Former Ireland international, Girvan Dempsey has been appointed as the new Head of Sport and Director of Rugby at Prior Park College.
Girvan had a highly successful playing career, which included over 200 appearances for Leinster rugby and 82 international caps for Ireland. He was a key member of the Ireland team, alongside Brian O’Driscall and Ronan O’Gara, that secured three Triple Crowns.
Following his retirement from playing professionally, Girvan was appointed Leinster Academy Manager in 2012. This move to a career in coaching and player development progressed to helping coach the Leinster senior team. In this role, he helped the Irish province win the European Champions Cup and Pro 14 double. Girvan also coached the Emerging Ireland rugby team and was an assistant coach for the senior Ireland men’s team on their summer tour to Japan in 2017.
In 2018 he was appointed attack coach for Bath Rugby before stepping away from professional coaching to return to his passion of player development. He has been the Head of Rugby at Collegiate School since 2021. Girvan will take up his role at Prior Park College in September 2025.
Mr Dempsey said: ‘I very much look forward to working with the brilliant students and staff at Prior Park College. My aim is to inspire a lifelong love of sport and exercise. I want to help every student achieve their potential both on and off the sports field. We will be working hard to develop the key skills of teamwork, resilience and leadership. I know that the coaching team at Prior share my vision of doing all we can to help students create happy, lasting, memories of their days playing sport at Prior.’