FASHION & BEAUTY
By Deirdre McQuillan and Simone Gannon
Caoimhe Dowling
Fashion designer
Dowling, based in Copenhagen, is a Limerick School of Art and Design honours BA graduate with a master’s degree in sustainable fashion and textiles from the Royal Danish Academy. An independent fashion designer, she works in the hip multicultural neighbourhood of Norrebro, is pursuing a PhD in sustainability supported by TUS Rise and is on a knitwear residency in the Faroe Islands. Turning Blue, her first collection of woven textiles was designed and made in collaboration with Woven in the Bone artisan weavers in Scotland and Donegal Yarns. The hooded jackets, shorts, slouchy trousers and floor-length coats in distorted herringbone – contemporary versions of classic tweeds – were supplemented with pieces in embroidered denim deadstock. “My biggest influence was Vivienne Westwood and what she did with Harris tweed,” says Dowling, who describes working with tweed as like moulding clay. She is from Listowel, Co Kerry, and her deep-rooted love of nature and the environment is central to her work. In June she was part of a group of cutting-edge sustainable fashion designers selected for the influential menswear show Pitti Uomo in Florence sponsored by French multinational Kering, which described her as “merging her Irish heritage with Danish design flair”. Her new collection will be launched later this year.
Alice McGrath
Model
Alice McGrath made her modelling debut as a schoolgirl last January, opening the Dior haute couture show at the Musée Rodin in Paris, a coup for a young, inexperienced Irish model. She hasn’t looked back since. Dior shot her for its holiday 2024 and prefall campaigns and its summer campaign for Vogue. She comes from Omagh, Co Tyrone, and was scouted by IMG modelling agency in 2021. She moved to London after her A Levels, and her first job walking for J W Anderson SS24 at London Fashion Week. She continues to work for Dior, but in the past year she has also walked for Chanel in Manchester, Chanel haute couture in Paris and most recently in Hong Kong. She was a cover star for Harper’s Bazaar Korea and Heroine magazine as well as modelling for online fashion magazine Self Service and in campaigns for Miu Miu and Elle Mexico. Plans to study at university are on hold as her modelling career develops.
Eimear Lynch
Fashion photographer
Lynch, from Enniskerry, is a former Maynooth University media studies graduate who was always interested in fashion and fashion photography. Last year she created a reportage-based photo book focusing on teenage girlhood. Its success inspired her to plan a broader project on teenagers “from Communion to debs and beyond” this year. Having moved to London in 2018, where she learned about fashion photography from assisting the acclaimed Tim Walker, she is now based in Brighton. She has acted as a tour photographer for Fontaines DC, having met and formed a friendship with the band during Covid. Her most recent work was backstage photography at MiuMiu’s October show in Paris – “it was great to be in the middle of a big show with Anna Wintour walking by while I was shooting”, she says. Her camera is a Mamiya 7 rangefinder, as she loves film, but she also uses digital for commercial work. She is currently developing more work in fashion photography, including editorials for The Face and other magazines, blending the worlds of fashion and documentary.
Suzy Dunne
Beauty entrepreneur
Suzy Dunne, co-founder of Hildun Beauty along with her husband, Mark Dunne, has built a small yet mighty beauty brand that has established itself firmly since launch. Despite entering the competitive beauty market just two years ago, Hildun Beauty has become beloved – and with good reason. Dunne’s approach to product development aligns perfectly with what beauty consumers ultimately want: affordable, high-performance, sleekly packaged products that consistently outperform their price point. The brand first gained attention with its range of Silk to Set Kajal Eyeliners, which have won awards and earned praise beyond Ireland. This success was further amplified by a strategic collaboration with celebrity make-up artist Hannah Martin, introducing the liners to a broader audience and cementing their popularity. Dunne’s steady approach and commitment to creating top-tier, affordable products make Hildun Beauty poised for significant success on the global stage.
Peigín Crowley
Beauty entrepreneur
Already a standout figure in the beauty industry, Peigín Crowley is just getting started. As the founder of Ground Wellbeing and a respected spa industry veteran, Crowley has created an award-winning wellness brand that offers carefully curated products designed with the aim of providing relief for challenges including anxiety, sleep issues and IBS. Her thoughtful, hands-on approach and clear passion for women’s health ensure the brand resonates deeply with consumers. It’s no surprise the products are now available at some of the world’s leading spas. With such an unwavering commitment to improving the wellbeing of others, Crowley looks set to have one of the most successful wellness brands to come out of Ireland.
ARTS
By Gemma Tipton and Nadine O’Regan
Ella Bertilsson
Artist
Bertilsson’s art is always different, from a pop-up nail bar to a multicoloured cardboard cut-out landscape inspired by the banks of the river Moy. The linking theme is how she blurs the line between ordinary and extraordinary, and delves into those moments, large or small, that shape and define us. Collaboration, connection, joy and intimacy are threads in her work, which is also inspired by her two decades working in restaurants. Last year was incredibly busy for the award-winning artist, who moved to Ireland from her native Sweden in 2003. Bertilsson sees studio and domestic accommodation as big challenges that will continue to face artists in 2025, but she remains upbeat. Her plans this year include a show in one of Dublin’s most exciting new spaces, The Horse; a live performance with Áine Phillips in Castlebar; and development of work for a major installation at the Temple Bar Gallery, where she has a studio.
Keara Simonsen
Artist
Keara Simonsen has just graduated from Ulster University in Belfast, where she is currently based. Her work is showing at the RHA as part of this year’s RDS Visual Arts Awards, where she also picked up the RDS Members Art Fund Award. She was born in Canada and is of Irish and Filipino descent and makes documentary-based work looking at identity, family, diaspora and urban decay. Living with cerebral palsy “hasn’t explicitly come up in my work yet”, she says, “but I know that it informs all of my work, whether conscious or not. Sometimes we can pour parts of ourselves into our art that we aren’t even aware of.” It is that openness to experience that makes her work so strong. She finds parallels between her exploration of the Filipino Tagalog language and the modern context of the Irish language. “The idea of being disconnected from one’s own culture and heritage is something many people can relate to.” The recognition that comes with the Radar and RDS Art Awards has been huge: “It really makes going through a few tough years with my art worthwhile. I have never felt so passionate about it.”
Garrett Carr
Writer
Garrett Carr’s last book, The Rule of the Land, a nonfiction portrait of the Irish Border got, according to the writer, “a lot of attention as it was published just as the turmoil of Brexit began”. This year sees the publication of his debut novel, which has been three years in the writing. Carr says the fishing community of Killybegs, Co Donegal, had been in his mind for a long time. “Fishing families and communities are strikingly absent from Irish writing. So I took it on. I felt I could, as these are my people; I am the son of a fisherman.” Carr, who is based in Belfast, wanted “to make ordinary lives extraordinary. Fiction was the best way to handle it – the novel features drama both on land and at sea – but there is a lot of my early life in the novel.” A number of publishers took the bait, and The Boy from the Sea is debuting in eight different languages. It will be published here by Picador in February. “I’m told the book is often funny, which is good as that’s what I was aiming for,” says Carr. These next months will see him on the promotional trail, and getting down to his next novel.
Catherine Airey
Writer
Few debut novelists arrive into the publishing world with the kind of advance praise that dual Irish-British national Catherine Airey has garnered. Airey’s first novel, Confessions, sold in a 24-hour, six-figure pre-empt to Viking and will be the publisher’s lead title when it arrives in late January. Read the propulsive and utterly captivating first 100 pages, and you’ll see the appeal: Airey has shades of the American novelists Donna Tartt and Jeffrey Eugenides in her style, but her plotting brings her from New York to Ireland and then back again. The narrative begins on the morning of September 11th, 2001. Sixteen-year-old Cora Brady has just dropped a tab of acid when she learns that two planes have hit the Twin Towers, where her father works. Left orphaned in New York, when her mother’s sister contacts her to offer her a home in Donegal, Cora decides to get on the flight. Airey, brought up in England in a family of mixed English-Irish descent, traces the lives of several generations in the book, much of which she wrote in west Cork. She wants to speak to the “particular sort of loneliness of the immigrant”.
Alessandra Azeviche
Dancer and Capoeirista
Azeviche hails from Bahia, Brazil, home to the largest African diasporic population. She moved to Ireland in 2015, and has worked and collaborated with Irish and international choreographers. She is a board member of Dublin Dance Festival and associate artist with THISISPOPBABY. With her dance group Quilombo Terra, her work is made to echo the resilience and beauty of indigenous communities, and explore themes of counter-colonisation. “I believe in the power of art to drive social change and uplift marginalised communities,” she says. Azeviche’s debut solo show, Terra, sold out at the Dublin Fringe in 2024, and she plans to tour it in 2025. “It holds an important message about how migration, the environment and indigenous wisdom are all interconnected.” She is now based in Wicklow. She says that “living as an artist is both exciting and terrifying”, and “it requires courage from our institutions and investors, because great work takes time, love and resources. In my life, work and dreams go hand in hand. I frequently find it difficult to separate my desire to create a positive impact in others’ lives from my professional ambitions.”
ENTREPRENEURSHIP & TECH
By Ciara O’Brien
Cormac Chisolm, Patrick Guiney-Fox and Darren Britton
DevAlly
Accessibility is becoming an increasingly important topic in the tech sector, and rightly so. But in 2025, that is going to take on a new urgency. The European Accessibility Act, which is due to come into effect by the end of June 2025, will require certain categories of consumer products and services, including ecommerce, banking, telecoms, transport services and audio visual media, to be accessible. That is where DevAlly comes into the picture. The company was cofounded by Cormac Chisolm and Patrick Guiney-Fox, and its compliance management platform makes it easier for businesses to incorporate accessibility into their products as they are building them, assess how accessible their product is and identify what steps they need to take to be compliant with the new legislation. And it is getting attention on the international stage; the company was recently named as one of the final three start-ups in Helsinki summit Slush’s pitch event.
Akhil Voorakkara, Colm O’Brien, Jamie Wedderburn and Will O’Brien
Ulysses Ecosystem Engineering
When it comes to carbon sinks, seagrass is up there with the most effective, capturing carbon from the atmosphere up to 35 times faster than tropical rainforests. Restoring ocean habitats, therefore, should be an important consideration for those who are trying to fight climate change. Ulysses Ecosystem Engineering, established in 2023, has built drones that can be used to automate ocean habitat restoration. The drones collect seeds from healthy donor meadows, replanting them in areas where seagrass has been lost, monitoring its growth. The system means seagrass can be replanted at a tenth of the cost of comparable systems, and also make the projects larger and faster. The company recently raised a funding round to help it develop its machinery further, and grow existing and new projects. New laws that mandate large-scale restoration, such as the EU’s Nature Restoration Law, are also expected to drive demand for its services. It will be a “multi-decade endeavour,” says O’Brien.
Olivia Humphreys
Athena
When it came to solving a problem, inventor Olivia Humphreys chose one that had hit close to home. Humphreys had seen first-hand the impact that undergoing cancer treatment had on her mother, particularly when it came to the scalp-cooling therapy used to try to limit hair loss during chemotherapy. The University of Limerick graduate created Athena, a device that makes the scalp-cooling treatment mobile, cheaper and more flexible, so patients can start the treatment outside the hospital and cut down the time they must spend on wards. Humphreys took her invention to the James Dyson Awards, and was named regional winner for Ireland before advancing to success at the finals. She is also the first Irish inventor to have scooped the top prize since the awards began in 2006.
Dipeche Sharma and James Kelly
Agilepitch
You can’t get away from AI these days. It’s the hottest trend in the tech industry, and it is seeping into every part of our lives, even if we don’t realise it. But there’s more to it than asking ChatGPT funny questions, or interacting with an automated customer service bots. AI can take over some of the more repetitive tasks we currently have to endure. James Kelly and Dipeche Sharma are cofounders of Agilepitch, an AI platform that automates those tasks that slow down the process of closing a deal in software sales. The cofounders met at a start-up event, and realised they had a similar vision: bringing sales enablement and AI together. With Agilepitch, companies get a centralised platform for documents that acts as the source of correct information for all its sales-related collateral, integrating with existing technology such as the communications platforms used by the company. It then uses AI to “learn” about the client company, without any manual transfer of data. Agilepitch is targeting those selling B2B enterprise software as its potential market, with plans for a potential seed round in the future.
Aisling and Mark Kirwan
Positive Carbon
The issue of food waste is still on the menu – or at least it should be. According to the EPA, Ireland generated 750,000 tonnes of food waste in 2022, around 146kg per person and higher than the EU average of 130kg. Positive Carbon is aiming to tackle one source of waste: commercial kitchens. Its system uses high-tech sensors to track, trace and ultimately eliminate food waste. The company was established by Aisling and Mark Kirwan in 2020, and its technology is already in use in a number of businesses, including the Dalata Hotel Group and Radisson Blu. It is a fully automated system with reporting dashboards that allow kitchen staff, operation teams, and management to review daily, weekly and monthly waste reports. The company, which raised funding last year, has now begun expanding in the UK.
ENVIRONMENT
By Joanne Hunt
Kevin Wallace
New Leaf Urban Farmers
Kevin Wallace uses Korean Natural Farming techniques to manage his two-acre micro farm in Bruff, Co Limerick. The approach means capturing microbes from pristine soil, culturing and fermenting them to improve the microbiome of the land where he grows vegetables and salad greens. “The microbes are at least 1,000 years old and we are introducing them to soil that is often deteriorated by tilling and chemicals. We are building the soil up to be like the forest floor.” The emphasis is on minimal soil disturbance. This enhances soil fertility and biology to grow more nutrient-dense food. “There is a whole network of microbiome underneath – if you are tilling your soil, you are killing the microbes,” says Wallace. It’s the microbes that create fertility. “You’re not artificially fertilising your plants because when you do, they grow too quickly. You don’t get enough flavour or trace elements. People have forgotten what vegetables taste like,” he says. “We are blessed with a temperate climate. We can grow anything in Ireland, but we need to produce food ethically and sustainably. Farming has been pushed to an industrial scale, but you can’t use farming industrially on nature. It doesn’t work.”
Mary Fleming
ChangeClothes.org
Mary Fleming wants to tackle clothing waste locally, before it becomes a global problem. Confronted by the dark side of fast fashion on a trip to Kenya, she founded community-based not-for-profit ChangeClothes.org. “You see those pictures of big clothing piles and you don’t know what to do about it. We’re trying to provide a positive, fun and affordable solution,” says Fleming. At the ChangeClothes.org studio on Thomas Street, Dublin, shoppers can swap their second-hand clothes for tokens they can then trade for items “new to them”. “The special thing is we only have seven people in at a time, so there’s a great sense of satisfaction in seeing your clothes go to someone else,” says Fleming. “There’s a community buzz.” ChangeClothes.org offers free repair cafes and corporate and community workshops. It will welcome four trainees to work on upcycling textile waste into homewares this year. “We try to reuse locally instead of exporting our problems to other countries,” says Fleming. “Our big goals for 2025 are to create a beautiful range of homewares, build an affordable clothing repair service and hopefully move to the city centre. That would be really exciting.”
Dr Eleanor Mullen
Specialist in the sustainable development of materials
Growing up beside Killarney National Park, Dr Eleanor Mullen felt inspired by Irish wildlife to pursue a career that would help protect the environment. Aged seven she wrote to then taoiseach Bertie Ahern about deforestation. An interest in pollution led to a degree in physics from Trinity College Dublin, followed by a PhD there. “It was a big challenge for me as I am dyslexic, and at 12 years old, I could barely write, but I got there in the end,” says Mullen. She also founded Trinity’s Urban Garden. One of the most profound insights she gained was into the complex relationship between humanity’s demand for materials and its environmental impact. “The amount of chemicals used to produce a memory chip or mobile phone is vast,” she says. “Their weight is minute compared to the weight of the materials used to process them. Vast amounts of chemicals are used, causing huge destruction environmentally. They gather at the poles, they cause mutations in wildlife.” Through research and policy, she wants to create a different future. “It’s critically important to integrate sustainable practices, mainly green chemistry principles, right from the start of the design process. A growing economy is important, but it needs to be sustainable growth that doesn’t impact the environment or global health. We need to carefully manage ecosystems. Ireland has so much potential in this area.”
Dr Ola Løkken Nordrum
Irish Doctors for the Environment
That the climate and biodiversity crisis was never mentioned in his medical training was startling to Dr Ola Løkken Nordrum. “The climate and nature crisis is the defining health emergency of the 21st century,” says the anaesthesiology trainee. “Our health is intrinsically linked to the natural world. Quite simply, no nature, no health.” Through Irish Doctors for the Environment, he and other medical professionals want to bring about change. “We need to transform commutes into opportunities for health, not pollution and frustration. A more plant-based diet is good for us and for the planet. We need to change the narrative, climate action is health action,” says Nordrum. He’s involved in work to reduce emissions from anaesthetic gases, but hospitals and processes need to be redesigned to reduce single use and plastic items, he says. “We need long-term, protected funding and dedicated staff in the healthcare system to make it more sustainable.” Globally, those who have contributed the least to the climate crisis will bear the brunt of its effects, he notes. “Ireland has very high emissions per capita and we have a moral obligation to support these countries.”
[ How your asthma inhaler emits the same carbon as driving from Dublin to AchillOpens in new window ]
Sumaya Mohammed
Climate and human rights activist
Cop29 wasn’t perfect, but it’s the forum we have for tackling the climate crisis, says Sumaya Mohammed. The law student at University College Cork was part of the college’s delegation to Baku, Azerbaijan. Mohammed says she was privileged to receive climate education at Cork Educate Together Secondary School. “Not to be dramatic, but it changed my life. It’s why a lot of my focus now is on education, education can change how you view the world.” There, she cofounded the Students Climate Action Network, organising climate protests in Cork to pressure government on climate action. Aged 16, she attended Cop27 in Egypt, supported by Trócaire, and also advised on the Leaving Certificate Climate Action course. She is a member of Somalis for Sustainability. “I really hope that climate can become a main topic of conversation again as it was in 2019, prior to the pandemic,” says Mohammed. “We have faced flooding in Cork and it is terrible, but it is nothing compared to the flooding people face in Somalia or what we saw in Spain. We must remember our privilege and that we can still change. There is still hope, we must keep fighting for it.”
FOOD & WINE
By Corinna Hardgrave
Áine Budds
Chef and advocate
Few chefs have confronted the shadows of the hospitality industry with as much clarity and conviction as 24-year-old Áine Budds. When she took the stage at Food on the Edge 2023, her words about addiction in professional kitchens were both a wake-up call and a beacon of hope. In a culture steeped in late nights and unchecked behaviours, Budd’s honesty challenged the status quo and highlighted the need for reform. Now pursuing a master’s in gastronomy and food studies at TU Dublin, Budds is combining academic rigour with hard-earned insights from years in fine dining, including stints at Gráinne O’Keefe’s Mae and Niall Davidson’s Allta. Having rebuilt her life after entering rehab at 22, she is determined to support young chefs, advocating for healthier practices and greater awareness around mental health and addiction in the industry. Budds’s recent speaking engagements, including Salesforce, reflect her growing role as an advocate. Thoughtful, articulate, and unafraid to speak hard truths, she is far more than a chef: she’s a catalyst for change.
Anna Hevers
Chef de partie, Goldie
At 27, Anna Hevers is one of the most exciting young chefs in Ireland. After studying hospitality at Shannon College, she earned a scholarship to Le Cordon Bleu in London, where she specialised in pastry. London’s culinary scene became her training ground, with stints at Clare Smyth’s Core and the Ottolenghi kitchens. In 2022, Hevers returned home to Cork and joined the team at Goldie, a Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant led by chef Aishling Moore, which specialises in fish and a full-catch approach to sustainable cooking. As a chef de partie, she operates across the kitchen but has a particular flair for pastry and working with seasonal, locally sourced produce. This year she was a finalist in the Euro-Toques Young Chef competition. Hevers is also developing a website to explore food writing but remains firmly focused on growing her skills at Goldie, where her potential is already turning heads.
Angelo Vagiotis
Head chef, The Pullman
Angelo Vagiotis may not yet be a household name, but he is no stranger to the Michelin spotlight. A Greek-born chef with a globe-trotting resume that includes Noma and Manresa, he was part of chef Vincent Crepel’s opening team at Terre in Castlemartyr, Co Cork, which landed two Michelin stars in 2024. Now Vagiotis is setting his sights on replicating that success at Glenlo Abbey’s Pullman Restaurant in Galway. The Pullman is no ordinary setting – it operates within two original Orient Express carriages, offering a unique dining experience. The restaurant has closed for a refurbishment and will be reopening in March with a tasting menu. Every detail will be carefully considered, down to the 1960s vintage crockery. Joining him are two key members of the Terre team: Shauna Murphy, Euro-Toques Young Chef of the Year 2023, and Linda Sergidou, who was the head pastry chef. Vagiotis is making no secret of his ambitious plans – to land a Michelin star for The Pullman.
Ciara Ohartghaile
Baker and food writer, Ursa Minor Bakehouse & School
Ciara Ohartghaile has transformed the food scene in Ballycastle, Co Antrim, with Ursa Minor, where she uses the finest local ingredients, from stone-ground Irish flours to foraged produce. Inspired by New Zealand’s vibrant food culture, she returned home in 2011 with her husband, Dara, to bake the bread they couldn’t find locally. From market stalls to a pop-up, they built Ursa Minor into a thriving space celebrated for exceptional sourdough, patisserie and community spirit. The cookery school, which opened this year, offers classes delving into bread, pastry, and sustainability – including “Soil to Sow”, exploring food’s impact on everything from soil health to our mood. Collaborative dinners have brought renowned chefs like Danni Barry, Dennis Cotter and Jess Murphy to Ballycastle, and she plans to host more events. Most recently, Ohartghaile picked up the award for Best Food Blog at the recent Irish Food Writers’ Awards, for her Substack, Gorse, which captures the rhythm and nuances of seasonal living on the Antrim coast, from food to nature.
Laure Kwaczewski
Sommelier, Chapter One
Kwaczewski is on a clear trajectory to becoming one of Ireland’s leading sommeliers. Her introduction to wine came not in her native France, where she lived in Paris, Bordeaux, and the south, but in New Zealand. A three-year stint there sparked her fascination, thanks to rigorous wine training in the bar where she worked. Returning to Europe, she honed her focus, earning WSET Level 3 and the Court of Master Sommeliers Level 2 certifications. She now plans to study for the Advanced Sommelier qualification, a two-year commitment with a daunting 25 per cent pass rate. Since joining two-Michelin-star Chapter One in Dublin as a junior sommelier, Kwaczewski has thrived in its exacting environment, with a highly skilled team and weekly training sessions. Her enthusiasm extends beyond the restaurant, with active involvement in the Irish Guild of Sommeliers and a speaking slot at their recent Sommit event. Kwaczewski plans to stay immersed in the world of wine, with ambitions to potentially manage beverage programmes on a broader scale.
MUSIC
By Kate Demolder
Chubby Cat
Twenty-seven-year-old Claire Doran, known by the stage name Chubby Cat, boasts an individuality not regularly seen in the industry. Hailing from Cork, but now firmly planted in the Belfast music scene, Chubby Cat has already been making waves in Ireland with her riveting electropop singles, Not a Vibe, Big Dog Barking (an earworm that was Choice Prize-nominated for Irish Song of the Year) and Quiet (which was nominated as a Single of the Year for the Northern Irish Music Prize). Immersive, funky and uniquely fun, her music evokes a fantasy of modern adolescence – almost as if to suggest: “Life’s worth living, let’s get weird.” She recently represented Ireland at ESNS Eurosonic in the Netherlands, took home Best Artist at Ireland Music Week and blew the roof off the Saturday night at Other Voices. As for next year? She has many plans (“none of which can be shared yet”), but lucky for us, it involves touring and making us feel alive.
Qbanaa
Few boast performance prowess like Cuban-Irish artist Qbanaa, the self-titled “Spanglish” artist whose honey-dipped sound and breathtaking stage presence could convince anyone that she was born for this. Already a big player on the underground Irish scene, Qbanaa is exactly what the industry is crying out for today; utter and bona fide authenticity. Since the release of her debut single, Truth and Desire, in 2022, she has achieved critical success in Ireland and in the UK, with her track Best Time climbing to 34 on the International Irish Radio charts and 3 on the Breakers Chart, where she was the only independent artist featured. In 2024 she toured Europe and Canada with Ruby Waters, opened for Buena Vista Social Club All-Stars in a sold-out show at the Cork Opera House, recorded Latin-inspired arrangements in RTÉ's Studio 8 and attended the exclusive Anderson.Paak x Jameson songwriting retreat in Cork. Inspired by Erykah Badu, Kali Uchis and Anastacia, Qbanaa’s world is sultry, powerful, bilingual and immersive. And with new tracks Demons in the Liffey and Best Time, she proves her worth again and again.
Ezra Williams
It’s been a busy and exciting year for Ezra Williams, the Wicklow-born, Cork-based artist whose album Supernumeraries was nominated for the RTÉ Choice Music Prize – no mean feat for an artist aged just 22. For the event, they played Vicar Street with the likes of Lankum and CMAT (“a dream come true”) and have since kept themselves busy playing the likes of Secret Sessions and Gig for Gaza in Whelan’s, as well as launching an EP, Socks, in April. Their summer performance schedule took them from the Jameson Circle at All Together Now to Fishtown at Electric Picnic to We’ve Only Just Begun in Whelan’s, while their winter set-up centred mostly on playing intimate sets in Plamás in Galway city and Women In Trade We Trust at the Pavilion in Cork. And that’s all while attending college at the Crawford College of Art and Design. Williams is influenced by artists such as Elliott Smith and Fiona Apple, and their soft indie rock is rich with meaning. It’s no surprise then, that their 2020 track My Own Person was chosen to feature in Netflix’s coming-of-age mega hit Heartstopper. Here’s hoping for more introspective lyricism and moody in 2025.
Becky McNeice
Songwriter and producer Becky McNeice, otherwise known as Dr Becks, is an artist whose integrity and dedication to her craft are abundantly obvious. The 24-year-old from Belfast creates unique tracks, drawing on her composition background and a big emotional palette. Deemed alternative pop by the masses, but actually more genreless as time goes on, her work mixes catchy lyrics with brooding, effortless melodies. McNeice first gained traction in 2022 for her single Lost Days, a track that was picked up by Spotify editorial playlists as well as put on playlists from Vogue and H&M, and her most recent track, Alive, a collaboration with fellow Belfast producer Eulogy, could live life on a series score as easily as it could be the soundtrack to an introspective walk. In 2024, her track All My Love, hit 100,000 streams, she played her first festival, co-headlined a show with Still Searching for Sound of Belfast, got her first production credit with Kiing Sequence’s track Stay Right? and was nominated for the BBC Artist of the Year Award at the NI Music Prize. Next year sees McNeice release her debut EP, which will feature myriad of still-under-wraps Irish collaborations.
Moio
Moio has been making waves recently as part of the Fade Street-headquartered Chamomile Records, a collective featuring Aby Coulibaly and Moio’s older brother Monjola. The group write, produce and host events, during which some of Ireland’s most exciting artists showcase their work. This creativity clearly suits Moio, whose own musical prowess is getting stronger and more prone to experimentation. Following the initial release of his upbeat and captivating debut single, Sunbeaming, in January 2023, the Dublin native slowed it down with his second single release, Open Your Eyes, showcasing a range that appears only to be growing in depth. This year, apart from a brief feature on a Monjola track and an impressive Trinity Ball gig, he has spent his time learning, creating and exploring new sounds, eschewing all genres and tending towards honesty and rawness. As he gears up for a big 2025, he remains mysterious: “I won’t give much away right now, but I have a lot of gigs coming up, as well as an EP coming early in 2025. It’s a different sound to what people are used to – I’m really excited for what’s to come.”
SPORT
By Malachy Clerkin
James Madden
Gaelic football
With so many of Dublin’s big players from their All-Ireland-winning years calling time this winter, Dessie Farrell will need to replenish the stocks as the new year dawns. One potential candidate is James Madden, the 25-year-old who has spent the past six seasons playing Aussie Rules. Madden was a dual player at underage level and won a Leinster football medal with Dublin before leaving for Brisbane in 2018. In his six seasons down under, he was never quite able to establish himself as a frontline player, featuring in just 13 games overall for the Lions. The Ballyboden player finished up with his AFL club after they won the 2024 Grand Final. Madden, known for his explosive pace, was predominantly a defender in Aussie Rules but could be called up for the Dubs as a roving player around the middle third of the pitch. The record of AFL returnees has been pretty mixed but Dublin could dearly do with Madden hitting the ground running.
Erin King
Rugby
After a long period in the wilderness, 2024 gave at least a few hints that Irish women’s rugby might be back on an upward curve. Finishing third in the Six Nations was decent, beating New Zealand in September was fantastic. Most important of all, a clutch of talented new faces arrived on the scene, chief among them Erin King. Born in Australia, her family moved to Co Wicklow when she was 12, and the flanker has progressed through the ranks, making four senior appearances in 2024 in 15s, as well as being a member of the Sevens team at the Olympics. Her two tries against New Zealand in the WXV1 game announced her as a serious arrival on the scene and 2025 looks set to be the year in which she grows into one of Ireland’s signature players. She has already won the World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year Award and can kick on along with the rest of a very promising Ireland team.
Mark O’Mahony
Soccer
This promises to be a key year in the development of one of Ireland’s brightest young attacking talents. The former Cork City player has been in England for a couple of seasons now, first in the renowned Brighton academy and now on loan a half an hour over the road in Portsmouth. O’Mahony turns 20 on January 14th, which makes it likely that the next 12 months will tell us so much about his future in the game. On the face of it, he has all the tools to prosper – deadly close control, an eye for goal, well able to hold up ball in tight circumstances. But football is the hardest professional sport in which to establish a foothold and time is ticking. Portsmouth look doomed to spend the rest of the season in a relegation scrap at the foot of the Championship. It’s not the most glamorous posting in the game but if O’Mahony can make waves doing it, he will have earned himself a springboard to a higher level.
Sara Byrne
Golf
After starring in Europe’s long overdue victory in the Curtis Cup in 2024 – they hadn’t beaten the Americans since 2016 – Sara Byrne immediately joined the professional ranks. Her first few months getting out and earning a pay cheque have gone pretty well, all in all. She made four of her first five cuts and even got herself into contention for a win in the Catalatyud Ladies Open in October. After a stunning 68 in the third round, she took a one-shot lead into the Sunday in Spain, before slipping to a perfectly understandable 75 on the final day. She finished sixth but unquestionably gave notice of her promise along the way. Byrne ended 2024 the Friday before Christmas by securing her Ladies European Tour card for the coming year with a final round 67 at Q-School in Morocco. She will be one of four Irish women with full time cards on the LET tour in 2025.
Sam Ewing
Horse Racing
With the last of the previous generation of jockeys all retired now, there is space for a new breed to come along and establish themselves. Davy Russell hung on until the 2024 Cheltenham Festival but now that he is out of the picture, someone like Sam Ewing is bound to flourish, thanks to his attachment to the prolific Gordon Elliott yard. Ewing notched his first Cheltenham victory in 2024 aboard Stellar Story, the 33/1 Albert Bartlett winner. Since then, he has gone from strength to strength and looks to have established himself as first among equals after Jack Kennedy in Elliot’s yard. As long as he stays injury-free, the 20-year-old Antrim jockey will get lots of opportunities throughout the season. Elliot has never been afraid to trust youth – Kennedy has been riding winners for him since his mid-teens. Kennedy’s latest leg break is a huge setback for a jockey who is no stranger to them. Ewing will take no pleasure in his misfortune but the opportunity for him to flourish in his absence is clear for all to see.
FILM & TELEVISION
By Donald Clarke
Derek Ugochukwu
Writer-director
The Nigerian-born writer-director Derek Ugochukwu, a chatty fellow with unmistakable drive, studied screenwriting at Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology before going on to make a series of eclectic shorts including To All My Darlings, Pediment and Nay Day. Screen Ireland named him for its inaugural Spotlight development scheme in 2020. You’re Not Home, a tale of a teenager in direct provision, made it all the way to South by Southwest Festival at Austin in 2023. “We made a small film with passion and dedication,” he says of that experience. “That was an eye opener. One of the things I learned was to not hold back.” In 2025 the big league beckons. “We are developing a feature with Samson films with David Collins as executive producer,” he says. The film is a thriller focusing on “underrepresented minorities”. After that he has plans for a project drawing on his dad’s experiences during the Biafran war of 1967.
Peter Claffey
Actor
Peter Claffey, a hugely tall Portumna man, who played for Ireland’s under-20 rugby team and had a professional contract with Connacht Rugby, looks to have made the transition to acting with no obvious disfigurement. “I think so,” he says, laughing. “Well, maybe I haven’t. Maybe that’s just arrogance. I have a decent bit of cauliflower ear on one side.” Early in 2024, he was cast in the lead role – the “hedge knight” Dunk – for HBO’s upcoming epic A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. The Game of Thrones spin-off derives from a trilogy by the sequence’s creator, George RR Martin. “It’s set before Game of Thrones and just after House of the Dragon,” he says. Much of 2024 was spent lugging swords about those bits of the North where the original series was shot. Claffey, who also appeared in Vikings: Valhalla, will soon be unavoidable. “It’s a privilege to be able to bring it all to life,” he says.
Sadhbh Malin
Playwright and actor
Sadhbh Malin has already established herself as a polymath of some note. An adroit playwright, she cofounded the Philomena theatre company, which in 2023 staged her play In Heat at the Dublin Fringe Festival. She had a role in the TV adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Conversations with Friends and appeared in a revival of Marina Carr’s Portia Coughlan at London’s Almeida Theatre. It remains to be seen if that will prepare her for the Outlander superfans. Sadhbh is to play Jocasta – young version of Maria Doyle Kennedy’s character – in Blood of My Blood, upcoming prequel to that hugely successful Caledonian time-travel series. “There are so many different storylines, and they all go into such really exciting places,” says Malin, who is enjoying a writing residency at the Pavillion Theatre in her native Dún Laoghaire. “I don’t know what I can really say about it.” Yes, be careful. Those superfans hate spoilers.
Jeda de Brí
Director and writer
“My grandad taught me how to edit when I was 14,” says Jeda de Brí. “I was obsessed ever since.” She did, indeed, make her way to film school, but de Brí has, over the past decade, been equally involved in theatre. She directed Katie McCann’s The Grimm Tale of Cinderella for Smock Alley. She collaborated on 14 Voices From the Bloodied Field for the Abbey. Meanwhile, she worked on acclaimed shorts such as Procession with Olwen Fouéré and – recent winner at London Irish Film Festival – the nimble Naked Lights. Now the two strands come together as she moves on to a feature adaptation of her own play Tryst, co-written with Finbarr Doyle, for the busy Treasure Entertainment. The film, she says, “speaks of contemporary relationships as well as sex in modern Ireland”. But with laughs. “I don’t think it’s going to have any kind of grimness,” she says. “There will still be humour in there as well.”
Megan McGinley
Musician and actor
I catch Megan McGinley, virtuoso fiddler and now actor, on a coach in deepest South Carolina. She is from Gaoth Dobhair in the Donegal Gaeltacht, and is on tour with a popular Irish music and dance show called A Taste of Ireland. Later this year, we can enjoy her first acting role: as a young musician getting to grips with her talent in Lance Daly’s hotly anticipated Trad. “I wrote Trad to be set in Connemara but after meeting Megan it seemed obvious that I should relocate the movie to Donegal,” says Daly, director of Kisses and Black 47. “I can’t wait for audiences to see her leading what is shaping up to be a unique and timely take on young people playing Irish music.” McGinley seems calm about it all. “I’ve never even done a play in school,” she says. “So, it was a shock for everyone when they found out I was doing it.”
ACTIVISM
By Una Mullally
Mothers Against Genocide
One of the most impactful groups to emerge from the vast network of grassroots activism protesting against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, its violence in the West Bank, and bombing of Lebanon, is Mothers Against Genocide. In late November and December alone, their actions included gathering at the RDS count centre in Dublin alongside Pals for Palestine, Teachers for Palestine, Apartheid Free Arts, Irish Creative Arts Therapists for Palestine, and Irish Healthcare Workers for Palestine, a protest in Belfast to boycott Coca-Cola, participating in the National March for Palestine in Dublin, and a Solstice Solidarity Souk in Dublin 8. Agile, enthusiastic and dedicated, the collective brings creativity, empathy and urgency to the movement. Fundraisers, protests, demonstrations, letter-writing, activism on social media and on the streets, Mothers Against Genocide illustrate the diversity of the movement across Ireland, but also the reality that it is to a significant degree, a women-led movement.
Seán Ronayne
Ornithologist, author, field recordist and public speaker Ronayne has already been the subject of a feature-length documentary by Kathleen Harris, and his memoir, Nature Boy, emerged victorious at 2024′s Irish Book Awards. In 2025, he is on track to finally complete his project of recording the birdsong of every species on the island of Ireland. It’s difficult to think of anyone in recent memory who has done more to impress upon the public the importance of birdlife in Ireland, and the significance of our biodiversity loss. Ronayne’s approach is also an inspiring one, using the wonder of nature to activate a love for what we have and what we losing. His public talks often leave audiences moved to tears. An upcoming project involves a focus on the common whitethroat species. As a recording artist, he has released two albums of wildlife recordings and natural soundscapes. In 2025 his profile and impact will continue to grow.
Irish musicians
Upon accepting a Rolling Stone UK Awards for album of the year at the end of 2024, Carlos O’Connell of Fontaines DC was emphatic in his speech in support of Palestinian freedom and against Binyamin Netanyahu’s far-right government. He’s not alone, obviously. Across the movement, Irish musicians have risen to the challenge of activism through song and celebrity. The list is almost endless, but Róisín El Cherif, Kneecap, The Mary Wallopers, Lankum, Pillow Queens, Fontaines DC, Damien Dempsey, Christy Moore, CMAT and Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin have all been participating with impact. In electronic music and the club scene, there have been multiple fundraising gigs, from Beats for Gaza to Dance for Palestine. The diaspora is active too. In Berlin, Irish artist Julie Fogarty, aka Under Tears, has been the driving force behind the Gig for Gaza series there. Considering Ireland’s prominence in music globally, with multiple acts on incredible trajectories, the power of their voices is stretching far beyond performing their songs.
Hometree
Over the past decade, Hometree has grown from a small community garden project to an increasingly large tree-planting initiative, education network and conservation project. Working to restore wild native Irish woodlands, Hometree has planted over 30,000 trees, and engaged hundreds of people in its education and reforestation programmes. Its board of trustees includes author Manchán Magan and pioneering surfer Dr Easkey Britton. Practical, inspiring, and motivated, Hometree is a fine example of what happens when people set out to really get things done to tackle the biodiversity crisis across Ireland. Its projects include supporting communities in Ireland’s Atlantic uplands, restoring Ireland’s temperate rainforests, the Farm-Forest Alliance, and purchasing sites for reforestation in Connemara, Ennistymon, Ballyfarney in Sligo, Gowlane in Cork, Illaun in Clare and Avoca in Wicklow.
Liberties SOS
The discourse about the present state and immediate future of Dublin rarely centres on corporate gentrification as a negatively disruptive force. Abaigeal Meek and Jack Caffrey, who have lived in the Liberties for 20 years, have been exploring what they characterise as “gentrification on steroids” in Dublin 8. Using an Instagram account, @the_liberties_sos, they document the huge level of development in the area, which is changing the urban fabric of a historic core of Dublin. “For us, it’s about trying to visualise what we were seeing in the Liberties around luxury transient accommodation,” says Meek. “It’s our way of trying to make sense of it, to visually document it, and connecting with people who feel similarly ... We weren’t seeing the nuance around development represented in media, because when you critique this development, it’s seen as Nimbyism. As content-creators we’re unpicking what’s happening, and trying to making sense of things that are complex and difficult to understand, especially when development is always presented in such a positive way.”
ENTERTAINMENT
By Kate Demolder, Aoife Barry and Gemma Tipton
Fiona Frawley
Comedian
Fiona Frawley is a whipsmart, fast-rising talent on the Irish comedy scene. Having played a smaller role to bigger names in recent years, Frawley’s star rose significantly in 2024. She sold out two solo shows at Whelan’s, organised and performed at Cherry Comedy’s sold-out Gig for Gaza at Vicar Street, played Paddy Power Comedy Festival, All Together Now, Beyond the Pale and Kilkenomics and took the house down with her one-woman show Are You Mad At Me. In 2025, she hopes to tour more around Ireland (although perhaps not Greystones – if you know, you know) as well as deliver a few other gigs that cannot be detailed just yet. Either way, watch this space, as it sounds like we have another exceptional Irish comic on our hands.
Ciarán Gaffney
Podcaster
It’s been a big year for Limerick man Ciarán Gaffney, the founder of international storytelling night Seanchoíche –– the one that Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott have collaborated with. By way of the event’s monstrous popularity, Gaffney has flown all over the world –– from Berlin to Melbourne to Vancouver –– to harness the magic of the old Irish skill for a new, regularly non-Irish audience. (Events have been held in English, Irish, Spanish and Dutch so far.) Gaffney, an exceptional talent for creating safe spaces for people around him to flourish, also kick-started the brand’s first podcast this year, In Their Shoes. Guests so far have included activist Robbie Lawlor and Euphoria’s Maude Apatow, who both agreed to share stories that feel increasingly vulnerable – a testament to Gaffney’s charm and grit. In 2025 Gaffney hopes to expand to some new countries –– Nigeria, Kenya, Mexico, Argentina and the UAE among them –– as well as season two of the podcast, more non-English events and a few more festivals. Details are still under wraps, but expect huge things in the future.
Ciara Berkeley
Actor and founder
Upon being dragged to an improv show earlier this year by a friend, I panicked, but I needn’t have done, because Ciara Berkeley was at the helm. By way of her remarkable troupe Broad Strokes, of which she is founder, Berkeley led a floating narrative with ease, showing exactly why the collective were deserving of their Best Ensemble Award at the Dublin Fringe in 2023. An actor by trade, Berkeley – who, in 2024, led her first feature film, Swing Bout, portrayed a young Eva in Bad Sisters and took on the role of Jane Fairfax in Emma at The Abbey – boasts an undeniably bright future, one with plenty of under-wraps plans for 2025. What is certain, though, is that her charisma, watchability and talent are obvious, even from the nosebleed seats. Her moment is coming, mark our words.
Kyla Cobbler
Comedian
Barcelona-based Irish comedian Kyla Cobbler has a huge Instagram fan base (284,000 followers and counting) that she’s translated into an eager live audience. The Ballincollig native stands out thanks to her Cork accent, tattoos and skater style, and trades in deadpan, smart commentary about ageing, being sober, Irish life, sex and relationships. Some of her most popular videos include ones about having dyslexia and its impact on her education, her climate change conspiracy around women dying their hair, and the simple pleasures of making an Irish stew. Overall, she brings nostalgia from an Irish person abroad mixed with some sparklingly saucy anecdotes. She’s set to begin 2025 with a bang thanks to gigs at the Olympia Theatre (already sold out) and London’s Leicester Square Theatre in January.
Ultan Pringle
Actor and writer
Ultan Pringle, a founding member of wave-making young theatre collective LemonSoap, hails from Donegal, where he is writer in residence with An Grianán Theatre. With writing, directing and acting credits to his name, his work is marked by a brilliant balance of seriousness and wit, as seen in Boyfriends, which ran at Project in June 2024. Another 2024 highlight was the release of audio drama Pistachio, starring the late Piper Laurie. “This Hollywood legend regaling me with stories of dating Ronald Reagan, befriending Tennessee Williams and being afraid of Bette Davis? Heaven,” says Pringle. With a new play in development, and a tour of Boyfriends planned, he says one ambition is “to play a straight fella in 2025″. He is also very serious about the challenges artists are currently facing. “I know it may be unsexy to say, but despite real success and luck, I sometimes think it is impossible to survive at this.” So what keeps him going? “The joy of making people laugh, or the exhilaration of challenging the audience with a moment that just sucks the air out of the room. And the ensemble, all of us coming together to create and challenge one another. That’s what I love and why I do it.”
