Mentoring Stories

Donegal Farmhouse Cheese

Donegal Farmhouse Cheese

James and Noreen Cunningham of Donegal Farmhouse Cheese got help to develop their business with a Priming Grant from Local Enterprise Office Donegal While the Covid-19 pandemic brought unprecedented trading challenges, it has been used by many businesses as an...

KOKO Designs

KOKO Designs

Karen O’Kane knows how to take inspiration from her surroundings, and it has become the cornerstone of her Kokodesigns silk painting creations. Originally from Stoke on Trent – the potteries area of England – Karen spent a lot of time as a child with her grandmother:...

MacBride Brothers Joinery

MacBride Brothers Joinery

MacBride Bros Joinery Ltd was established in 1993 by brothers Jay and Danny MacBride – a pair of master-craftsmen who pride themselves on creating quality pieces “from the raw plank to the finished product.”Over the past twenty years, MacBride Bros Joinery has become...

McGonigle Glass Studio

McGonigle Glass Studio

Sisters Elaine, Lyndsey and Zara Mc Gonigle make delicate and vibrant glass jewellery, art and homewares in their studio in the Donegal Craft Village on the Wild Atlantic Way. The three sisters that run Mc Gonigle Glass Studio are always asked how they came to work...

Natnoot

Natnoot

Derek and Anna Walker of Natnoot are growing their juice business with the help of an expansion grant from Donegal Local Enterprise Office.Established in 2014, Natnoot specialises in cold pressed juice drinks using locally sourced produce and superfoods. The company,...

Silver Birch

Silver Birch

As a child Sharon McDaid’s favourite gift was pencils; while other children were out playing, she would happily sit on her own and draw what she saw around her. When she was six, her mother took her to see a local art exhibition and a spark was ignited, Sharon said:...

Silver Strand Rope Works

Silver Strand Rope Works

Set up in 1990, Silver Strand Rope Works is an established rope, string and strapping manufacturing business based in Moville, County Donegal. The business was founded by Patrick McLaughlin, whose father Pat spent over 20 years as a fisherman before starting...

The Pear in Paper

The Pear in Paper

She might have taken a longer path than many to set up her business The Pear in Paper, but every step of the journey brought valuable learning for Lynn Costello Erskine. “I was always making things” says Lynn, “but my educational path took me in a different direction;...

Zona Dance

Zona Dance

As a ballet teacher, Jessica Peoples knows all about a pirouette, but she never could have predicted the turns in her life journey that brought her from her hometown of Phoenix, Arizona to founding a dance studio in Donegal. Zona Dance Studio is a classical based...