Cork maker bags top prize

A gifted furniture maker from Cork has scooped a top prize as part of an annual initiative recognising talent, potential, and creativity in Ireland.

Christopher Tuohy was awarded the 2025 Overall Emerging Maker at the Future Makers Awards 2025, a platform to showcase the talent of Ireland’s next generation of makers, designers, and craftspeople.

Mr Touhy was amongst 25 other awardees announced by Design & Crafts Council Ireland (DCCI) this week.

Cork’s Patsy Atkinson was also awarded at this year's DCCI Future Makers awards. Patsy is a textile maker and was awarded in the Exhibitions award.

The Future Makers Awards is one of the largest prize-funded design and craft award programmes in Europe, with each winner receiving a mentoring package valued at €2,000 in addition to the award.

This year’s competition saw an expansive range of entries from all around Ireland, each one demonstrating a unique approach to creating beautiful and functional works of art.

Other notable winners were Dublin paper maker Rachel Kenny (Sustainable Design), textile artist and designer, Clodagh Nathan from Co. Kildare (Overall Student award), and Lucy O’Sullivan, a furniture maker also from Kildare in the student and recent graduate sustainability category (Sustainable Design award).

Peter Burke TD, Minister of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment said: “The Future Makers Awards are a really important platform that shines a light on the extraordinary creativity and skill emerging from Ireland’s design and craft community.

“Over the past 16 years, this initiative has given countless designers and makers the opportunity to grow, to be recognised and to push their practice forward with meaningful support.

“Every year we see work that that is not only inventive and ambitious, but also connects to Ireland’s cultural identity. Congratulations to all the winners and wishing you every success for the future,” he added.

Judges this year included Victoria Donovan, a silversmith with almost 40 years’ experience and a recipient of the Kilkenny Design Workshops scholarship in 1986; Anneliese Duffy Fallon, owner of The Linen Shirt Company and founder of Fashion Connect Ireland; Leah Capaldi, a London-based artist celebrated for her pioneering work at the intersection of sculpture and performance; Brankica Zilovic, a French-Serbian artist and educator based in Paris; Belén Llamas-Ferrier, an art framer who has worked in the industry for more than 20 years; and Róisín Pierce, who operates across multiple disciplines with a focus on material innovation and poetic forms.

Judge Leah Capaldi said: "Irish craft isn’t just about tradition; it’s a living, growing way of expressing who we are.

“By backing students and emerging creatives from a wide field of disciplines, the programme makes sure Irish design stays fresh, bold, exciting and ready for the world,” added Ms Capaldi.

For more information on the Future Makers initiative, visit dcci.ie/dcci-future-makers.