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| Cian Sweeney |
Cian is the winner in the junior competition of Foróige NFTE, Donegal town, and will attend the regional finals at LYIT, Letterkenny on Thursday 19th March 2015. The
Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) is a cutting edge, world
recognised, youth entrepreneurship education and development programme.
It is managed and provided by Foróige in Ireland.
For anyone that knows Cian, his first love is machines with motors. They come in all shapes and sizes but mostly if there is a boat attached, you will have his attention. But he will settle for cars and interestingly now sewing machines. Cian attends Gaelscoil na gCeithre Máistrí with his siblings, Cormac and Aoibhe. His other interests include playing the bagpipes and is planning to join the Arranmore Pipe band at the earliest opportunity.
When he saw his Mother, Arranmore woman, Annette (Mary Eddie) Gallagher making the most intricate patchwork for gifts for her friends and family he had an idea. He wanted to enter the Foróige NFTE competition to make money making Christmas decorations.
Annette supported his venture by helping him with costings; materials, labour and she also supplied the material from her various sources garnered from around the world. The fabric used was sourced from New York City, Glasgow, Dublin, Limerick and Buncrana. The patterned fabric from the different sources provided a unique look to the craftwork made by Donegal Town's Enterprising youngster. Cian also sourced local tweed from Hanna Hats.
In Donegal Town, at the Foróige NFTE final, Cian was interviewed by a 2 judge panel, Susan O'Reilly - Bank Manager of Bank of Ireland
and Nathalie Cannon - Administrator for Foróige in Donegal Town. He came armed with his dossier which included photographs and a set of accounts. He was unable to show his craftwork as he had sold out of produce at the Christmas market and had borrow ones to show the judges. When asked 'Would you change anything about your
business? Cian responded 'No, but I would expand my product line to make crafts for all occasions and not just for Christmas'.
Donegal Town's youth officer, Kerry Gallagher remarked "Cian gave a fantastic presentation at the local
business plan competition and completely wowed the judges with his
enthusiasm and skills. His products are amazing and they could tell how
much time and effort he puts into his business. Cian is an exceptional
young person and we are very proud of him in the DECK Youth Project. We
wish him all the best in Letterkenny where we have no doubt he will
impress the judges with his products"
Cian is preparing for his next launch which is coming soon. We wish Cian the luck of the Irish as he attends the regional final on Thursday 19th in LYIT in Letterkenny.
Story: Shirley Gallagher
Photos: Annette Gallagher
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