IRD Duhallow Business Awards
Celebrate Local Innovation
Michael Twohig, Chairperson of IRD Duhallow This year IRD Duhallow is celebrating our 9th year of the Duhallow Business Awards, and we are looking forward to what is going to be a fantastic event. The Duhallow Business Awards are a priority in our calendars each year, as they offer a special opportunity to showcase the wonderful variety of top-class businesses that we have in the region. This year’s supplement is a testament to that,
Maura Walsh, CEO of IRD Duhallow Welcome to our Discover Duhallow special feature supplement which showcases the 19 shortlisted finalists for this year’s Duhallow Business Awards. I would like to sincerely thank our judging panel, Catherine Evans, Brendan Hayes, Peter O’Donoghue, Kevin Sugrue and Fergus McAuliffe, for their care and diligence in meeting all our finalists and for concluding their deliberations to select this year’s award winners. We are fortunate to have such a high calibre panel of judges who volunteer their time.
Issue 102 November 17th, 2023
and I want to congratulate each of the 19 participants for their achievement in being shortlisted in their category. We had an unprecedented 274 nominations, which was the largest number of entries ever received for our business awards and we look forward to seeing who will take on from the list of illustrious previous overall winners including last year’s winner, Irish Roll Forming, and be awarded the Best Duhallow Business of 2023. I want to most sincerely thank all the sponsors who came back on board again this year: AIB, Bank of Ireland, Duhallow Skillnet, Kanturk Mart, Kanturk Printers, McCarthy Insurance Group and SE Systems. Without their support nights like this would just not be possible. Since its inception, supporting local businesses and employment has been a key priority for IRD Duhallow and we offer a suite of soft, and capital supports for local
employers through LEADER, SICAP and our Local employment Service. We also undertake considerable work in the talent agenda, training, and upskilling those who have been distanced from the labour market through our many programmes for carers, those with disabilities, our Job Centre, Community Employment and Tús. We also provide a wide range of Skills training for the region’s current workforce through Skillnet support for the staff of the region’s businesses. We are delighted to have Alan Shortt, who hails from Duhallow, as our Master of Ceremonies for this year’s event, and we are looking forward to a great night’s entertainment. Best of luck to all the participants and I look forward to meeting you on the 23rd of November.
This year we welcomed a new category – Best Food Related Business and this was an extremely popular new addition, evidence of how important food businesses are to rural areas such as Duhallow. I think it’s fair to say that the publicity that each participant receives is one of the real prizes and I want to thank our team of Caleb, Tadhg, and Brendon who work on Discover Duhallow under the guidance of Louise Bourke and Eileen Linehan, for putting together this wonderful supplement. We are increasing the print run to ensure demand is me once again. I must also acknowledge the trojan work of our local photographer Sheila Fitzgerald for all the images within. Laura Curtin of Platinum Solutions and Shane Lynes of Lyne Media have done a fantastic job of keeping the business awards on the top of everyone’s social media feed and I’m looking forward to seeing their videos, featuring each of the shortlisted finalists which will be
broadcast on the night. This year’s IRD Duhallow Business Awards Ceremony is once again a sold-out event. The team at Duhallow Community Food Services and IRD Duhallow under the steady hands of Monica Gilmore, Linda O’Connor and Marie Fleming have pulled out all the stops to create a super banquet menu with as much local produce as possible. So, if you have not already booked and secured your ticket for the 23rd of November, you can keep up with the announcements of winners by tuning in online to our social media channels as there will be regular updates provided. The event itself presents a great opportunity to build further business connections, identify opportunities and synergies and increase business sales. Finally, to each of our very worthy 19 finalists I would like to say go n-éirí an t-ádh leat.
DiscoverDuhallow@irdduhallow.com
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