Meet the Irish Gap Year Team

Ryan Allen

Founding Director 

Ryan founded Irish Gap Year in 2015 and serves as the Co-President of the Gap Year Association. He is also the chair of the Gap Year Association Sustainability Committee and co-founder of Green Education Ireland.

Ryan grew up on the East Coast of the United States near Philadelphia in and Irish-American family. He is life-long passionate surfer and outdoorsman, a father of two young children (Maggie and Tommy) and a musician. He lives in Bundoran, County Donegal with his young family.  

In his formative years Ryan was drawn to the forests, farms and beaches in Pennslyvania and New Jersey, seeking adventure and occasionally mischief! In his own words, ”I didn’t fit the classroom mould, I needed to be out, moving, doing, exploring and learning about the world. Despite being what you’d call ‘a good student‘ I struggled through school and college. I think I was a bit too kinetic to find my calling in an academic environment!”

Happily, Ryan found a wonderful fit at the University of Canterbury Christchurch, NZ where he completed a BA in Literature. The leap of faith that Ryan took at 18 years old moving from America to New Zealand was formative in his adult life and allowed him to marry his passion for the outdoors with his educational path. 

Over the past 20 years, Ryan’s adventurous spirit has taken him all over the world adventuring and surfing while teaching outdoor and experiential education in Scandinavia, Europe and the USA. Ryan loves getting out in the field with students, teaching Irish Gap Year’s leadership workshops on the Adventure & Leadership Program and feels particularly fortunate to have the opportunity to marry his passions with his career.    

Onóra Gill-Fitch

Accounts Manager 

Onóra manages the office at Irish Gap Year. She has an excellent head for figures and but is also a very creative person. Although born in Dublin Onóra spent most of her childhood on the west coast of Ireland, moving to Drumcliffe in Sligo at the age of 8.

Living in such a picturesque spot the ocean definitely had a pull for her and she took to sailing in her early teens and swam at Streedagh beach most days rain, hail or shine.

After studying Art and Design Education in NCAD in Dublin Onóra moved to Brighton in the UK. While here she spent 7 years working as a ceramicist with Keneth Clarke Ceramics, working her way to becoming the director of the company. During this time Onóra also met the love of her life and now husband, Graham.

As she had always wanted to work with young people, Onóra became an Art Technician at Eastborne College helping students who were studying art and design achieve their goals. Here she again worked quite a bit with ceramics but also got into fine art and model making.

When her two girls came along her longing to come home to Ireland got greater and greater so they packed up, sold their house to start a new life back in Ireland. 10 years later Onóra is living by the sea with her husband and now four kids, loving life and enjoying her role in Irish Gap Year.

Kate Mullins

Operations Manager

After spending several years working in the online advertising industry between Dublin, Stockholm and London, Kate came to Bundoran for a few weeks to surf, and never left. She is originally from Wexford and started her education studying Fine Art, moving on to Visual Communication, and Design in Interactive Multimedia in IADT. However these days much prefers being creative in a low tech manner. She has worked here for several years as a surf instructor and later, manager of a surf school, she has also spent time both volunteering and working for the Irish youth development organisation Foróige.

She has been with Irish Gap Year for several years now and has gained experience working as both a program leader on the Irish Arts & Culture program and the Adventure & Leadership program.
Her passions are surfing, sea swimming, art, and a morning coffee outside watching the birds.

Andrew Gilmore

Program Leader: European Expedition

Andrew grew up on a farm in County Derry. Family holidays were exclusively to the West Coast in a retro caravan, where he was introduced to the simple joys of hillwalking and rock pooling.

He spent his teenage years exploring the forgotten woods, bogs and hills near his home, which turned into a passion for photography, conservation and trying to get lost.

After his first gap year (which culminated in a solo cycle tour to Bundoran), Andrew studied Environmental Science and Outdoor Education at the University of Stirling. Surprisingly he resonated much more with the Outdoor Education component than the science, which involved more maths than anticipated. His fondest memories of this time are the countless trips to the Scottish Highlands with friends, where he would become a Mountain Leader.

Andrew took another gap year to recover from his academic exertions, this time hiking and hitch-hiking his way up and down the Andes in South America. He fell in love with the forests of Patagonia, where he became involved in a project that demonstrated the power and possibilities of living and working in a community. He revisited this project and experienced more of Peru on a third gap year, up until the pandemic.

Since returning to Ireland, Andrew has been working as an instructor and building his knowledge of native plant species. He has also caught the surfing bug, and is looking forward to sharing waves on the West Coast.
He can just as often be found indoors in cafes, antique & charity shops (thrift stores), cinemas and attending concerts.

Jules Tuttlebee

Program Leader

Jules was born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland and has always loved travel, outdoors and adventure! After studying Hospitality & Catering Management in her home town of Glasgow she used her qualifications to head off on travels becoming Bar/Restaurant manager in Greece, Catering assistant on a ranch in Canada, teaching English in Thailand and more recently helping to run a busy bakery / coffee shop!

Jules met her husband who is from Ireland at college in the South of England and was dragged across the waters to live, and now loves that Ireland is very much home for herself, hubby and 4 children.

Jules brings 22 years of experience of being a mum, she loves to work alongside people and help them to push themselves to make the best of each day and learn from the trials and experiences that each day might bring! Jules other passions include a love of baking, photography, hiking, learning to surf and just spending time with people!

 

Sheelagh Hennessy

Program Leader

Sheelagh grew up in a small village in Co. Kilkenny loved spending her evenings out exploring, building treehouses, cooking over the fire, swimming in the local river and cycling to forests. When the school holidays came the car was packed and they would set off to Malin Head Co. Donegal where her granny was from. These experiences gave sheelagh her love and curiosity for the wild oceans. At 18 she enrolled on a FAS course where she sat into a kayak and navigated in the hills for the first time. She was hooked. She has worked in both private and public outdoor adventure centers, managed an outdoor community hub and has mentored many people over the years. Between seasons and work she has traveled to kayak and climb in many countries including Nepal, China, Chile , Brazil, Slovenia , Morocco , Wales and Scotland. She has a degree in Outdoor Learning. Just before the pandemic she moved to West Cork where she lived off grid. It was here she found her love of regenerative farming and sustainable living. She ran her own Outdoor Learning school off the land, where students would come to learn bushcraft, feed lambs and learn about their local wildspaces.

No matter what you get up to, Sheelagh believes you can bring fun and laughter to almost any situation and in doing so it creates a warm environment that encourages people to flourish.

Apart from being outdoors in the lovely Irish weather, Sheelagh can be found relaxing with her dog, reading, napping or listening to music.

Joseph Corrigan

Program Leader

Joseph grew up in rural northwest Donegal and as a child he spent most of his free time out in nature. Whether it was exploring the local woods, hills and waterways he was always drawn to the wilderness and nature. In particular, he always had a strong draw to the ocean.

 Joseph always found that he was best suited to experiential learning and being in nature rather than a classroom setting and so he decided to study a degree in Outdoor Education and Leisure in GMIT Mayo. Through this Joseph was able to explore his love for nature and adventure and learned how to channel this into his teaching and coaching. During his studies Joseph also took opportunities to travel, volunteering with Habitat for humanity in Zambia and completing his work experience in north Wales in an Adventure Center. Joseph graduated with a Level 8 honours degree in 2021.

He has since worked as a surf instructor and beach lifeguard and enjoys being able to share his love of the outdoors and nature through his work. In his spare time Joseph enjoys surfing, snorkelling ,camping and working on his long term canoe project affectionately named “Patches.”.

Sarah Mallen

Program Leader

Sarah loves surfing, yoga, spending time in nature and dinners with friends. She is a city girl by birth and a country girl by choice. She grew up in Dublin, spending time by the sea and in the mountains when she could.

After studying medicinal chemistry at UCD, she moved to the southwest of Ireland for further studies at the University of Limerick. She joined the Outdoor Pursuits Club and Surf Club and spent her free time hiking and attempting to surf. It was through the UL Surf Club that she fell in love with surfing and the Wild Atlantic Way. She organised surf trips for the club and brought that with her when she went to work in medical devices in Galway, organising surf trips for colleagues there. During her time in Galway, she trained as a yoga teacher and surf instructor.

In 2021, Sarah took a career break from medical devices to teach yoga and surfing in Bundoran and she hasn’t looked back since. She teaches yoga classes in the community and coaches women and kids at the local surf club. She is an Adaptive Surf Coach and has volunteered and worked for organisations who aim to make surfing accessible for all in Ireland, Europe and New Zealand (including Liquid Therapy, Surf2Heal, Inclusea and Parafed). She has also worked as a homecare assistant with the elderly and as an Activity Leader for Barretstown, a charity that provides Serious Fun camps to kids and families who have experienced serious illness.

Sarah values community, health and wellbeing and the importance of play and adventure in helping us to connect with ourselves, each other and the world around us.

Jason Hood

Program Leader

Growing up amidst the rolling hills and natural beauty of rural County Tyrone, Jason’s connection to the outdoors was forged early. His childhood on a family farm, surrounded by animals and nature, laid the foundation for a lifelong passion. This love for the natural world continued through his teenage years, spent actively involved in summer camps in Fermanagh, where he developed a taste for outdoor adventuring.

Even while studying Mechanical Engineering in Sligo, Jason’s summers were dedicated to the outdoors, working casually at various camps and improving his skills. It was during this time that he had a pivotal realisation – his true calling lay outside, not within the confines of an office or workshop. Upon graduating, Jason bravely traded blueprints for wild landscapes, diving headfirst into outdoor education – a decision he’s never regretted.

Jason honed his expertise working with prestigious organisations like Tollymore, Northern Ireland’s national outdoor centre, and the Education Authority’s outdoor learning team, where he built up his theoretical knowledge and technical abilities. With certifications as a Mountain Leader, Paddle Sport Leader, Stand Up Paddleboard Coach, Climbing Wall Instructor, and Archery Instructor, his expertise covers a wide range of activities. These experiences solidified his skills and deepened his commitment to sharing the profound benefits of nature.