Dr Liam Hennessy – BA, MSc, PhD, FRAMI

Dr. Liam Hennessy is the Academic Director of Setanta College. He is a qualified Physical Education teacher, Exercise Physiologist and Strength & Conditioning Coach. He has spent over 20 years working full-time in sport.

Liam was previously the Director of Fitness with the Irish Rugby Football Union, a position he commenced in 2000.  At the IRFU he headed a staff of 24 full time coaches. His role was to develop a world class system of player support within the areas of Strength and Conditioning, Injury Rehabilitation, Sport Nutrition and Medical Care.

Liam is also Fitness Coach to Padraig Harrington having worked with Padraig for over a decade now. He gained his undergraduate degree in Physical Education and English from Thomond College in 1981 and from there he completed his Master’s at Loughborough University before going on to complete a further Master’s in Clinical Physiology and then a PhD in Applied Physiology. He also holds honorary membership of the UK Strength & Conditioning Association.

Liam was also an international athlete competing over 50 times for Ireland at the Pole vault. After competing he became national jumps coach. Liam also had the distinction of being Irish team manager at the first world junior Athletic Championships in Athens in 1985. He is also a Level 3 Athletics Tutor.

Working closely with several Universities, Liam is active in research in speed, strength and power and recovery. He also works closely with the Titleist Performance Institute where he contributes to the Junior development programme. Prior to working in professional sport he spent several years working as Chief Exercise Physiologist in the Cardiopulmonary Department at the Blackrock Clinic, Dublin.  He was also Chief Exercise Physiologist to the Irish Olympic team in Atlanta 1996.

Liam has also worked with professional soccer teams in Germany, Italy and England. He has also advised and trained several inter-county Gaelic football and hurling teams working as Fitness coach with Tipperary when they won the All-Ireland senior hurling title in 1991.

Joe Gorey – CEO

Joe joined Setanta College as CEO in November 2010 from Intel, where he worked in HR for 5 years. Prior to this he worked in Production Management for the previous 10 years in Intel. He completed his Bachelor of Business Studies (Honours) in 2004.

Previously Joe worked as a Production Manager with the Kerry Group.

Joe has a keen interest in Athletics and was Sprints Coach with DCU in their Sports Academy from 2007 to 2010. He is the current module Tutor for Module 3 (Old PFCS).

Thomas Callanan – Head of Administration

Thomas joined Setanta College as Head of Administration in August 2011. For the last seven years, Thomas has been honouree secretary of  the highly successful Thurles Sarsfield’s G.A.A Club, the club having won eleven county titles at various levels during this period. He completed his Bachelor of Business Studies (Honours) in 2007. Thomas himself has won numerous underage medals with Thurles Sarsfield’s.

Mary Sweeny – Student Officer and Accounts

Mary jointed Setanta College in 2010 as student officer. Mary brings to Setanta College over 25 years experience working in an office environment.

Mary is responsible for student intake and affairs and is the point of contact for all student queries and student account issues.

Keith Hennessy

Keith is from Dublin and is an experienced Setanta College Tutor having been working with Setanta College since 2008. He has extensive experience working with players and athletes from a variety of team and individual sports such as GAA, Rugby Union, Rugby League, Australian Rules Football, Soccer, Athletics and Hockey.

Keith originally trained as a Personal Trainer and worked towards a Masters in Sports Psychology which he completed in 2010 at Waterford institute of Technology. Keith is currently lecturing on the BSc in Sports Strength & Conditioning programme in LIT-Tipperary in partnership with Setanta College.

Keith is also a Strength & Conditioning Coach with the Tipperary Minor & Senior Hurling panels for 2012.

Tommy Carr

Tommy Carr is the former Dublin player, captain and manager. He has also managed Roscommon and Cavan. He is currently the Westmeath Minor manager and is implementing a programme of Strength and Conditioning for underage football in Westmeath.He has represented Ireland against Australia in the compromise rules and was awarded an All Star in 1992. He represented his College NUIG, winning two Sigerson medals.

He is also a Gaelic football analyst with RTE,Newstalk and Setanta sports. He qualified with a Diploma in Strength and Conditioning in 2009 from Setanta College and is currently studying to complete the BA in Strength and Conditioning.

David Moriarty

Coaching Experience

David has been involved in the physical preparation of squads for the past 13 years and has extensive experience in Fitness and Conditioning. He has worked with a variety of hurling teams within Limerick, Tipperary and Clare, winning three county titles in Limerick. David also has experience working with inter-county teams, being the Physical Conditioning and Skill Coach for the Limerick footballers for 4 years and the Limerick hurlers for 2 years.

In the past David has been involved as a Conditioning Coach to Young Munsters R.F.C.

He is currently involved with Nenagh Eire Og Senior Hurlers in Tipperary.

Qualifications

National Council Educational Award Diploma in Recreation and Leisure Management from Waterford Regional Technical College 1989-1992 (Now Waterford Institute of Technology).
National Certificate in Exercise and Fitness Level 1 from the University of Limerick, 1998.
National Certificate in Exercise and Fitness Level 2 Resistance Specialist with Distinction from the University of Limerick, 2003
National Certificate in Exercise and Fitness Level 2 Personal Training with Distinction from the University of Limerick, 2005
Irish Rugby Football Union Certified Conditioning Coaches Course University of Limerick, 2005 and 2006
National Certificate in Physical Fitness and Conditioning with Distinction from Setanta College, 2007 to 2009

Ciaran Keogh

Ciaran is an accredited Strength and Conditioning provider with the Irish Institute of Sport and has provided strength and conditioning to Paralympic athletes since 2005 preparing athletes for European, World and Paralympic games. As well as being a graduate of Setanta College, Ciaran holds a BSc from Tralee Institute of Technology and is currently completing his Masters of Science in Exercise Physiology at Trinity College Dublin.

Damien Young

Damien Young graduated from Waterford Insitute of Technology with a BA Hons in Business Studies, Recreation and Leisure. Following this he completed a Masters Degree in the “Physiological Demands of Inter-County and Inter-Club hurling using Global Positioning System”. Damien has qualified as a tutor through Coaching Ireland and has just completed writing a Level 1 coaching course for Cumann Camógaíochta.

Damien has represented Tipperary at every level from U14 to senior in hurling. He was Strength and Conditioning and Skills coach to the Tipperary Minor hurlers for two years and is presently involved with the county U14 hurling & football conditioning programme.

Damien is the tutor for the Growth, Movement and Development module.

Mick Brennan

Mick is an experienced Setanta College Tutor having been with the college from the outset. He has extensive experience having worked in the past with the Wexford Senior Hurling & Football squads and also the Kilmacud Senior Football team as a Strength and Conditioning coach/advisor.

Mick is currently head of P.E. Teaching at Clonkeen College Dublin and also tutors with Hibernia College and is a fitness tester with Elite coaching Ireland. Mick is currently the tutor for module 4 Functional Screening.

Eoin Everard

Qualifications: BSc in Athletic Therapy and Training.
Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS)
Currently completing a Masters Degree in Physiotherapy at Northumbria University.

Eoin’s area of interest and specialism is within Functional Screening. He  first became passionate about functional screening and exercise prescription when he was on his 6-month work placement in Montreal, Canada. On returning to Ireland, to complete his degree, he started to apply functional screening to help his clients in rehabilitation, injury prevention and to improve performance.
On completing of his degree, he began working as an Athletic Therapist with the Athletics Academy in Dublin City University. He then moved to Limerick and worked with a number of high performance athletes including Olympian Thomas Chamney and European Mixed Martial champion Catherine Costigan. He returns regularly to Ireland where he holds regular clinics.

Des Ryan

Des Ryan is the fitness education manager for the IRFU. In this role he is responsible for the management of the Certified Conditioning Coach (CCC) course and other fitness education courses.

Des also manages the Continued Professional Development (CPD) programme for IRFU Strength and Conditioning Coaches. His role includes managing the fitness development structures for rugby players at Under 19 years of age and below. His responsibilities also include managing the Strength and Conditioning staff with the age grade international teams, Ireland women’s, club and A team.

prior to his current role Des worked for Connacht Rugby for 10 years as Head Fitness Advisor from 2000 to 2008. During this time Des has worked with the Ireland A rugby team for 3 years and assisted with the Ireland senior team. Des has presented at many conferences over the past few years in Ireland and abroad including conferences run by the International Rugby Board (IRB) and the GAA’s national coaching development conference.

Noel Flynn

Noel Flynn is a former Setanta College student and now a member of the College Tutor staff. He has an extensive background within Gaelic Games and currently plays Senior Football with the Lucan Sarsfields Club in Dublin. Noel has represented Dublin from underage to Minor and Junior Level. He has been actively involved in the the delivery of Strength and Conditioning for a number of clubs and athletes in Dublin and Kildare as well as the Dublin Senior Hurling development panel. He has coached Gaelic Games (with male and female teams) at a number of levels from Nursery to Secondary School through to Senior Adult level.

Kevin Geary

Kevin Geary is the Ulster Rugby Strength & Conditioning coach. He works day to day with the professional players in Ulster with a focus on strength & power development.

Kevin graduated from Cork Institute of Technology in 2008 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Recreation and Leisure Management whilst also being part of the first intake of students to Setanta College completing his diploma in Physical Fitness and Conditioning for Sport. He is also currently completing his Masters research degree in UCD

During his time in University, he started working part time with Munster Rugby during their pre-season, eventually progressing into working full-time as the assistant Strength and Conditioning coach and continued in this role until the end of the 2009 season when he joined Ulster as Academy Strength and Conditioning coach.

Colin Buckley

Colin has over 25 years experience as a Professional Weight training Coach, working with many NGBs and clubs over the years in developing training programmes up to Elite Irish and International Levels. He is the National Coaching Development Officer for Weightlifting Ireland.

He also works as a consultant within the Sport and Fitness industry designing and installing High Performance Training Facilities.

Colin  has a very relaxed and personable style of coaching, which helps put his clients at ease while learning new skills and correcting technique.

Tom Comyns

Thomas is currently a senior Strength and Conditioning Coach with Munster Rugby. Following the completion of his PhD in 2006 he joined the IRFU Strength and Conditioning staff . Thomas is a former Olympian and has competed internationally for Ireland in the 100m, 200m and sprint relays on numerous occasions and holds the Irish Junior and Senior 4x100m relay records.  His most notable international performances are as follows:

• Olympic Games, Sydney, 2000. Set a new National Record of 39.26s for the 4x100m.
• World Senior Championships, Canada, 2001.  Set a new National Record of 3.04.26s for the 4x400m relay.
• World Senior Championships, Greece, 1997.  Set a National Record for the 4x100m.

Education:
1996: BA (Hons) in Physical Education, University of Limerick
1999: MSc in Sport Science, University of Limerick
2006: PhD in Sport Science, University of Limerick (area of research: strength training for rugby)
2006: Level 3 Coaching in Track & Field Athletics.

Research Publications:
Comyns, T.M., Harrison, A.J., & L.K. Hennessy, (in press). “An investigation into the recovery process of a maximum stretch-shortening cycle fatigue protocol on drop and rebound jumps”. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.

Comyns, T.M., Harrison, A.J., & L.K. Hennessy, 2010. “Effect of squatting on sprinting performance and repeated exposure to complex training in male rugby players”. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 24(3): 613-618.

Comyns, T.M., Harrison, A.J., Hennessy, L.K., & R.L. Jensen, 2007. “Identifying the optimal resistive load for complex training in male rugby players”. Sports Biomechanics, 6(1): 59-70.

Comyns, T.M., Harrison, A.J., Hennessy, L.K., & R.L. Jensen, 2006. “The optimal complex training rest interval for athletes from anaerobic sports”. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 20(3): 471-476.

Flanagan, E.P., Comyns, T.M., 2008. “The use of contact time and the reactive strength index to optimize fast stretch-shortening cycle training”. Strength and Conditioning Journal, 30(5): 32-38.

O’Caireallain, A., Kenny, I.C., & T.M. Comyns, (under review). “Validation of an electronic jump mat to assess stretch-shortening cycle function”. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.

Conference Presentations:
Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapy 2010 Conference. Presentation Title: “Sports injuries: the relationship between training loads and injury risk”. Date: October, 2010.

International Society of Biomechanics in Sport 2009 Conference. Presentation Title: “Application of complex training within strength and conditioning programmes”. Date: August 2009, Limerick.

Sportstracker National Coaching 2009 Conference. Presentation Title: “Speed and agility training for team sports”. Date: July 2009, Dublin.

Institute of Technology Tralee 2009 Fitness Conference. Presentation Title: “Application of the principles of speed training”. Date: November 2009, Tralee

UK Strength and Conditioning Association 2008 Conference. Presentation Title: “Application of strength and conditioning within Munster Rugby”. Date: June, 2008, Belfast.

John Corr

John qualified as a Personal Trainer in 1991 and a Sports Therapist in 1993. He owns “Fitnessworx Gym” in Cork (with 2 partners) since 2005.John works as a Personal Trainer – and has a large and varied group of clients including, Elite level Triathletes, Sprinters, Rugby, GAA, Soccer, Badminton, hockey and others.Currently John competes as a Masters Sprinter (Irish record holder and National Champion)