26 May 2022
By Tom Collins
tom@TheCork.ie
A volunteer leader with the Irish Girl Guides has been selected as the second ‘Cork International Hotel Community Spirit Award’ monthly winner of 2022.
Aisling Claffey from Carrigaline first joined the Girl Guides at the age of 10. She has risen through the ranks locally and nationally and is the current Assistant International Commissioner as well as a volunteer leader in Carrigaline.
Girl Guide Leader, Aisling Claffey, with her Cork International Hotel Community Spirit Award, pictured with two Ladybirds, Bethany O’Leary and Erin Hayes; Eoghan Murphy, Manager, Cork International Hotel and Vincent O’Donovan, Editor, Carrigdhoun Newspaper. Picture: Adrian O’Herlihy
The Irish Girl Guides has approximately 12,000 youth and adult members in Ireland. The organisation aims to help its members learn new skills, grow in self-confidence, develop teamwork and leadership skills, experience new activities, and build lifelong friendships.
Aisling was nominated for a Community Spirit Award for how she overcame the challenges presented by the pandemic. She hosted back-to-back online Ladybirds and Guide meetings every week maintaining an important sense of belonging and contact for her members.
General manager of the Cork International Hotel, Eoghan Murphy said, “Aisling is an inspirational young woman with a decade of leadership experience. Her passion and dedication to helping girls to reach their fullest potential shines through in everything that she does. Aisling’s weekly Zoom meetings continued even when her own job was affected by the pandemic and she began a new role with the HSE. Aisling has travelled all over the world with the Girl Guides and is now bringing that experience to the next generation in leading trips abroad. I have no doubt that there are many young girls and women in Carrigaline and right across the country who are more confident and have lifelong skills that they learned from Aisling.”
The Cork International Hotel Community Spirit Awards are sponsored by The Carrigdhoun Newspaper and Gerald McCarthy Giftware.
The judging panel for the Community Spirit Awards are comprised of a mixture of representatives from the public and private sector within the community.
The judging panel for this award was:
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Carmel Lonergan Group Director of Operations, Trigon Hotels
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Nicola Radley Senior Executive Officer, Municipal District Operations & Rural Development at Cork County Council
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Aisling Killilea Bank of Ireland Manager Carrigaline and Douglas
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Vincent O’Donovan Carrigdhoun
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Jack White Carrigdhoun
Nominations are now open for next month’s awards at: https://www.
