FOUR employees from Tralee hotels were among those shortlisted for an award at a ceremony hosted by the Kerry branch of the Irish Hotels Federation yesterday in Killarney.

Padraig O’Mahony, Manor West Hotel, Noreen Clarke, Ballygarry House Hotel, Esther McCarthy, Ballyseede Castle Hotel and Noreen McEligott, Rose Hotel were among the 14 finalists from around the county up for the Employee of the Year award.

A  member of staff at the Parknasilla Resort and Spa in Sneem was named the winner of the award. Roland Ujbanyi, who works as a therapist in the hotel’s spa and leisure centre, will now represent Kerry in the National Employee of the Year competition and the winner will be revealed at the IHF national conference in Galway in February.

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A native of Hungary and a qualified PE teacher, Roland arrived in Ireland in 2015 without a word of English and started work in Parknasilla as a kitchen porter. He taught himself the language by placing a new word on a board in the kitchen every day and learning it. He later enrolled for English classes and is now learning Irish.

He worked his way up to the position of spa therapist and he has hugely impressed his employers and work colleagues.

To celebrate his success at a Kerry IHF awards luncheon in the International Hotel, Killarney on Wednesday, Kerry branch chair, Bernadette Randles, presented the winner with a framed awards certificate, a €250 voucher and an invitation for two people to the Kerry IHF Ball in the five-star Aghadoe Heights Hotel in Killarney this December.

Meanwhile, Geraldine Tangney, Food Services Manager at the Gleneagle Hotel in Killarney, was presented with a special recognition award.

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Geraldine has been a key member of staff for the past 37 years and she is one of the most popular frontline personalities in the Kerry tourism industry.

She was recognised for going above and beyond the call of duty as her immediate intervention helped save a man’s life when he took seriously ill on a visit to the hotel and Geraldine revived him.

The man and his family were so grateful for her lifesaving actions that they return to the Gleneagle time and time again.

A total of 14 employees, representing all disciplines within the hotel industry, were nominated for the award and following interviews and extensive deliberations, the panel of adjudicators announced the winner at the Kerry IHF ceremony.

The judges were former IHF National President and hotelier Michael Vaughan, Mary Rose Stafford, Head of School of Business at IT Tralee and Caroline McEnery of the HR Suite in Tralee.

The other 12 finalists were Padraig O’Mahony, Manor West Hotel, Tralee; Sheila McCarthy, Randles Hotels, Killarney; Kieran Belshaw, Great Southern Killarney; Mary O’Leary, Cahernane Hotel, Killarney; Noreen Clarke, Ballygarry House Hotel, Tralee; David Maesiac, Ross Hotel, Killarney; Ester McCarthy, Ballyseede Hotel, Tralee; Noreen McEligott, Rose Hotel, Tralee; Mary Somers, The Brehon, Killarney; Jennifer Mulcahy, Killarney Park Hotel; Billy O’Dea, Killarney Plaza Hotel and Louise Fleming, Killarney Towers Hotel.