Ciara Murray is the Head of Marketing – Ireland at Frasers Group, the parent company of Sports Direct, and one of the leading strategists driving the brand’s growing presence and purpose within Irish sport.

In this role, she oversees national marketing, partnership activation and brand positioning across Ireland, ensuring Sports Direct’s voice resonates with fans, athletes, clubs and communities throughout the country.

Ciara’s two-decade career with the organisation began with the Heatons Group in 2001, progressing through senior commercial and brand roles as the business transitioned into Frasers Group. Her depth of institutional knowledge and experience has been central to Sports Direct’s evolution into a major sponsor in Ireland, guiding partnerships that balance commercial visibility with social and sporting impact.

Under her leadership, Sports Direct has become one of the most active sponsors in Irish football — including title sponsorship of the Sports Direct Men’s and Women’s FAI Cups, partnerships with the Northern Ireland Football League, and support for GAA through relationships with counties such as Cork and Louth. She has also driven the brand’s commitment to women’s participation, notably through partnership with the LGFA’s Gaelic4Mothers&Others programme, which continues to expand accessible recreational sport opportunities for women nationwide.

In 2025, Ciara led the rollout of Sports Direct’s new partnership with Special Olympics Ireland — marking a significant step in the retailer’s support of inclusive sport. The partnership focuses on awareness, participation and empowerment, helping athletes access training, competition and community pathways while using the brand’s reach to amplify Special Olympics stories and values across Ireland.

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The 2025 List in Full

Dr Una May, Moira Aston, Mary O’Connor, Michelle Carpenter, Brenda O’Donnell, Sarah Keane, Karen Coventry, Michelle Tanner, Nora Stapleton, Mary McAleese, Rosie Barry, Sinead Hosey, Laura Heffernan, Jacqui Hurley, Aoife Lane, Tracy Bunyan, Lisa Clancy, Aoife Clarke, Thelma O’Driscoll, Catherine Tiernan, Helen O’Rourke, Niamh Tallon, Julie Nicholson, Aisling O’Reilly, Evanne Ní Chuilinn, Avalon Everett, Ashley Morrow, Eimear O’Sullivan, Kelli O’Keeffe, Sarah O’Connor, Jill Downey, Ger McTavish, Aifric Keogh, Rebecca Trevor, Lyn Savage, Suzanne Eade, Joanna Byrne, Bethany Carson, Lynne Cantwell, Christina Kenny, Sinead Cassidy, Nicola Coffey, Orlaith Ryan,  Fiona Chambers, Mary Van Lieshout, Caroline Donnellan, Mary McGuire, Mairead Kavanagh, Valerie Hedin, Ciara Murray

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This is the 13th edition of the Sport for Business listing of 50 Women of Influence in Irish Sport in partnership once more with our friends at AIG.

We began this journey in 2013, when we were challenged to produce a list of 20 Influential Women in Irish Sport. The 20 stretched to 30, then 40 and 50, and it still does not do justice to the talent out there.

Substantial progress has been made during this time. The Government, mindful of the importance and need for gender equity, challenged Irish sporting bodies to achieve a 60/40 gender split on their main boards or leadership entities by the end of 2023

Internationally, the gender split in doctors ranges from 46 per cent female in New Zealand to 48 per cent in the UK, 52 per cent in France, and 54 per cent in the United States. Sport has, for too long, lagged.

The gender gap in participation is targeted to be non-existent by 2027, and the profile of our elite athletes is as high for Katie Taylor, Katie McCabe, Rhasidat Adeleke and Leona Maguire as it is for the best of our men.

We are nearing the point where sport is sport regardless of gender.

The gap remains too big in media, sponsorship, attendance, and funding, but it is only by highlighting the wrongs that we can make them right.

This year’s list will again draw from all the multiple areas that make up sport. From the fields of play to the corridors of power, from the boardroom to the studio, and from every corner of the country.

We will divide the list into the CEO Club, the Influencers, and the Sponsors Lounge. the Administrators and others

This year, once again, we will challenge ourselves to generate at least 40 per cent of new entrants to ensure that fresh recognition is given to those making a mark.

This will mean some who fully deserve to remain stepping aside but that is part of what influence and leadership is about and they are in no way diminished by their not being on the list this year.

The list we will build over the coming weeks is a snapshot of women who are changing the way sport is played, consumed, grown, and delivered.

They are part of making the role of women in sport unexceptional by being exceptional in what they do.

Recognition of their contribution is rarely asked for but is entirely deserved, and we want your help in identifying those who you feel should be among them.

 

Image Credit: Sport for Business

Further Reading for Sport for Business members:

Read our Sport for Business Coverage of Women in Sport

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