Pictures: Eamonn Keogh
Keogh
TOURISM leaders in Killarney have paid warm tributes to two well-known industry professionals to mark their outstanding contribution to the trade as they embark on new projects.
Terence Mulcahy has recently retired from the position of general manager of the International Hotel to pursue his own business interests while Sean O’Driscoll, the former general manager at both The Brehon and the Muckross Park Hotel, has moved to Cork in his capacity as head of operations with the rapidly growing iNua Hospitality group.
They were both honoured and received presentations at the Kerry Skal President’s dinner, in association with the Kerry branch of the Irish Hotels’ Federation, in the Killarney Plaza Hotel on Saturday night.
“It’s a little bit sad when you see good people riding off into the sunset for whatever reason. It’s sad to see them leaving the coalface of our industry,” said MC for the occasion Michael Rosney.
“They both reached the very top of their respective trees and now the time has come for both of them to move on to the next, hopefully gloriously successful, chapter in their lives,” he said.
Terence Mulcahy, a native of Brosna, started his career as a carpenter and cabinet maker and he was engaged by the Coyne family to renovate the International Hotel and he was asked to get involved in promotional work for the hotel as he had concluded a marketing course by night.
A year later Terence was asked by hotel owner Sean Coyne to become manager and he agreed to do the job for a few months until a new manager could be found.
“Twenty five years later I was still there as general manager,” said Terence who is married to physiotherapist, Ailish, and they have two children, Darren, who is studying commerce in UCC and Lorna who is sitting her Leaving Cert this year.
In a light-hearted reference to Terence’s achievements in life, Michael Rosney said he was not only a former chairman of the Kerry Hotels’ Federation and past president of Ross Golf Club but he was also the Brosna under 14 table tennis champion, he is the proud possessor of three under 12 Irish dancing medals and he won the captain’s prize at Ross Golf Club in 2011 after being runner-up for the five previous years.
Sean O’Driscoll, a native of Youghal, commenced a BA in hotel management in GMIT in 1998 and his working life began with the Great Southern Hotel Group in Galway, Parknasilla and Dublin Airport. He arrived in Killarney as deputy general manager of The Brehon Hotel in 2004 and was promoted to the top role within a year, spending seven years with the Gleneagle Group in that capacity.
In 2011 Sean became GM in the Muckross Park Hotel and, seven years later, he was appointed group general manager and later chief operations officer for the hotel’s owners, the iNua Group.
“There’s an old saying that if you want to get something done you ask a busy man to do it and even during the rapid rise to the top of his career, Sean made the time to be chair of the Kerry Hotels’ Federation on two separate occasion as well as becoming the national president of Skal Ireland.
Sean and his wife, Marie, are relocating to Cork where his new role is based.
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