Welcome to your January issue of Irish Pharmacist, where this month, we celebrate the best in pharmacy with our report on the Irish Pharmacy Excellence Awards at the end of 2025.
This wonderful evening was organised in partnership with the Pharmacy Benevolent Fund (PBF) and was held with the assistance of generous sponsors from industry. It recognised the brightest and best in the profession, including young pharmacists and team members, and the PBF makes good use of the money raised to help those who are or were in the profession but have faced difficulties with retirement, illness, or unforeseen circumstances.
One of the most prestigious awards is the Patient-Nominated Award, which went to your columnist Áine Mac Grory for her dedication to patient care. From the same pharmacy, her colleague Maria Galfetti scooped the Silver Manager of the Year Award. The worthy finalists and award winners are too numerous to mention here, but check out our feature on p14 for more info. It’s a very worthy cause and each year, the event goes from strength-to-strength.
By pure happenstance, Terry Maguire writes in this issue about his life journey from being a wide-eyed contestant at awards ceremonies, to being a judge and passing
on advice and lending a stoic ear to young hopefuls at a recent awards ceremony.
We also feature the usual line-up of clinical content, and you can earn 2 CPD points with our module on Diabetes, as well as clinical content on Wound Care, Smoking Cessation, and Eye Care.
As we head into 2026, it’s clear that the practice of pharmacy will undergo dramatic changes over the next year, with all the challenges that go along with that.
I hope you have rested body and mind over the Christmas holiday. Everybody at Irish Pharmacist wishes you good health, good humour and good fortune for the year ahead.
Get in touch with us at the email address below — we welcome your submissions, suggestions, and input to help shape our publication to best suit you.
Happy New Year!
Pat Kelly, pat@greenx.ie
