The year's Women of the Year Awards took place at Dublin's Burlington Hotel in a bid to celebrate the women across Ireland who are excelling in their industries.
Social media influencer James Patrice attended the celebratory event in the capacity of roving reporter. He got chatting to organiser Norah Casey about her most prestigious guests of the night - the Halawa sisters.
The Halawa Sisters
"I think the most amazing thing tonight is that we have these amazing rock star directors and actresses and singers and sport stars but everyone wants to meet the big names tonight [the Halawa sisters] and they are amazing.
"I'm a sister myself but I think if a certain brand of beer made sisters, these would be the best in the world.
"They're fabulous, they're amazing and I'm so excited to have them [here].
"I've been following their misfortunes for some time now. I've got quite a big girl crush on them and I think they just steadfastly kept their brother [Ibrahim Halawa] in the news when everybody else would have forgotten him and I do think that because of them, he got his release eventually.
"After twenty-eight suspensions of his trial, it was a real travesty of justice. Imagine a young man of seventeen losing all those early years of his life so I'm absolutely honoured to have them. I've had presidents on the stage with me over the seventeen years, I've had some amazing women who have done some fantastic things but I just think these sisters are pretty extraordinary.
Imprisonment
"I do think that, when there was all this uncertainty after they announced his release, you know, it took some time from September all the way through to last week before he was eventually a free man and those girls - three of the sisters were actually imprisoned on the same day as him - and they got out after three months on bail and they came back to Ireland.
"It really is a big backstory and I know that Ibrahim himself very strongly that he wanted to come tonight and say his own thanks in his own words. He hasn't done any interviews since he came back but he really, really, wanted to thank his sisters publicly.
Ibrahim Halawa pays tribute to his 5 sisters at Women of the Year Awards #WOTYA #WOTYA17 @NorahCasey @irishtatler @JamesPatrice @rte pic.twitter.com/6P4prpfU6p
— LifeStyle on RTÉ (@LifeStyleRTE) October 28, 2017
"I've been calling all day and he's making sure that they feel very glamorous and they're not forgotten, you know, I really feel that you can be over-awed when you're with so many glamorous, beautiful, successful people but to me, they're the real stars of the show tonight."
