Hannon: Trust in Currid has built unbreakable Limerick bond
Kyle Hayes of Limerick celebrates with Limerick sports psychologist Caroline Currid after the GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship semi-final match between Clare and Limerick at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
Declan Hannon believes sports psychologist Caroline Currid remains 'the best in the game' and continues to be Limerick's not so secret weapon.
Currid was present behind the scenes in the Limerick backroom for each of their five MacCarthy Cup wins under John Kiely.
In the years that they came up short - 2019, 2024 and 2025 - she was absent.
Hannon, who captained Limerick throughout the golden era, said he personally felt a 'massive weight off my shoulders' from talking to Currid in 2017, having carried 'a bit of embarrassment' about his poor performance against Clare four years earlier.
Speaking at the launch of Movember Ahead of the Game Phase 4 2026, Hannon said that Currid has ultimately helped develop a deep 'trust' and unbreakable bond within the group.
"She's been fantastic in terms of getting the Limerick lads more comfortable with having uncomfortable conversations and expressing your feelings," said Hannon. "It's a difficult thing to do. It took us a long time to get it right and to trust the people in the room, that it wasn't going to go outside the room, that's a big part of it.
"That's been built up over the last 10 years and Caroline has been amazing. Her record speaks for itself with Limerick. When she's been around, we've won the All-Ireland and, when she hasn't, we haven't."
Hannon said the fact that news of Cian Lynch not starting the semi-final against Clare wasn't leaked underlined the tightness in the group.
"It takes time to build up that trust, that things won't go outside the room," he said. "Because lads were discussing personal things that are hard to talk about to one person, let alone 36 lads in a room. But it created an unbelievable bond. It's a bond there that's difficult to break.
"You might say, 'Sure what does that have to do with hurling?' But, jeez, it counts hugely in those moments when it's coming towards the end of the game, and when you need that unity there that will get you over the line for a finish."
Currid, who has enjoyed success with Dublin and Tyrone football teams, and the Tipperary hurling team, among many others, joined Limerick in 2017.
Hannon, who missed a series of frees in the 2013 semi-final defeat to Clare and received hate mail afterwards, was one of the first to meet her.
Asked if he'd been hurling within himself between 2014 and 2016, Hannon nodded.
"There was a bit of embarrassment there, that you felt you'd let, really, a county down," he said. "I sat down with Caroline, when she came in in '17, it was the first thing I wanted to say. It was a massive weight off my shoulders.
"She just normalised the whole thing. Your head can be really powerful, you can be going around in riddles there, building something up that you don't need to be building up at all. She's amazing, just saying, 'You're reading way too much into this. Let's just chat this out and simplify the whole thing'."
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