Who we are
Stop It Now! Ireland is supported by an advisory group of professionals and agencies in Ireland.
Membership of the advisory council currently includes:
- Eileen Finnegan (chair)
- Tim Noonan team leader/social worker from TUSLA
- Claire Tobín, principal social worker
- Lisa O’Loughlen NIAPP
- Julie McCullough MISW
Chair of the Stop It Now! Irish Action Group, Eileen Finnegan
Before Eileen became chair of the Stop It Now! Ireland advisory group, she chaired NOTA Ireland, meeting other child protection professionals. Through NOTA, Eileen heard about Stop It Now! and began work on the launch of the Ireland project in 2019.
Eileen is a trained forensic psychotherapist with an MSc in systemic/family therapy. She also has experience as a humanistic and integrative psychotherapist; a child/adolescent psychotherapist, specialising in trauma-informed practices; and a restorative justice practitioner.
Eileen has also worked as a consultant for people with harmful sexual behaviours. Eileen has been published in therapeutic journals such as SAGE, IACP, and IAHIP.
Tim Noonan
Tim is a qualified social worker registered with CORU. He graduated, in 2009, from University College Cork in Social Work and was awarded the National Qualification in Social Work by the NQSWB. Tim also holds a post-graduate diploma in Advanced Fieldwork in Practice Teaching and Social Work Supervision. He completed both placements as a student social worker in child protection, which included the Health Service Executive (H.S.E) in Ireland and another in South Africa.
After qualifying, Tim has worked in the area of child protection and welfare in various social work departments in Ireland, including frontline duty child protection and children in care teams.
Tim currently works as a team leader for the Child and Family Agency in Ireland. His work includes assessments of retrospective child sexual abuse allegations to understand current risk, assessing reports of indecent images of children/online offending, and family safety planning.
Tim holds a Mentor Professional Development Award with Mentor Forensics Solutions after successfully completing all specialist training modules on sexual offending. Tim has also completed training with the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, NOTA, Aim 2, G-map in the context of adolescent sexual offending/intervention planning with young people who sexually harm), and CASP-R, as well as attachment-based practice with adults (Baim).
Claire Tobín
Claire is a qualified social worker, graduating from the University of Dublin in Social Studies (Social Work). Following on from her placement year in probation at Arbour Hill Prison, Claire went on to focus her career on child sexual abuse, with a particular interest in prevention and working with people at risk of offending. She is dedicated to the improvement and development of services and policies that help to prevent child sexual abuse.
Claire is currently a principal social worker with Tusla, the child and family agency, and has worked within the child protection services since 2010. Her role is to develop, improve and deliver services and policy, relevant to past child sexual abuse. Claire has also spent five years working with young people who engage in harmful sexual behaviour through NIAP. Throughout her social work career, Claire has also participated in training relevant to the area with Leonard Consultancy, Mentor Forensics, and NOTA.
In 2018, Claire was awarded the Specialist Social Work Award in Risk Assessment by the Northern Ireland Social Care Council as well as the National Qualification in Social Work by the NQWSB. Claire has completed training and has accreditation in risk assessment tools such as RM2000, Stable and Actute 2007, AIM3, ARMADILO, and CASP-R.
Julie McCullough
Julie joined the Stop It Now! Ireland advisory group after her work as the secretary for NOTA Ireland. Julie is a qualified CORU registered social worker with over 20 years of experience in child protection in the community, medical and church settings.
She has experience working with victims and survivors of abuse as well as with individuals who have sexually harmed. Julie also develops and delivers child safeguarding and protection training.
The advisory group is grateful for the support given by Stop It Now! colleagues, The Lucy Faithfull Foundation, and other partners.