data points spanning 14 years of data collection. I manage the IT Infrastructure that hosts the research data collected as part of our national research study – this includes maintaining and monitoring over 40 desktop / laptop computers, high performance processing computers, and I am the administrator of two network attached storage units, and three servers hosting >140tb of data and backup solutions. I have experience with programming languages such as C#, R, SQL and Python, and have developed software and Android Apps. I have experience with web design including development of websites using web programming code directly such as HTML, PHP, CSS and Javascript, and also Content Management Systems such as WordPress and Joomla. I am proficient with an additional range of software such as processing software like Microsoft Office, and Graphics / video editing software such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro. |
| High Performance Sport | I have been involved in High Performance Sport from an administrative, coaching and athlete perspective – I first qualified to compete for the Irish national squad in 2015, successfully shooting a selection score and qualifying to compete at the European Championships. Since then I have competed at mid-tier international competitions, a World Cup and multiple European Championships. This has allowed me to experience all the trials and tribulations athletes face when attending competitions as an inexperienced athlete, and how things develop as they gain experience. I have used this to guide up and coming athletes and help them start their journeys off more effectively when they first qualify.
As an administrator I manage the logistics of competition entries, travel and any day-to-day issues that arise while teams are abroad, and I also oversee high performance training plans and training progression from any athletes who wish to be selected for international competition. I assist with developing and implementing these plans. I also have an international coaching qualification and have coached development athletes on their path to compete at an international level. I have worked on developing high performance training programmes with athletes these athletes. I have also acted as the smallbore coach for the Dublin University Rifle Club, identifying potential high performance athletes, developing high performance training programmes, and running coaching sessions for members of the club who strive to compete at higher levels. |