We have been a Joinery company since 1986 when we were founded by managing director, John Burke. Our factory and offices are based in Ballyfermot, Dublin where we currently employ 27 people.
Due to the industry in which we operate we were hit particularly hard by the recession. However, through hard work, determination and perhaps most importantly, innovation, we refused to give in and we managed to keep our heads above water and have slowly begun to strive again.
In the depths of a global and national economic crisis, we knew we had to be proactive and positive and, in a sense, reinvent part of our company through a drive for innovation. This came in the form of the Irish Telephone Box.
Our managing director John combined a love of Irish history and his own memories of the original Irish telephone box with his in-depth knowledge , expertise and passion for carpentry and craftsmanship. And this is how the Irish telephone box was reborn.
It was then that we decided to recreate the Irish telephone box and bring these beautiful and iconic pieces of Irish history back to life. Having researched the original phone boxes we designed and hand-crafted models which are the exact same in terms of size and design as the original. The full sized model is which is our original is called the ‘The Yeats’ .
A number of famous Irish pubs have installed one of our phone boxes on their premises including The Brazen Head, The Baggot Inn, The Guinness Storehouse and Durty Nelly’s to name a few. We have also branched into the corporate sector with our sound reduction Yeats quite zone models and have done fit outs for companies such as Bank of Ireland, Facebook, Saleforce and Blueface.
For the domestic market we then began to make smaller models which are also hand crafted and built to scale of the full size model. We now produce 7 models of these beautiful phone boxes, each one is named after a famous Irish poet or playwright The smallest of these models is ‘The Swift’ which is used for table top storage for stationary, sweets, teabags etc. Larger models have been used for wine racks, garden ornaments, lanterns and even children’s play areas. Further functionalities include a lamp, mobile phone docking station, aquarium and even a jukebox. The success of the Telephone box range spurred us on to release a Post Box range also.
We also an extensive range of gifts and souvenirs which include Christmas decorations, key rings, fridge magnets, bottle openers etc.. These are very popular among tourists and Irish people alike which has been proven by our large and growing list of stockists such as Eason, Shannon Airport and Paddywagon tours.
We are very proud of the fact that we have taken an iconic piece of Irish history which had become obsolete and given it a new function. Our goal is to ensure that these beautiful pieces which were so important for so many Irish people at home and abroad are not forgotten and can now be given a new purpose. We aim to bring new life to an iconic piece of Irish history, and we feel we have been successfully doing that.