Piranha didn’t have that name! When the club was founded back in 2001, it was known as Tsunami – a nod to the wave of new energy that was building around multi-sport in Ireland at the time.
The club was set up by Anna Frankland and Ray O’Neill with a simple ambition: to bring together people who shared a common interest, and help them chase their health, fitness and competitive goals through the sport of triathlon. Two and a half decades later, that mission still holds.
The founders weren’t just organisers. Anna went on to win a medal at the 2004 European Triathlon Championships, and Ray became one of the early Race Directors of what would grow into the club’s flagship event, Dublin City Triathlon.
DCT: a race with real Piranha DNA
In 2003, when Piranha was still a young club finding its feet, it took over the organisation of what is now the Dublin City Triathlon. DCT quickly became one of Ireland’s biggest and most loved races. Under a run of committed Race Directors, including Ray O’Neill, Tom Kelly, and Lorraine Crean (DCT’s first ever female RD in 2007), the race grew from a tight-knit gathering into a national fixture.
The bar was set even higher when DCT was crowned Triathlon Ireland Race of the Year in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016, four titles in five years, with the closed-road Phoenix Park bike course, the Liffey swim and a legendary post-race ice cream all becoming part of the tradition. And in 2016, the club got the moment it had been waiting for: Tom McEnery and Michelle Brennan became the first Piranha members to win DCT overall.
By the club’s 10th birthday in 2011, Piranha had over 180 members and had well and truly grown into its skin. The milestone was celebrated with a gathering of over 100 guests at Fallon & Byrne in Dublin, with pro cyclist Sean Kelly as keynote speaker and past member Mark Pollock, the blind adventure athlete, among the special guests. It was also the night the club launched the very first version of this website.
The Piranha of today
Twenty-five years on, Piranha is one of Ireland’s leading triathlon clubs and a multi-time Triathlon Ireland “Club of the Year” winner.
What sets the club apart is the sheer breadth of what’s happening on any given week. Training runs on both sides of the Liffey with structured sessions across swim, bike and run, coached programmes for every level, and a culture that puts as much value on the person turning up to their first open water swim as it does on the athlete chasing a podium at the national championships.
That balance is exactly why Piranha has become such a consistent force at the sharp end of the sport in Ireland. Year after year, club members represent Piranha at the Triathlon Ireland National Series, and year after year they come home with silverware — age group podiums across sprint, Olympic, middle and long distance, overall wins at national series rounds, and a steady stream of qualifiers for European and World Championship age group teams. Members have also competed at National Championships across triathlon, duathlon and aquathlon, with Piranha kit regularly seen on the podium.
It goes beyond individual results. Piranha has been a fixture in the National Club Series, with strong team performances that have delivered club category wins and top‑three finishes across the season. The Club of the Year recognition from Triathlon Ireland isn’t a one-off — it’s the outcome of a genuine club culture where fast athletes bring newer athletes along with them, and where success is measured in personal bests as much as in podiums.
