Seán Silke is a name synonymous with local and county hurling in Galway, as well as being to the forefront of the growth of one of Galway's top manufacturing facilities - Medtronic.

From Eyrecourt in south Co. Galway, Seán saw success as a player and as a coach in the 1970s with his club, Meelick Eyrecourt, winning junior and intermediate titles in 1972/1973, his college Maynooth where he studied Arts and won two Fitzgibbon medals in 1973/1974, his involvement with training teams Ardrahan and Gort, winning titles in 1978 and 1982 respectively, and of course winning that elusive All-Ireland hurling medal in 1980.

After leaving Maynooth Seán taught PE and Geography in the Technical College in Ballinasloe for almost 30 years. It was from this that he got a thirst for HR management. "After doing some study in the HR field I branched off from teaching to this. After working in Shannon for seven years I moved onto Medtronic where I saw the company grow to 2,500 since the year I began. My time teaching was just brilliant but I knew I wanted a change and the change into HR was a great decision for me," he says now.

Moving on from Medtronic, Seán has now started his own consultancy business. It provides a range of management services to companies big and small. He helps in building more harmonious relationships in organisations through team/group coaching, conflict management, mediation and a range of other management skills.

Travel was always of interest to Seán - whilst in college he travelled to Chicago where he met his wife Patricia and he also found sporting acclaim with Harry Boland's, winning several all American leagues.

"This was a great time for me and it was great also last summer to see my son Kevin playing for the same club. One of the greatest trips however was with the county hurling team to China in 2005/2006. This was a truly memorable trip which I am sure all of the guys will treasure forever," smiles Seán.

Sport is never far from Seán's mind. Living in Curcullen he is heavily involved with local club Rathún-An Chaisleán Nua and is the chairman of the Galway City Sports Partnership. "This is in connection with the Irish Sports Council. It aims to help and encourage people and children in marginalised and underprivileged areas to get involved in more activity. It essentially is trying to promote that being more active makes you feel more alive whilst also promoting a sense of community spirit in the city," he explains.

"After moving to Curcullen many moons ago I became involved again with Rathún-An Chaisleán Nua. I was involved with an U-16 in the 1980s, which had some of the members of the now intermediate side in the club. The club has come on a lot since then - we have built a state of the art clubhouse and playing pitches at Thonabrucky. It is great to see young and old fellows getting involved with the club as it promotes a great sense of community spirit in the area. I hope that the club continues to grow and that we as a club can appeal and encourage more and more young people to get involved in the game of hurling the city.

Sport is so important in the lives of young people it teaches them right from work, makes you friends for life and gives people a great sense of community spirit. The environment at Rathún-An Chaisleán Nua is conducive to children and to parents in order for them to enjoy, to learn sport a new skill in a safe environment," adds Seán.

In any spare time that Seán has he is to be found on the golf course, training hurling teams and enjoying watching rugby. Aside from sport Seán is an avid Jeffrey Archer fan and enjoys listening to a broad range of music from Dolores Keane, U2, The Dubliners, The Beatles and of course Joe Dolan.

For more information on Seán's business, email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Comments (0) »

Show/Hide comment form

Name

Email

Title

Comment

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment