Pictures: Style and glamour as best in Kilkenny business celebrate at Chamber Awards 2023

The who's who of the Kilkenny business world turned out in all their finery at Lyrath Estate Hotel on Saturday night for the annual Chamber Business Awards.

The black tie event saw Merlyn Showers crowned Overall Business of the Year. Siobhan Talbot won the Special Recognition Award, while Olga Barry collected an award on behalf of Kilkenny Arts Festival.

 

Mark Geraghty, Anne Barber, Ani Mollereau and Gary

Kilkenny Chamber welcomed Mary Kennedy back to perform as MC on the biggest networking night of the year. Chamber President Brian Keyes congratulated the 20 category winners. The awards programme has celebrated the breadth of commerce throughout Kilkenny for more than two decades, providing a wonderful opportunity to platform business successes. These include areas such as sustainability and volunteer engagement. Attendees enjoyed dinner, music and dancing, as well as celebrating the best of business in Kilkenny.

The President of the Kilkenny Chamber of Commerce and Kilkenny Business Awards 2023 Brian Keyes presented a new award this year - the Special Recognition award to honour Kilkenny's greats.The deserving recipient of the debut award was the one and only Siobhan Talbot, who recently announced her retirement as CEO of Glanbia.  Siobhan is due to retire next month.

Kilkenny Arts Festival is this year's winner of the Culture, Heritage and Tourism award at Kilkenny Business Awards. Sponsored by the Kilkenny People, editor Sam Matthews presented the award to the Arts Festival Director Olga Barry. Currently in its 50th year, Kilkenny Arts Festival has gathered many of the world's finest musicians, performers, writers and artists to Kilkenny.