TV exposure for Banagher woman leads to five star job!

A Banagher woman's TV appearance earlier this year has paid off handsomely with a new managerial job in a five-star Kerry hotel. Back in February, Aoife Horan, whose family own and run the well known Brosna Lodge Hotel in the Shannonside town, appeared with her parents Pat and Della on the popular 'At Your Service' programme on RTÉ 1, presented by Kerry hoteliers Francis and John Brennan. On the show the brothers give business makeovers to a selection of guesthouses and small hotels throughout Ireland that need urgent help with a range of different problems to improve their business. Within days of the programme airing on February 26 last, the 21-year-old received two job offers in Galway and Wexford, and as she weighed up her options, she decided to ask John Brennan from the TV show for a reference. "When I rang he said 'would you not prefer to come to work for me?' I was kind of shocked," Aoife recalls of the impromptu job offer at their exclusive five-star Park Hotel in Kenmare. The part-time student, who is undertaking a Diploma in Restaurant Management three days a week in Athlone IT, clearly made an impression with the TV presenters, who asked her to take up a Duty Manager role at the prestigious hotel, the first female ever to do so. She jumped at the chance, starting work at Easter and hasn't looked back since. Although nerve wrecking at the start, Aoife says appearing on the programme has been extremely positive for her and her family who run the 14-bed hotel and restaurant in the centre of the West Offaly town. "Everyone is really happy with the show. Business has certainly picked up since it aired. It has certainly helped with the accommodation and food side of things as well," Aoife enthuses. Helping out in the family hotel since she was a teenager, Aoife previously harboured hopes of becoming a primary school teacher and completed a Degree in English and Geography last year, however, during the college course she realised her real passion lay in the hospitality sector. The part-time programme in Athlone is the perfect fit for her as it meant she could keep working and gain a professional qualification in the sector at the same time. "If I hadn't been doing the course I would have been lost when I went to down to Kenmare," she says of the value of the nine-month Fáilte Ireland funded course in Athlone IT, paying tribute to the team of lecturers behind the programme, a mix of practical and theory work in the restaurant sector, which she says gave her great confidence. "It has helped me hugely. I work Thursday to Sunday and come to college three days a week. The standard is very high in Kenmare. It's all about attention to detail," she explains, adding that the Brennan brothers are lovely to work for and it has been a huge learning experience since the TV exposure propelled her unexpectedly into the five-star hotel sector. The Kenmare hotel attracts its fair share of celebrities but Aoife, wisely, stays tightlipped about the well known personalities she has met since taking up her position. "They're there on their holidays and you just have to treat them like everyone else," she states, adding that she hopes to use this valuable experience in one of Ireland's best known hotels in the family business in the years to come.