Our Board

Anna Pringle

Chair of the Board

Anna has been involved with Sanctuary Runners since 2018, when she was inspired by participating in the Cork half marathon to help bring the movement to Dublin. Anna is actively involved in environmental issues, serves on the board of Friends of the Earth and has been a director of the NTR Foundation, which provided targeted financial support to climate action projects. She is also co-host of the Climate Alarm Clock podcast. Previously, she held senior human resources and communications roles in the corporate sector. Anna is a member of the Fairview Sanctuary Runners group, where she particularly enjoys the occasional road trips and celebration cakes!

Padraic Moran

Director and Company Secretary

Padraic is a Business Consultant specialising in technology governance and regulatory compliance in the Financial Services sector. With a long career in software and technology innovation, he has previously been a director of a technology venture fund where he held board positions with a number of investee companies, was the Founder and CEO of a financial services start-up, and held a number of executive positions with IBM. An enthusiastic if not particularly talented runner, Padraic has been involved with Sanctuary Runners since its inaugural event - the 2018 Cork marathon relay - and has been an active advocate ever since. Padraic is a member of the Corkagh group.

John Riordan

Director

John has been engaged with Sanctuary Runners since the very first event - the 2018 Cork City Marathon - an event which brought him back into the world of running and opened his eyes on the need for a better integration of asylum seekers and refugees in Ireland. John is a leading voice on Remote Work and is chairman of the board of Grow Remote, a community project bridging the disconnect between remote work and local impact in rural areas. John also serves on the IRFU Commercial & Marketing Committee as well as being on the board of three start-ups. Prior to retiring in 2021, John was Chairman of Shopify International Ltd, and previously worked at Apple Inc, and Virgin Atlantic Airways in a variety of Customer Service and Sales & Marketing roles. John is a member of the Cork group.

Our Team

Michael Darragh Macauley

CEO

Eight-time All-Ireland winner Michael Darragh Macauley has joined Sanctuary Runners as CEO. A leader on the field of play Michael Darragh also excelled in his work with North East Inner City (NEIC) Dublin over many years where, amongst numerous projects, he helped create the NEIC Trojans basketball team welcoming young people of all different cultural backgrounds. As a social impact leader Michael Darragh has focused his non-playing career on building communities, bringing people of all different backgrounds together, treating people with respect and using sport to break down barriers to community integration.

Graham Clifford

Head of International Development

Graham is the founder of the Sanctuary Runners. He previously worked as a feature writer and broadcaster in Ireland, the UK and Australia. A passionate advocate for community integration he is also the founder of the 'One Town One Voice' Community Singing initiative and in 2020 established the award-winning 'Translate Ireland' multilingual video messaging service with his wife Catherine.

Ellen O'Connor

Head of Operations and Impact

Prior to joining the Sanctuary Runners Ellen worked with Rethink Ireland, developing and facilitating capacity building programmes for non-profit organisations. She has worked for over 15 years in the international education sector where she managed strategic partnership development and international programmes. Ellen is passionate about social innovation, and is a runner with Sanctuary Runners Limerick.

Annemarie Sheehan

Community Development Manager

Annemarie supports communities across the country in the creation and setup of new Sanctuary Runners groups as well as supporting existing groups across the South East and Midlands. She has been working and volunteering in the charity sector for over 20 years supporting organisations with operations, digital marketing and IT and has been a Sanctuary Runner since 2018.

Jennifer O'Brien

Community Development Manager

As Community Development Manager for the Mid-West, Jennifer helps support running groups in that region as well as identifying areas of demand for new Sanctuary Runner groups. Jennifer is a community development specialist, having worked in the area for over 15 years. She has previously set up the Southill Community Hub in Limerick and worked as the Rural and Community Development Officer with Clare County Council.

Annie Doran

Community Development Manager

As Community Development Manager for the East and North, Annie supports running groups in these regions and identifies areas for new groups. Annie has demonstrated her passion and commitment for community development through sport during her career spending 15 years working in the community and voluntary sector in Sports Development & Mental Health. Outside of her career Annie is a sports fanatic and has represented Ireland in compromise rules and triathlon, she is an All-Ireland football winner and an Ironman podium athlete who puts weighted value on connection through sport.

Sorcha Killian

Operations Manager

Sorcha is the operations manager for Sanctuary Runners and has worked in the non profit/ social sector for over five years working to support a range of vulnerable people. Prior to sanctuary runners Sorcha worked with the European Commission , the Health Foundation, Ministry of Justice and within child protection charities. She is also a founder of Hygiene Hub, a national charity in Ireland. Sorcha is passionate about grass routes community led projects and the power of collective system transformation.Sample Description

Noel Adabblah

Liaison Officer

Noel's work as Liaison Officer supports our groups and RDOs in reaching out to those in direct provision. As a dedicated Sanctuary Runner and talented athlete, Noel articulates the physical and mental health and social benefits of being part of a group to those who are seeking international protection and works to ensure the entire community is represented at Sanctuary Runners.