Caroline Currid
Caroline Currid (born 1980 or 1981) 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. Early life. Currid is a native of the village of Grange, County Sligo. 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. With the Sligo football team, Currid won an All-Ireland Junior Ladies' Football Championship medal in 2006. She had lost the two previous finals. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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!'" Also in 2011, Currid worked with Cork's first-time hurling champions Carrigtwohill and Galway Senior Football Championship finalists Tuam. 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. She was struck by the way the Kenyan athletes lived in the moment, which gave a high level of clarity to their performance.