After returning to the business following a career in accountancy, Ursula Kelly successfully petitioned the Department of Agriculture to allow Cormac Tagging to enter the cattle tagging market.

Since launching operations in 2017, the company has grown by 1,200 per cent, blending tradition, innovation and customer trust. She describes her career to date as one fuelled by “blind determination.”

Winning IMAGE PwC Family Businesswoman of the Year is still hard to put into words, to be honest. I remember standing there, shaking a little in disbelief, and thinking of my parents straight away, everything they built over more than forty years in agribusiness. For me, it never really felt like “my” award. It felt like a moment for all of us. Cormac Tagging has always been about people first: my family, our team, and the farm families who backed us when we were a new name trying to find our place, especially in the cattle identification space. More than anything, it was a feeling of gratitude. Gratitude for the opportunities I’ve been given, and for the people who believed in me long before I believed in myself. It also meant so much that IMAGE and PwC chose to recognise an agri family business on that stage. That felt really special. I’m not sure I’ll ever fully be able to put into words just how much that moment meant. To this day, I get emotional when I think about that moment.

Growing up around a family farming business meant the farm, the factory, the shop and the conversations at the kitchen table were all part of daily life. Business and life were never separate. I watched my parents show up every day, no matter what. There was never some big master plan, just a deep sense of responsibility to the people they served. Farmers depending on them, long days and late nights, that was completely normal to us growing up. All five girls in our house learned valuable skills very early in life. Run fast, that one was mainly for after sheep. A work ethic that was hard to match, and probably most importantly, how to communicate with people and build genuine relationships, just by watching our parents. We learned that kindness built trust and trust built loyalty from both customers and staff. It was never presented to us as a business strategy; it was simply how my parents operated every single day. That shaped everything for me. It taught me very early that business isn’t about transactions, it’s about trust. It’s about being there when people need you, especially when it’s not convenient.

Returning to the family business after accountancy wasn’t part of a grand plan. I came back because my dad challenged me to shake up the status quo (together!) to become the second cattle tag supplier in Ireland. At the time, the business was small and struggling. It wasn’t an obvious move, and on paper, it definitely didn’t make much sense. But something in me wanted to give it a go anyway, despite the odds stacked against us and the very real risk of failure. Accountancy gave me a critical lens. I could look at the business more critically, understand where we were losing ground financially, and identify where real opportunities existed. But more importantly, it gave me confidence to ask questions and challenge things that didn’t feel right. Looking back now, it was one of those decisions that felt incredibly uncertain at the time but ended up changing everything.

“Blind determination” probably comes from not always knowing how something will work, but deciding that the possibility of failure isn’t enough reason not to try. There were definitely moments where I was completely out of my depth. Challenging the State and a system that wasn’t designed for disruption, and then trying to build credibility in an industry where trust takes years to earn. But I kept showing up and taking a chair at the table, even on the days when I felt like I didn’t fully belong there. And over time, that changes things. Not overnight, but slowly, you realise you’ve built something real, not just in the success of the business, but in your own belief, determination and resilience too. That combination can be really powerful, but it requires consistently showing up and backing yourself, even when your inner critic is telling you otherwise. It definitely hasn’t been easy, but it has absolutely shaped the person I am today.

Entering the cattle tagging market didn’t feel like confidence at the time. It felt more like this just needs to be done. Farmers deserved choice, that was Dad’s line. It was as simple as that. And once that belief settled in, it became very hard to ignore. The process was long, frustrating, and at times quite lonely. There were definitely moments where it would have been much easier to walk away. But I kept coming back to the same thing: if we don’t try, nothing changes. And that was enough to keep me going. It meant persistent knocking on doors, asking uncomfortable questions, and searching for answers that didn’t always exist.

Taking on the State and the Department of Agriculture was exhausting at times, but the outcome really mattered. Moving from a single supplier to an open market approval process was a significant shift for the Department of Agriculture, not just for us, but for anyone who came after. There are now four cattle tag suppliers in Ireland. Farmers have a real choice now, and for our family business, that’s what it was always about. It made every setback worth it, and we haven’t looked back since.