Budding businesswoman on the road to Croke Park

A budding young Ogonnelloe entrepreneur will rub shoulders with 250 business representatives in Croke Park this Thursday thanks to the development of a new product.
Emer Mooney (13), a first year pupil at St Anne’s Community College, Killaloe, will represent the county at the Student Enterprise Awards.
She is the only junior pupil selected from the whole country and will be joined by just three other senior students on the day.
Her siblings Hannah (11), Fíonn (9), Pearse (7) and Tara (6) are delighted to get a day off school to join her for the event in Dublin, together with her brother, Sean, who is in medical school in Galway and proud parents Lorretta and Brian.
About a month ago, Emer was announced as the Clare Enterprise Junior winner with her product Natural Hampers at the West County Hotel, Ennis attended by 66 companies.
Having examined some hampers in the market for gifts and special occasions, Emer felt they were over-priced and most, if not all of the items, were not produced in Ireland.
Once the competition was announced in St Anne’s last September, Emer came up with the idea of providing a hamper with top quality natural Irish products that are reasonably priced. Within a few days, she started washing cars, weeding gardens and even put on a puppet show and dressed up as a clown to entertain children at birthday parties to earn the necessary €350 seed money to get the business off the ground.
Even though some people advised Emer to source cheaper goods, she insisted the product had to be a top quality yet cost effective.
Last week, Emer was invited to attend a photocall in the Croke Park Hotel and she and her family had to leave the Galtee Mountains early on Sunday morning where her parents were filming the Mountain Pursuits Challenge to make the trip to the capital.
Lorretta told The Clare Champion it was well worth leaving the Galtees for the event in Dublin. “She had a great day out and was a great boost for her confidence. She was surprised to receive the call for the photoshoot last week and kept saying ‘I feel so lucky’.
“She is very unassuming and was very surprised to become the Clare Enterprise Junior winner. She is always trying to come up with new ideas to try and develop the business even further. She drafted a questionnaire about hampers and wanted to make sure that she wasn’t missing out on international special occasions for non-nationals to be sure she was part of this niche market.
“Her teacher, Mairead Ryan has been very supportive and positive and has helped Emer develop a great self-belief in her own ability,” she said.
Her family moved to Ogonnelloe ten years ago. Lorretta, who was an education psychologist and Brian who worked in the Telecoms management gave up their jobs and started a new business in website design and event management.