The Longcourt House Hotel’s position at the very heart of the local community in Newcastle West was rewarded at the 2025 Irish Hotel Awards, where the industry-leading County Limerick establishment picked up the coveted ‘Local Hotel of the Year’ award as well as the Social Media Marketing Award.
Showcasing and celebrating the best of the best in our hospitality sector – from front of house staff and housekeeping teams to accomplished chefs and the managers that keep the hotels ticking over – the 2025 Irish Hotel Awards ceremony took place at The Johnstown Estate in Enfield, County Meath on Monday, October 20th.
The Irish Hotel Awards set the gold standard for excellence in Irish hospitality. Through independent and in-depth inspections, they spotlight hotels delivering standout guest experiences with authenticity, innovation and heart, their mission to celebrate the people and places shaping Ireland’s hospitality landscape – raising standards, inspiring pride and making sure the best don’t go unnoticed.
One of the big winners at the 2025 awards extravaganza was the magnificent 4-Star Longcourt House Hotel in Newcastle West, County Limerick, which triumphed on the double by claiming the highly-prestigious ‘Local Hotel of the Year’ award alongside the novel ‘Social Media Marketing Award’.
Recipient of the All-Ireland Rising Star award at last year’s Irish Hotel Awards, Pádraig O Regan is the progressive and dedicated Operations Manager at The Longcourt House Hotel. Pádraig was delighted that the hotel – winner of Business All Star accreditation for the last five years – came up trumps at the Irish Hotel Awards for the second year running:
“It’s always an honour and very humbling to receive national recognition from your peers in the industry,” he told Hotel & Tourism Ireland. “This year, we didn’t nominate anyone for individual awards but went forward as a collective team. It’s a real boost to our team to have been successful. The inspectors visit the hotel anonymously and get the full experience of what The Longcourt House Hotel is all about.
“It was also a great experience for members of our team to attend the awards ceremony at The Johnstown Estate – to see what they do there and how they do it.”
The Irish Hotel Awards are a real seal of approval / vote of confidence in The Longcourt House Hotel’s status at the heart of the local community for top-quality food, beverages, accommodation, function and events, all delivered by an exceptionally friendly and professional team.
Furthermore, this year also saw the hotel pick up The Great Irish Breakfast Award – a true celebration of their delicious breakfasts, using the best of local produce – and the Excellence in Service Award – recognising the warmth, professionalism and dedication of their incredible team. All these awards reflect the hard work, passion and commitment of the entire team at Longcourt, who go above and beyond every single day to ensure that guests have the very best experience.
“As we are an individual, independent hotel, we tend to do things at a much more personal level than the bigger chains, and this is something we take great pride in,” Pádraig adds. “Newcastle West is the largest town in Limerick and we live up to our motto, which is ‘at the heart of our community where every moment matters’.
“All our staff are local and people are attracted to the hotel for their big occasions from christenings to a wedding day or just popping in for a drink and a bite to eat. We have a great rapport with our customers and our staff would know their names when welcoming them in at the front door down to knowing what glass of wine they prefer with their meal.
“We have a strong management team and don’t have separate departments – we are the department and we all happily perform the same duties as each other. I would meet somebody at the front door to welcome them in and then I could serve them their plate of beef or salmon 15 minutes later. We are not office based or behind desks; we all like to interact with the public and that applies to the General Manager Mario Puchowski and his wife Ela, who is Assistant Deputy General Manager.”
The Longcourt House Hotel is a vibrant property and the teams behind it is equally passionate and dedicated to the hotel and guests who frequent it. The proprietors are West Limerick natives Jim and Mary Long who live in London. The Longs purchased the hotel in 2014 and lovingly restored and redeveloped it ahead of its official opening in December, 2017.
“It’s a very busy spot with locals and we also get a lot of passing trade along the N21, which is great,” says the award-winning young Operations Manager. “It’s a 4-Star hotel, with 38 bedrooms – very popular with returning corporate guests and also local businesses in the town. We use all their products and support them in any way we can. Weddings, christenings, communions and confirmations are massive here and we are also very popular with the local Polish community.
“Out GM Mario and his wife are Polish and they recognised that there was nothing locally for the large Polish community, so they started running Polish Party Nights in the hotel and these have proven extremely popular, with 500 people attending the first night alone.”
Pádraig – who holds diplomas in Event Management and Hospitality Management from UCD and is currently studying for a Bachelor of Arts in Hotel Management at Munster Technological University – has been part of the Longcourt House Hotel team for two years and counting.
“I used to work for a wedding decorator and in that capacity always loved coming to the Longcourt House Hotel,” he reflects. “I was still at school at the time. Two years ago, I decided I wanted to work here and joined as a waiter in the summer of 2023. Mario, who has been a massive influence on me and always had the attitude that the sky is the limit, encouraged me to do those two courses at UCD. I was promoted from Junior Duty Manager to Senior Duty manager and then in April this position came up and I became Operations Manager.
“I’ve been loving it ever since because I love being on the floor with people. Mario and Derek Walsh, the Deputy General Manager, believe in pushing people to improve and learn because this is a small industry and you can go anywhere in the world with it. They encourage people to do college courses while they are working full time and it is of huge benefit to the hotel and to the team. We have a brilliant team here of 105 in total, including a core staff of around 40 or 50 full time, and they are all locals embedded into the local community.
“The mantra for the staff here is that the sky is the limit. I started as a waiter hoping to get a wage to go to college, but I quickly became a 21-year-old Operations Manager in a 4-Star hotel. It goes to show what can be achieved here, and in hospitality in general.
“We are absolutely delighted to have been recognised again by the Irish Hotel Awards. Mario is very active on social media and his humorous videos are very well-received. I’m sure they played a part in us receiving the Social Media Marketing Award.
“It’s reassuring to be named as Local Hotel of the Year and this is an acknowledgement that means a lot to us. We are a local business first and foremost and we always strive to give our customers more. We are not just in the business of providing food, beverages and accommodation but an unforgettable experience with a friendly, personal touch.”
Longcourt House Hotel,
St Mary’s Road,
Rathnaneane,
Newcastle West,
County Limerick.
Tel: 069 25300
Email: [email protected]
This article was published in Hotel & Tourism Magazine, Spring 2026, Vol 2 No 1
featured, Longcourt House Hotel
