Áine Farrelly – UBRÓ Milk
Meath native Áine Farrelly had recently left her role of 23 years as an accountant when an opportunity came her way to co-found her own business – Four Acre Foods.
Antoinette Moore – Pyramid Holistic Centre
Antoinette Moore offers reflexology, massage and aromatherapy courses from the Pyramid Holistic Centre. Her central mission is to help people wishing to either change careers or take their existing skills as a therapist to another level.
Barbara O’Flaherty- Let’s Get Digital
Barbara O’Flaherty, from Bunnanadden, Co Sligo, has over 17 years marketing experience in sectors such as retail, tourism, hospitality, entertainment, industrial, and services. This gave her a solid foundation to launch her own agency, Let’s Get Digital, in July 2019.
Caroline Cullen– The Roots of Ireland
Caroline Cullen and her husband Steve always had a yearning to set up a business conducive to family life and to their shared love of nature. That yearning was fulfilled in January 2020, when Caroline, who is originally from Cork but based in her husband’s home town of Leixlip, Co Kildare, set up The Roots of Ireland.
Cathy Fitzgibbon– The Culinary Celt
Cathy Fitzgibbon, aka The Culinary Celt, brings her advertising industry expertise to the table. As an Irish Food Advocate and published author, her business is driven by a deep passion for nature, the environment and a profound respect for natural food sources.
Claire Keane – Second Street Bakeshop
The founder of Second Street Bakeshop in Carrigaline in Cork first started cooking and selling her homemade caramel squares to fellow students in secondary school, as a means of raising funds for summer trips to visit the United States.
Deirdre Corcoran – First Options Fertility
Deirdre Corcoran set up First Options Fertility in Gorey, Co. Wexford, after noticing a lack of adequate fertility services around the South East region.
Edel Hayes – Accelerate Accounting Solutions
It wasn’t until Edel Hayes saw the struggles of the entrepreneurs among her circle of friends that the certified chartered accountant realised where a business of her own could add value.
Emilie Mjorndal – Emilie’s Woodfire Kitchen
Emilie’s Woodfired Kitchen opened in Glenbeigh in March 2019, and such has been its success that she is now on the cusp of opening a second premises, a bakery in Kilorglan.
Emily O’Callaghan – Achill Island Film Festival
Emily O’Callaghan, who is originally from Dublin but is now living on Achill Island in Co Mayo, moved west in September 2021, after she decided to combine her love of films, Achill and event organising by starting the Achill Island Film Festival.
Feena McBride – The Arty Fox
Feena McBride, from the village of Kilmacrennan in Co Donegal, found inspiration from the Covid-19 pandemic to start her business, The Arty Fox, in November 2020.
Fiona Young – Milis
From paraffin wax to synthetic fragrance oils, Fiona knew from her 20-year career as an oncology nurse the dangers these products posed to people’s health and moved to create a limited range of candles that were vegan, sustainably sourced and carbon free.
Georgia Quealy – Bon Chocolatiers
Originally from Roscrea in Co Tipperary, Georgia Quealy and her boyfriend/business partner, Daniel Linehan set up their company, Bon Chocolatiers, in his home town of Athlone, Co Westmeath, in October 2020.
Helena Golden – Helena Golden Willow Woman
Helena Golden had been working in management roles in the food industry and in community and rural development before she decided to branch out on her own with her basket making business.
Kate Beckett – Resourceible.com
Kate is the founder of Resourceible.com, an online speech therapy resource platform that offers professionals an international marketplace to buy and sell cost-effective digital speech therapy resources.
Klara O’Leary – Care Box Collection
Care Box Collection is a wellness-focused gift company which creates unique, meaningful and affordable gifts for yourself, a loved one, your company, clients or team and delivers them directly across Ireland, the UK and EU.
Laura Stakelum – Stakelum Consultancy
Originally from Holycross, Co Tipperary, Laura Stakelum spent 15 years living and working in Dublin, where she trained as a chartered accountant specialising in corporate finance, before spending six months in Tipperary working from home during the pandemic.
Linda-Gene Byrne – The Holding Pond
When Linda-Gene Byrne learned that Irish consumers were spending €5billion a year with online retailers, of which €3billion was leaving the country to non-indigenous companies, she felt compelled to try to reverse the trend.
Lisa Breslin – Imagine Lab
Imagine Lab Design is a creative design studio, run by Lisa Breslin in County Donegal. They specialise in branding strategies, graphic design and motion design. Their services have been specifically tailored to meet the needs of small and medium businesses to grow through unique and powerful graphic content.
Lyndsay Considine – LC Digital
Lyndsay Considine runs LC Digital, a digital marketing and social media consultancy, management and training company, from her home in Drumlish, Co. Longford.
Lucianne Hare – Nourished in Nature Ireland
Nourished in Nature Ireland offers one-to-five-day wellness and adventure retreats which combine wellness activities such as yoga and meditation with adventurous pursuits such as hiking and surfing.
Margaret Coyne – Margaret Coyne Couture
A growing weariness around the commute to her job with a leading designer in Dublin compelled Margaret Coyne to make Dowra, Co. Cavan, a permanent home – not just for herself and her husband, but also her budding dress-making business.
Nell Stritch – Pressed Flowers by Nell
Pressed Flowers by Nell started with founder Nell Stritch making her wares at her kitchen table. But while online sales were strong in those early stages, she knew there was no substitute for high-street footfall.
Niamh Dooley – BiaSol
Niamh Dooley is a passionate food entrepreneur and sustainability advocate, and co-founder of BiaSol and Circular Food Co, two pioneering ventures that transform food waste into high-quality, nutritious products.
Nikki Curran – Nikki Curran Career Clinic
After 35 years away, Nikki Curran returned to her native Sligo, having taken 20 years out to raise her family. She had previously worked in the hospitality, corporate, and training sectors in the areas of management, recruitment and training.
Olive Keyes – Pilates and Wellness Retreats
Olive Keyes found that wellness retreats both in Ireland and abroad often placed too much focus on Pilates and yoga, and too little on the light entertainment of exploring local history and culture.
Olivia Morrissey– Rostellan Farm
Olivia Morrissey and her husband Joe opened the doors to their farm shop in the coastal village of Rostellan, near Midleton in Co Cork at the beginning of September 2022.
Rebecca Power– Repower Quality
Rebecca Power had been working as a quality specialist in the pharmaceutical industry for 12 years before setting up her own firm, Repower Quality, in January 2021.
Rita Maunsell – WAWETS
In 2019, Rita Maunsell and her family sold their home in North Kerry to fulfil a life-long dream of owning a dairy farm. They relocated to Athlacca, Co. Limerick, where over the next year they worked hard and invested in building up a dairy enterprise.
Sara Barry– FiorSó
Sara Barry had been working as a lawyer when her daughter was diagnosed with a serious illness in 2018. After some time – the end of which saw her daughter on the road to recovery Sara decided that life was too short for dispassionate pursuits so she set up her jewellery brand, FiorSó, in 2021.
Sarah Fitzpatrick – Lakeland Digital & Print
Sarah Fitzpatrick, from Kilbeggan, Co Westmeath, was working remotely as a social media manager for a UK company when she and her business partner, Anita Loughlin, who worked for the same UK company, decided to branch out on their own with Lakeland Digital & Print in June 2021.
Sinéad Smyth – Inishowen Artists Retreat
Sinead Smyth set up Inishowen Artists Retreat in 2023 after renovating a 19th century cottage on the grounds of her home in Trenbane on the picturesque Inishowen peninsula in north Co. Donegal.
Sylvia O’Rourke – The Holistic Pharmacist
Sylvia O’Rourke, set up her business, The Holistic Pharmacist, in Westport, Co. Mayo, in January 2018 to fulfil l her drive to help women to feel the best that they possibly can.