Ciara was nominated by her employer the Castlecourt Hotel, Mayo.
17th January 2025: Ciara Faherty, from Castlecourt Hotel’s Sales & Marketing team has been announced as the 2024/2025 Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) Mayo Branch ‘Employee of the Year’.
The announcement was made at an awards lunch in the Breaffy House Hotel, where guests gathered to celebrate and recognise 11 nominees from hotels and guesthouses across Mayo who have made an outstanding contribution to their workplace.
Congratulating Ciara on the award, IHF Mayo Chair, Declan Heneghan said that, when selecting her as the winner, the judges highlighted Ciara’s passion for people with an ability and intuition to see what guests want before they know it themselves. He also spoke about the very special customer interactions that our hard-working front facing staff develop with our customers and guests delivering genuine hospitality and customer care every day. All the nominees and most especially the overall winner Ciara Faherty highlight this experience.
At the event, IHF President, Michael Magner congratulated all nominees and spoke about the exceptional people within the sector, whose contribution to tourism and hospitality is key to its success as Ireland’s largest indigenous employer, supporting over 270,000 livelihoods – including over 6,000 jobs throughout the Mayo region.
He said: “It’s the people working in our industry that create the wonderful experiences for customers. You are the reason our industry is renowned the world over for our very high-quality hospitality.”
Ciara began her career in the Westport Hotel Group as part of the team at Portos Restaurant in the Castlecourt Hotel, where she worked while completing her degree in Tourism & Event Management at Institute of Technology, Sligo now ATU Sligo. During her ten years’ service, Ciara has moved into the role of Over 55’s Group Co-Ordinator with Castlecourt Hotel’s Sales & Marketing team, where she organises the needs and requirements of customers in this bracket, while building market share and creating new exciting, themed breaks for the market across the Group’s hotels. Ciara’s colleagues say she “has such a strong relationship with all colleagues she works with which contributes to Ciara’s effectiveness in her role.”
Other presentations on the day included a ‘Highly Commended Award’ for Aidan Giblin, Accommodation Assistant at Westport Woods Hotel.
The IHF Mayo Branch extends its gratitude to the expert judging panel of Padraig Nolan (IHF Galway Branch Chair and General Manager of the Oranmore Lodge Hotel) and Nuala McLoughlin (HR Advisor, Irish Hotels Federation) who had the difficult job of selecting a winner from the nominees.
The members of the IHF Mayo Branch now wish Ciara the very best of luck as she goes on to represent them at the upcoming National IHF Employee of the Year Awards which will be held during the IHF’s Annual Conference which will take place at the Gleneagle Hotel, Killarney in late February this year.
