TIME TO CELEBRATE THE REMARKABLE CONTRIBUTION OF WOMEN IN BUSINESS THROUGHOUT COUNTY WEXFORD
AS International Women’s Day approaches on March 8, it’s time to celebrate the remarkable contribution of women in business throughout County Wexford. shining example of the trail-blazing female entrepreneurs who are making a mark locally, nationally, and internationally is the award-winning Gorey-based contemporary jewellery designer Blaithín Ennis who recently realised a long-held ambition of showcasing her work at London Fashion Week.
Blaithín’s collaboration with the famous fashion designer Paul Costelloe came about after she met him last October in Brown Thomas where she was selling her ‘Freyja’ collection as part of a CREATE project in the Dublin store.
It was a lovely lockdown surprise when Costelloe’s team contacted Bláithín a few weeks ago requesting some of her jewellery for his recent catwalk show in London.
Bláithín said London Fashion Week has been a personal ambition for many years and it was an incredible honour to be involved in the show as Costelloe is one of the most renowned and respected designers in the Irish and British fashion industry with customers including members of the British royal family.
The Wexford designer whose distinctive pieces have been worn by celebrities including Nicole Scherzinger, Cheryl Cole, and Vogue Williams, has enjoyed increasing success since launching her own label in 2012 after graduating from the National College of Art and Design. in 2014, she was named Jewellery Designer of the Year in the Irish Fashion Innovation Awards.
Talented Wexford women like Bláithín are making their mark in all areas of business from finance, insurance and hospitality to food production, beauty, tourism, travel, property, education, and the creative arts.
There is no area in which innovative and creative women are not involved at ownership or management level from engineering and manufacturing to construction and science, where their ambition, leadership and ability contributes significantly to the success and economic prosperity of the county.
These are confident women of whom we can all be proud. They show it can be done and in doing so, they are role models creating a tradition of successful women in business that inspires other women to follow and to believe that it is achievable for them too.
Women in business in Wexford don’t have to go it alone - they can avail of a wide range of financial, training and mentoring supports through the Local Enterprise Office which is continuing to run the hugely popular Women in Business Network during lockdown, with monthly Zoom talks and workshops by successful female entrepreneurs from various fields of business.
Large numbers of businesswomen have been tuning in to the free workshops which this month featured Larissa Feeney, founder of the award-winning Accountants Online who spoke about her journey from sole practitioner to a firm of chartered and certified accountants serving over 1,800 clients from Ireland and the UK.
On March 25, from 11.30 to 1 p.m., the speaker will be Chupi Sweetman Durney, designer of timeless heirloom jewellery celebrating Ireland’s design heritage - her jewellery creations started out as a hobby and now sell to 67 countries around the work.
The Women in Business Network is an invaluable resource for female entrepreneurs in the county, encouraging them to develop new skills and learn best practice from the experience of others, to maximise their potential for success, and unsurprisingly, the take-up of the programmes on offer is always high.
‘ There are so many success stories of women in County Wexford who continue to do amazing things across every sector of business’, said Liz Hore, Head of Enterprise at Wexford LEO in Wexford County Council.