Losing out to Ennis in the final stage of Telecom Eireann's information age towns project last year was a major disappointment for Kilkenny.
Yet instead of dwelling on what might have been, the city has launched an energetic and visionary drive to make itself the "e-creative" capital of Ireland.
As one of three runners-up in the Telecom competition, the city was awarded £1 million to develop a "wired town". This money has been used to start or give impetus to many information age projects.
Some were already pioneers in various fields of technology. Mr Shamus Malone and his family, for example, make hand-crafted products in their city centre studio and sell them to international customers over the Internet.
Equally impressive are community projects such as that begun by residents of the Butts housing estate, where a survey showed a year ago that none of the 350 homes had a computer. Now a programme is under way to ensure that every child in the community is computer literate by the end of next year.
Kilkenny Information Age Ltd (KIAL), set up after the Telecom competition, says such stories of innovation and active participation by people are heard all around the city.
Links to many of these enterprises can be found through the Kilkenny website, KIAL's flagship project which was launched on Friday by the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke. Many towns and cities have their official and unofficial websites nowadays but this one, it is claimed, is the most comprehensive local site in the country.
The site contains a vast amount of information about the city; from its history to its famous citizens to practical information such as street directories identifying the location of each shop. A search facility gives you quick access to whatever information you need, be it a list of local doctors, information about hotels or train timetables.
KIAL's manager, Ms Marion O'Neill, says the website should help to bring new jobs and business to Kilkenny. In the meantime, there is no shortage of farsighted entrepreneurs and community leaders creating opportunities themselves.
Young Irish Film Makers, a Kilkenny-based group formed eight years ago, has launched a range of multi-media initiatives which give local young people access to cutting-edge digital technology.
The difference between this organisation and others of its kind is that the young people involved, aged from eight to 18, get to make real programmes for the enjoyment of others, instead of being passive consumers of the media themselves.
Under the Hawthorn Tree, a feature film made by under-18-year-olds, was shown last year on RTE and was recently screened by Channel 4.
"It took seven weeks to shoot, and the kids worked from eight o'clock in the morning until eight every evening because it was their movie. They weren't doing it for anyone else," says Mr Mike Kelly, the organisation's artistic director.
Another feature film, Da'Boyz, will be shot in July.
Yet films are only one of many projects, including a new technologies initiative supported by KIAL, being run by Young Irish Film Makers. At any one time up to 100 young people from the Kilkenny area are involved in the group.
Shamus Malone, who runs a craft shop at the Castle Yard with his wife, Trish, and son, James, bought a computer for Christmas eight years ago but "didn't know how to turn it on".
Now the family business has a highly sophisticated website which enables prospective customers to view artistic hardwood mirrors and other products on sale and make "real time" purchases with their credit cards, i.e. complete the transactions online.
Most of the business, says Mr Malone, is still done in the shop but he believes the benefit of having the website will be felt in three years. "But it would be no good waiting until then to set one up," he says, pointing out that it takes years to build up an awareness of the existence of your site.
Mr Malone and his son have developed their website skills to such a degree that they now have a second business designing such sites for others.
Those attending the interactive courses at the Kilkenny Multimedia Centre on St Joseph's Road have a bit of catching up to do before reaching the Malones' level but they're working on it. This FAS-backed project is just one of a number to arise from the area action plan launched by residents of the Butts in the west of the city, as a result of which every child under 12 is doing courses in computers, sports and the arts.
Such innovations might seem extraordinary elsewhere. In Kilkenny, it would appear, they're par for the course.
The Kilkenny website address is www.kilkenny.ie