A portrait photo of Clare Gleeson, a team member at Origins Foster Care smiling and looking at the camera.

Clare Gleeson

Recruitment & Assessment Team Leader

Clare joined the Origins foster care team in June 2021, having very recently returned from living in the UK.

Clare qualified as a social worker in 2009, with a master’s from the University of Edinburgh, having previously obtained a Bachelor of Social Science from University College Dublin in 2004. Since qualifying Clare has worked within the children and families setting, firstly as a practitioner and then becoming a manager in 2016. Clare has worked in child protection/children in care, connected persons, adoption, post order and fostering for various local authorities in London and Wales.

Clare is dedicated to her profession and continues to engage in training. She has attended training in areas of attachment and developmental trauma and has gained an advanced certificate in systemic practice from the Institute of Family Therapy. She is a qualified practice teacher too. Clare is Coru registered.

Meet the team

Mieke Ryan
Head of Fostering

Mieke has been working with children in care and their foster carers since 2003. Throughout her working career her

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Eugene Bigley
Operations Manager

Eugene, a professionally qualified social worker, for over 30 years. With experience working both in the public

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Eithne Larkin
Marketing and Recruitment Coordinator

Eithne and her family have been foster carers for over 20 years and she brings a great insight into the recruitment of foster carers to her work

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Nikki Darcy
Social Work Team Leader

Nikki like all our Social Work team is CORU registered. She has been working as a social worker with children, their families

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Denise Galvin
Recruitment and Assessment Administrator

Denise has been working within the private foster care sector as an Administrator since 2014. During this time, she

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Laura Barcellona
Fostering Administrator

Laura works as an administrator in Origins foster care. She joined the agency in December 2020. Prior to her role as fostering

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Clare Gleeson
Recruitment & Assessment Team Leader

Clare joined the Origins foster care team in June 2021, having very recently returned from living in the UK

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Alex Gontijo
Administrator

Alexandre was born in Brazil and moved to Ireland to broaden his educational and work experience. With a degree in

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Cíara Farrell
Senior Practitioner, Link Social Worker

Ciara graduated with an honour’s degree in Social Work from Trinity College Dublin and has a National Qualification

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Leigh-Ann Herbert
Fostering Administrator

Leigh-Ann joined Origins Foster Care in 2018, bringing with her over 3 years of experience as a fostering administrator.

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Claire Kelly
Senior Practitioner, Link Social Worker

Claire holds a Masters in Social Work from UCD (NQSW) and is CORU registered.

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Zahra Johari
Senior Practitioner, Link Social Worker

Zahra holds a Master in Social Work from Brunel University and is registered with CORU

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Stephanie Heenan
Fostering Administrator

Stephanie has joined Origins Foster Care as an Administrator. She joined the agency in June 2023.

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Majella McMullan
Sessional Link Social Worker

Majella has worked as a Social Worker since 2007 and holds CORU Registration.

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Vicky Cowhig
Senior Practitioner, Link Social Worker

Victoria holds an Honours Degree in Social Care and a Masters in Social Work from Trinity College

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Get in touch

Reach out for any questions and enquiries. A member of our fostering team will get back to you as soon as possible.

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Contact form
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Contact us
087 052 9749
Social Work Placement Referrals
Tel. 01 9079196 / placements@originsfostercare.ie