Ms Anna Geary

Anna Geary is from Milford, a small village nestled away in North County Cork. She comes from a family steeped in GAA with family members representing their counties from minor all the way up to Senior Intercounty level. Her uncle Martin Geary is a well-known hurler and hurled for Waterford, while her cousin Lorcan McLoughlin is currently on the Cork Senior Hurling Team. Her parents Michael and Ellen Ann and brother, Thomas, have always been a great support and a positive influence on her. At 28, Anna’s sporting career has earned her many rewards including 4 senior all Ireland medals with Cork and 2 senior club all Irelands titles with Milford.  She had the privilege of captaining Cork in 2013 & 2014 during which time they brought back 2 Munster titles, a National League title (2013) along with the O’Duffy All Ireland Cup in 2014. Anna also has 4 coveted All Star Awards and numerous individual awards including: 2014 AIB “The Toughest” Munster Senior Club Player of the Year; Overall 96fm & 103fm Sportsperson of the Year Award 2014; Cork Person of the Month Award 2014; The Irish Times Sportswoman of the Month for September 2014; Irish Examiner Young Sports Star of the Year award in 2005. 

Anna has amassed 10 All Ireland medals with St Mary’s Secondary School Charleville, captained the Irish Shinty team in 2004 v Scotland and has won 2 Gael Linn titles with the Senior Munster team. She has 3 Senior County titles and 3 Munster Titles with her club; 8 Munster titles with Cork and 4 National League titles in total. Anna is one of a rare few in the country to play on and win with 3 consecutive Cork minor teams - she proudly captained the 2003 winning team. All her life, Anna has wanted to represent her family and community with honour and pride. She has played with Cork from u14 all the way up to Senior Level. She had just turned 16 the year she came onto the Cork Senior Squad (in 2003) and won her first Senior All Ireland medal and All Star at wing back in 2005. 

2005 was the same year that Anna Geary began her studies at UL from there she graduated in 2009 with a Bachelor of Business Studies Degree. While a student at UL, Anna won a fresher title in her first year as well as her first Ashbourne Cup. She was also chosen at wing back position on the Team of the Tournament. In 2006, she went on to be awarded “A Contribution to Sport” accolade by the President of UL and also received Presidential Letters for academic achievement during her time at UL. Furthermore, Anna was chosen to be a recipient of a National Camogie Association Bursary in ‘05/’06 and ‘06/’07. Her degree in Business led Anna to work in the software industry for years where she worked for VMware in recruitment and with Dell on the Marketing Team. She received a first class honours Post Grad in 2013 in PR & Communications and is currently undergoing a Diploma in Business and Life Coaching. For 2014, Anna also represented Cork at the Rose of Tralee Festival. That afforded her the opportunity to raise the awareness of the game of Camogie and bring it to a different audience all over the country and beyond. 

Anna has taken on non-playing roles relating to Camogie too, on the administration side for the Association. She was chosen as the 2nd Level National Camogie Ambassador for the Centenary Year in 2004; she was involved in a PRO role for UL Camogie Club; she was on the National Camogie Player Welfare Committee and her most memorable role was being one of the founding 6 members of the Women’s Gaelic Players’ Association established in 2015. When Anna lived in Luxembourg in 2008 for her 3rd year Co-Op placement as part of her degree, she was subsequently chosen as the Irish Ambassador for the Youth on the Move Campaign. This was a European Commission based project, established in 2010 with an aim to improve young people’s education and employability prospects. While living in Luxembourg, she won a European Camogie title and helped to form and subsequently train that first ever Luxembourg Team.  

In 2015, Anna retired from Intercounty Camogie (prematurely, some would say) to focus on her a change in career direction. She moved to Dublin to pursue a career in media and journalism and worked with Radio 1 and with RTE on ‘The Sunday Game’ as a sports analyst and also as a coach on the Ireland’s Fittest Family series. Currently, Anna is working with TV3’s ‘The Seven O’ Clock Show’ and she is also currently involved in the production and presenting of a 6-part series about Camogie for Sky channel ‘Irish TV’.  She has a passion for giving motivational talks and workshops in her spare time and want to develop this area further as part of her career. Anna was recently named on the ‘Sport for Business’ list of “50 Most Influential Women in Irish Sport 2015”. 

Anna Geary remains committed to being an ambassador for Camogie as she says “it will always be a part of who Anna Geary is”. Moving forward into the next chapter of her life, she wants to be a driver of change in perceptions regarding women in sport.