ACORNS 9

Anna Sutcliffe – House of Achill

Anna Sutcliffe’s business grew out of her desire to create something that would allow her to live and work on Achill Island – a place she has strong family connections and which she considers to be magical.

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Aoife Keogh – The Grazing Goat

Aoife Keogh set up her business, a small, family run farm shop in Rockcorry, Co Monaghan, in December 2022. Originally from Bray in Co Wicklow, Aoife and her husband moved from a small townhouse in Bray
to a farm in Rockcorry in 2021 because they wanted more space for their eight children to play in.

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Audrey Cashman – My Palm Co

Hair stylist Audrey Cashman launched My Palm Co, a luxury hair tool and kit company, from her home in Cork City in April 2024.

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Breige Grogan – Little Rock Digital

Breige Grogan, who is originally from Carrickmore in Co Tyrone, set up her business at her home in Ennis, Co Clare, in August 2022 after spending over 15 years working in digital marketing and ecommerce for global brands.

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Bríd Fanning – Bríd Fanning Art & Design

Based in Ballinacree, Oldcastle, Co Meath, where she is also from, Bríd Fanning’s business is inspired by the views from her home studio – with the Loughcrew megalithic cairns on one side and Mullaghmeen Forest, home to the largest beech trees in Ireland, on the other.

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Brosna O’Donovan – Mighty Grays Studio

Brosna O’Donovan decided to set up her own 3-D animation company after she had grown accustomed to living in her native Sligo during the pandemic.

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Carina Roseingrave – Burren View Farm

Carina Roseingrave started her free range eggs business on the family farm she grew up on at the foothills of the Burren in Crusheen, Co Clare.

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Caroline Fry – Caroline Fry Coaching

Caroline Fry set up Caroline Fry Coaching after seeing how senior executives were failing to filter down the lessons of management training courses to their middle managers and team leads.

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Catherine Mackey – Mind Your Language

Catherine Mackey had worked in the public service as a speech and language therapist for 13 years when she decided to open her own practice in order to provide specialist services to her local community, many of which were not available within the public service.

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Ciara Stanley – Coppenagh House Farm

Ciara Stanley, from Tullow, Co Carlow, is something of a serial entrepreneur. She and her husband Robert have run Coppenagh House Farm, which specialises in rearing and selling wagyu beef, since launching the farm shop in August 2022.

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Diletta Panero – DP Language Services

Diletta Panero, who is originally from Cherasco, near Turin in Italy, set up her company in Kinlough, Co Leitrim in 2023, having previously lived in Galway and spent significant time in Spain and Latin America.

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Edel Walsh – Edel Walsh Coaching & Consultancy

Experiencing serious illness during the pandemic prompted Edel Walsh to reassess her situation and to pursue something she had always wanted to do – supporting students through her own coaching business.

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Eimear Nally – Bonny Bó Milk

Eimear Nally set up Bonny Bó Milk on her family farm in Athlone, Co. Westmeath, to provide fresh, unhomogenised and locally produced milk to people at an affordable price.

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Ellen Madden – Down the Floral Path

Ellen Madden studied to become a florist in Paris before returning to her home in Longford town to set up Down the Floral Path, her wedding and events floral service.

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Emma Duffy – My Forever Tooth Fairy

When her daughter began losing her baby teeth, former marketing director Emma Duffy saw a gap in the market for a brand that would reimagine the tooth fairy story and tradition in both a magical and meaningful way for parents and children alike. 

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Emma Jane Clarke – Martinstown Lodge

Originally from Celbridge, Co Kildare, Emma Jane Clarke set up her equine-centred professional development coaching business at her home in Athboy, Co Meath, in October 2021.

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Fiona Lynch – Almond Rose Designs

Fiona Lynch, from Clogherhead, Co Louth, set up Almond Rose Designs in a home studio in November 2022 after leaving her job as a graphic designer in a large financial services firm for 25 years.

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Gemma Kingston – The Family Edit

It was while she was on maternity leave that Gemma Kingston realised that there might be a commercial answer to repeated complaints of fellow mothers about the lack of available information on baby classes and other family-related activities.

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Ger O’Connor – Fuchsia Bell Chartered Accountants

Chartered accountant Ger O’Connor set up her practice in her native Castlemaine, Co Kerry, in 2022 after leaving her role as a financial controller for a medium-sized corporation.

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Grainne Dunne – Motly Designs

Grainne Dunne set up her business at her home in the village of Redhills, Co Cavan, in July 2022. A graphic designer who still works in product design in the tech industry, Grainne was inspired to start Motly Designs after her son’s birth when she wanted to decorate his room with
personalised artwork.

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Katie Diffley – Rebel Rising

Katie Diffley, originally from Dublin and now living in Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim, since 2000, founded Rebel Rising in March 2022 as a coaching and mentoring business for female founders seeking to enhance their marketing and sales strategies.

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Kelly-Anne Quinn – Life Planning

After working in financial services for 27 years, 20 of them as a Financial Advisor, Kelly-Anne Quinn, from Dunshaughlin in Co Meath, launched her own financial planning company. Her aim is to give strategy-based financial planning advice to clients rather than product-based financial advice.

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Laura Byrne – At The White Glove Concierge

Laura Byrne had been working for 15 years as an Executive Assistant (EA) at multinational blue-chip organisations when she returned to Ireland and set up At The White Glove Concierge, a luxury concierge service for high-net-worth individuals.

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Letitia Fealy – Lotus Optimisation

Letitia Fealy started her business Lotus Optimisation in June 2023 after finding that many SMEs in Ireland were failing to properly configure their websites so that they appear in search engine results.

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Margaret Leahy – Fable Tours

Margaret Leahy set up Fable Tours in 2022, leveraging her contacts from a 30-year career in community development and organic farming to offer personalised food tours along the Wild Atlantic Way.

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Maureen Hoey – mojo&co

Maureen Hoey, who is from Dundalk in Co Louth, started her business from her home in October 2021 after taking redundancy from her role as a Global Sales Support Manager with a call centre in 2020.

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Michelle Power – Wren and Mabel

Michelle Power set up her business offering classes in sewing and crafting in October 2022. Since then, the Navan-based entrepreneur has trained hundreds of people around Meath and neighbouring counties Louth and Cavan in the art of salvaging clothing and furniture that would
otherwise be discarded.

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Munaza Gilmore – The Brow Movement

When Munaza Gilmore’s talent for threading eyebrows became known around Swinford, Co. Mayo, she soon became so overwhelmed with requests for her services that she had to open a room in her home to accommodate them.

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Ruth Gallagher – Wild Beans

Eager to fill the gap in the local market for a consistently good cup of coffee, Ruth Gallagher opened Wild Beans café in her adopted hometown of Kinvara, Co. Galway, in 2021.

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Siobhán Ring –Dottie and Dora

It wasn’t long into her participation in the ACORNS programme that Siobhán Ring decided to switch the focus of her micro-farming business from producing goats milk and cheese to developing her own range of skincare products using the same ingredients.

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Sue Nelson – Sue Nelson Designs

A realisation that she needed to create a more artistic life for herself led Sue Nelson, who had worked as an engineer in supply chain management for over 20 years, to leave her job and become an artist.

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Úna Ryan – REMind Ed

Úna Ryan is the owner of REMind Ed, a wellbeing company specialising in mindfulness products, events and training for parents, children and school communities.

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