About Us - Dublin Bay Vets (2024)

Eamon: Assistant Practice Dog

Eamon joined the team in February 2020. Despite never formally applying for the role, and having absolutely no experience, he somehow managed to walk in off the street and got the job immediately. Unlike the rest of our staff, he is highly unreliable and is unable to concentrate on a task for longer than a few minutes. However, despite some shortcomings, he is always available with a friendly greeting for our customers and their pets.
Hobbies include finding (and bringing home) used tissues.

Jack: Senior Practice Dog

We had to create this position for Jack or else Sarah wouldn’t take the job. Nepotism at its worst. A private individual, he minds his own business and gets on with the job. Despite tough working conditions and terrible pay, he resolutely stands guard inside the canteen door.

Dave McCabe MVB

Dave is from one of the flat parts of Wicklow and joined us in 2024. It’s been his dream for years to work for Dublin Bay Vets, and it’s going well so far. Dave’s light hearted and friendly personality has been a great addition to our team, and our clients and pets are immediately at ease in his presence. He keeps us entertained with general knowledge quiz rounds, and talks a lot about running for some reason…
Dave is a keen surgeon and holds a postgraduate certificate in soft tissue surgery, so we’re delighted to have him on hand for some of the more complex procedures we perform.
As a kid, Dave’s best mate was a spaniel called Chester, but Dave has since transitioned seamlessly to cat ownership.
In his spare time, he loves to travel and spend time with his wife and 2 cats (Billo and Eamo). His main passions are running, talking about running and eating as much as possible (which he justifies by going for a run).

Philip Hunter MVB

Philip came to us from Sligo with delusions of grandeur. He talks a lot about how fit he is, how many hills he’s climbed, all the sports he is good at etc. Having seen him in action, we wonder if his favourite sport is sarcasm. He grew up riding ponies and actually considered being a horse vet for a while. In the end he decided to focus on his main interest area – domestic pets. Since he joined the team early in 2023, Philip has become very popular with staff and clients alike. He has a big interest in dentistry, ultrasonography, and surgery.

Lucia Martínez Graullera MVB

Lucia hails from Valencia. Not to be confused with the Kerry island of a similar spelling, this South – Eastern Spanish city compares favourably on sorbet making, sun and speakers of the English language.

Seeking rain, she landed in Dublin in 2015, and has worked in a number of clinics since then. Lucia has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. She has completed a Postgraduate cert in Small Animal Medicine, and is currently studying for a Certificate in Diagnostic Imaging. She is also constantly striving to improve her cooking and salsa dancing skills, but thankfully not concurrently.

Billy Shortle MVB

Despite his less than tanned appearance, Billy has been touring the Sunny South East of Ireland from a young age. Starting off in Waterford, he took a few detours to the west and landed back in his favourite, Wexford, before seeking a retreat from the UV rays here in Clongriffin.
The proud owner of goldfish as a child, Billy was inspired by their ways and has become an avid sea swimmer – though he has the added capability of doing a bit of hiking too.
Having grown up surrounded by animals on a dairy farm, veterinary seemed like an obvious choice. Billy has enjoyed working with both farm and companion animals since graduating and has combined these skills to become our resident Big Dog Lifter.

Sinéad Doyle MVB

Sinéad grew up in Waterford city with lots of cats, guinea pigs, a rabbit, and a dog. She graduated from UCD in 2018 and spent three years in Leeds, Yorkshire working with small animals before coming home to Ireland and joining the Dublin Bay Vets team.
She has two cats, both were found as kittens at the side of the road, although in different countries and several years apart. One is very fond of her, and the other is entirely indifferent to her existence.
In her spare time Sinéad enjoys travelling, walking and hiking, reading, and baking.

Etain Clancy MVB

Etain grew up in rural Co. Limerick but was drawn to the bright lights of Clongriffin in June 2022. She was always finding a way to be around animals and before being trusted with the sole ownership of a dog at the age of 10, her favourite job was helping her grandfather feed the calves on her uncle’s dairy farm. After graduating from UCD, she briefly tried to rekindle her love of bovines in a mixed practice but quickly realised her heart now lay with the smaller, fluffier creatures. Her own dog Toby inspired Etain to obtain a self-declared specialism in Shih Tzus, and she is delighted with how many of them Dublin 13 has to offer.
In her spare time Etain is an avid Liverpool fan and can often be caught letting us all know that we’ll Never Walk Alone. She still helps out with the calves, when she can.

Colm de Barra MVB

Colm, originally from a rural area of Cork, has always had a love of animals, be they domestic pets, farm animals, horses, or wildlife. Surrounded by farmland growing up, he is happiest outdoors, and his favourite past time as a child was walking through the fields with his Red Setter, Rebel.

Having spent 3 years in farm animal practice after leaving university in 2008, Colm renewed his primary interest and passion – the medical care of sick dogs, cats, and other domestic pets.
In his spare time, he still enjoys walks in the countryside with his dog Eamon, and plays hurling for St Sylvesters GAA club.

Donal Cape MVB

Donal’s young life was spent begging his parents to get a dog. They finally gave in when he was 12 and Sally – a one year old re-homed Springer Spaniel – became his companion for the next 10 years.

After secondary school and a veterinary medicine degree in UCD, he qualified in 2009 to take up a large animal position in the mountains and green fields of Co Tyrone – working in a mixed practice in Cookstown. From there, he travelled to Australia and spent five years travelling and working as a large and small animal vet around the country. He returned to Ireland in 2016, when he took a job in Lucan attending to the local cats, dogs and other pets.

Outside work he enjoys playing football (unsuccessfully) the guitar and singing. He has yet to convince anyone to sit through an entire song. At home, Tipsy is the star attraction and he does his best to tire her out on walks. She never does.

Sarah Toner RVN

Sarah was born and raised beside Worcestershire. Like the sauce, she adds a lot to anything she’s involved in, but can be sharp when she needs to be: just ask her dog after he’s misbehaved.
After qualifying as a Veterinary Nurse from Harper Adams University in the UK – the best there is, she’ll let you know – she worked for a while at home before seeing the light and moving to Ireland with her husband in 2018, where they live on a farm accompanied by their Jack Russell (called Jack), four cats and three laying hens.
Not only does she bring a warmth and friendliness to the place, but also supplies all staff with a large supply of fresh eggs.

Rachel Callan RVN

Rachel was born and raised in Donacarney Co.Meath, where she had dogs and cats growing up. She also claimed a few of her neighbour’s chickens.
She graduated as a Veterinary Nurse in 2023, and is now continuing her studies as an advanced veterinary nurse in Dundalk IT. During her initial studies, she was in a mix of practices such as small animal/mixed in Meath, equine in Kildare and mixed practice in Carlow.
She is an avid GAA, and a big Meath supporter. This has brought her no end of grief and displeasure. She also plays hockey and guitar in her limited spare time, and does a mean rendition of Hozier’s Cherry Wine.

Naomi Broderick RVN

Naomi joined our team in Summer of 2020 after working in Drogheda, Johnstown and Walkinstown.
Her desire to become a veterinary nurse came about after having to care for and treat her old dog Murphy, who passed away in 2018 after a battle with heart disease.
Outside of work she enjoys hiking, reading, travelling and, being from Laytown in Co Meath, building sandcastles. The youngest of three sisters, she has declared herself the family sand castling champion – an accolade strongly contested by her siblings.

Alice Creedon RVN

Unlike the rest of the team, who had to trawl through the archives to find their profile pictures, Alice’s looks suspiciously recent. However, despite her baby faced appearance, Alice is a fully qualified nurse – having completed her degree at Dundalk IT.
During her training she saw practice in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, Dundalk, Co Louth and even managed a stint wrestling horses in Co Kildare. The horses won that particular battle.
Apart from three dogs, a cat, a flock of hens, a few ducks, and a school of fish Alice has two sisters and a brother. Alice likes three TV shows. The Big Bang Theory, How I met Your Mother, and she can’t remember the name of the other one. She does not like The Simpsons.

Ophelia Skadule RVN

Ophelia spent most of her childhood surrounded by cats and horses in the pine forests of Latvia, but decided to leave the country life behind and move to Dublin in order to pursue a Veterinary Nursing degree at UCD.
Despite the picture, she doesn’t actually find animals incredibly boring and has found her passion in taking care of patients big and small. She is particularly fond of a good matcha latte (even though external sources say it tastes like grass), and shares her home with a cat and a corn snake. In her free time you can find her trying out a new hobby she will almost definitely abandon in a weeks time, or changing her hair colour for the umpteenth time.

Grace Cosgrove, Student Veterinary Nurse

Grace is the one who ensures hospitalised pets are warm and comfortable, and keeps their beds clean and cosy.
Her dedication to her job is incredible, and clearly results from her long held passion for animal care.
Grace grew up in Malahide, and from a young age seemed to attract stray pets to her house. She credits her first dog, Max, with inspiring her to work with animals in the future. We honestly don’t know how we managed before Grace joined the team.

Jess Ryan, Receptionist/Admin Angel

Jess spent her childhood in the wilderness of North County Dublin. She grew up with a bit of an eclectic bunch of animals; a cat called Megan whom she rescued from a ditch, a boxer named Tiger who was overly fond of sheep, and a three-legged lab called Pepsi! She now treks all the way into work from Raheny every day where she plays host to her little dog Lady whom she maintains IS the best pup. Many patients in Dublin Bay Vets would agree to disagree.
Before starting at Dublin Bay Vets in January 2022, Jess worked in human healthcare. She still maintains that dogs are the best humans and we agree.

Eric Power, Receptionist

Eric (right, in sandals), is pictured with Slippers (left). Despite apparently being friends, this is the best photograph he could find of them both. Camera film was in short supply in Donegal at the time.
As can be evidenced by his apparel in this photograph, he was born a style icon. With the exception of Colm – who is a dead loss – he keeps us all in check in this regard.
Eric is an early riser, which is a blessing for his opening shifts. However, he is also a loud riser, which is a curse for his housemates. He gets a strange sensation at the back of his knees at times of discomfort and, despite loving working in a vet clinic, he’s allergic to dogs and cats. Sometimes you can’t be kept from what’s meant to be.

Sandra Mc Donnell, Receptionist

Sandra always had pets as a child. She is pictured here with Sam, who looks uncomfortable with this level of attention. Since this photo was taken, Sandra has become more familiar with the concept of personal space. Her background in childcare has enabled her to fit in seamlessly with our team. Sandra is kept busy with her two dogs, Bonnie and Milo, and spends the rest of her spare time learning music trivia.