Life on the pitch - Sinéad O’Keeffe
Balancing a dual journey of excellence, Kilkenny camogie captain and sports scholarship recipient Sinéad O’Keeffe talks to Claire Barry about balancing the world of club, college, and inter-county sports with physiotherapy studies at UL
UL student Sinéad O’Keeffe Pictures:
Sean Curtin/True Media
Tell us about yourself and your background:
My name is Sinéad O’Keeffe, and I'm from Thomastown, Kilkenny. I am in my final year of the BSc Physiotherapy degree in University of Limerick. I play camogie for my senior club in Thomastown, I'm on Kilkenny's senior county team and I am captain of the Ashbourne Cup squad in UL this year. I've been captain of all three between this year and last year. Finding a skort and socks to match all team colours is hard!
Why did you choose to study Physiotherapy?
I’ve always had an interest in how the body works. When I would get injured, I'd ask, ‘Why has this happened? Why me?’. I wanted to know what was going on and how I could fix it. I also wanted to explore the whole area of health and wellbeing, helping people make improvements and make a difference in the quality of their lives. My brother has cerebral palsy and is in a wheelchair, so I have experienced it from a disability perspective as well as sports. Because of my own interests on the pitch, I believe there’s massive scope and depth in women's sports. There is more to be learned and discovered in how a woman’s body performs and responds compared to a man’s. That is going to be an area of interest in the coming years. The areas of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and different ligament injuries are particularly interesting to me.
How have you found the course?
Before I started the course, I didn’t realise the breadth and depth of physiotherapy and its impact. I got to experience some different areas during my student placement. I really enjoyed the neurorehabilitation side of it and working with older people. Working in intensive care was also really interesting. There’s so much to learn, and you want to keep learning more.
How do you balance being a student with your sporting commitments?
I’ve never been a stressed type of person, and I have been lucky to balance college and camogie easily enough. I treat my college work as a constant everyday routine, like my 9 to 5. At the minute, we have our training plans from the county and the university teams, and there is great communication between the two management sets. Management are very understanding; for them it’s about protecting the player more than getting the most out of the player. I know how much I can take on, and when something is too much. Planning comes easy when you enjoy doing something like camogie and trying to make yourself better every day. It’s easy to fit these things in when you want to get results.
How many counties are represented on UL’s Ashbourne squad?
I think it mainly spans across Limerick, Clare, Tipperary, Cork, Galway, Kilkenny, Waterford and Laois. We play together here for the Ashbourne Cup and then against each other at county level in the All-Ireland Championship. It’s great, though, because there will always be a competitive edge, but it takes it outside of the competitive side of things because you have friends made in other county teams, too.
Has your knowledge of physio influenced your performance on the pitch?
I’ve become more aware of the physical workload; what will set me in the direction of injury risk or, equally, what will put me in the direction of performance enhancement. You’ll always need the guidance of your team physio because that’s what works best, taking direction from qualified physios rather than being your own practitioner. It’s peak time for the Ashbourne Cup, with the championship underway, and we’re in full-on training mode with the county. Your body does tire a little bit. And at this time of year your body can carry some overload strain between the astro and the grass pitches. Understanding the science behind recovery is important nowadays for performance.
‘Planning comes easy when you enjoy doing something like camogie and trying to make yourself better every day. It’s easy to fit these things in when you want to get results’
Your experience learning from top academic talent in state-of-the-art facilities - what has it been like?
We are so lucky to be able to study in top facilities. We get to use the latest tech and resources to practice and improve our skills. There’s many fields of expertise in physio, and we have leading academics for each. Most of our lecturers and module leads have their own papers and work published. We have direct access to knowledge from all fields, including respiratory physio, musculoskeletal, and neurorehabilitation; it's all available. We’ve also had guest lecturers from specialist areas, like the rehab hospital, physios running their own practices, University Hospital Limerick, and researchers presenting their work too. So, we have the best experience exploring everything a career in physio has to offer.
What’s been your proudest moment to date?
Being nominated for captain of the Kilkenny camogie team in 2023 has been my proudest moment so far. It was a great honour for my family, for my club and even for my friends. It was a great experience as well as an honour. I’ve learned loads about myself and about others on the team and what works best for a team.
Are there other athletes in your family?
We are a very big sporting Irish family. On the O’Keeffe side, there are five families, and we all play across the camogie and hurling county board. Some play handball, and we are into running as well. My Dad is the chairman of the running club here in Thomastown. I grew up with sports and it’s shaped my interest in them. My younger sister plays with me in the senior camogie team in Thomastown. She is studying in TUD in Dublin and is playing with their Ashbourne squad this year...it’ll be interesting if we get to meet on the pitch this year! And my cousin is with UCD’s Ashbourne squad, so I could very likely meet her on the pitch too.
Any sporting heroes?
As an Irish female athlete Katie Taylor is definitely one to look up to. What she has done for the world of sports, and in particular female sport in Ireland. The respect she has gained for female athletes in general is so impressive. The work she puts in and the respect she gains from every other athlete in the world, it doesn’t matter what sport people play they all know her and respect her. She’s definitely put Ireland on the global map for females in sport.
What is the recipe to win the All-Ireland Camogie Championship?
Hunger for the win, having the right mindset and attitude, and strong ties and camaraderie as a team. What's your hopes and plans for the future?
From the sporting side of things, playing with Kilkenny for as long as I can. I wouldn’t be a regular starter on the county team, so I’d love to be able to break onto that team this year. Then, from the physio side of things, graduating this year, hopefully with first-class honours. From there, I might get experience in some hospitals to figure out what I like and what I want to specialise in. I’m not sure if there’s travel in my future yet. There’s loads of experience in physio to be got in countries like Canada, New Zealand and Australia. They would be all big for research in physio. It would be great to see what’s done over there, but I’m also a homebird, so we’ll see what happens. What’s your best piece of advice? Being yourself is the best quality you can bring to anything. There is no point in changing who you are; being yourself will bring out the best in you. I had a leadership role in my 6th year of secondary school and being able to say that to the younger girls meant a lot to me. It’s the advice I have carried with me throughout my life. When you bring that on to the pitch and into your studies, you bring your best self, and that’s what matters.
