BABY BOON:BEFORE TRAVELLING to Australia with her three-month-old son, Fionn, in 2006, Aisling O'Donoghue scoured Dublin for warm-weather baby supplies: screens for a pram, sunhats, sunsuits for swimming.
She could find nothing, not even a pair of baby Ray-Bans. Then she landed down under, "and I could buy it all in one store".
As a large segment of Ireland seems to holiday in the sun each year, and doubtless doesn't want to spend hours of precious holiday time shopping, O'Donoghue decided she had found her niche. So www.babytravelshop.iewas born.
The online store is the source for munchkins on the move. It stocks, among other items, sunsuits; sunglasses called Baby Banz (€21); sunshades for cars; Trunki (€37-€45, above), a pint-sized suitcase on wheels that can double as ride-on transport in the airport; and the Hipseat (€45, top), a washable seat that straps to your side and saves your back while standing around in places like check-in queues.
Her bestsellers? The Shade-a-Babe (€45), a resilient Australian-made sunshade that fits most buggies, and the Samsonite pop-up cot (€50), which transforms from a compact bag into an 88cm-long travel cot. It weighs only 800g, which is about nine kilograms less than most standard travel cots.
O'Donoghue charges €7 for overnight courier delivery in Ireland.
Business is growing - as is Fionn, who is now two and a half and well equipped for a beach break.