The Two Builders Who Switched from Houses to Coffins

By on November 17, 2011 in Profiles


Photo by Aspinalls

When the construction boom in Ireland went bust, two Irish carpenters, Ronan Diggin and Noel O’sullivan found themselves without a job. Lucky for them, even in Ireland, nothing is s certain as death and taxes.

So, they’ve started building caskets.

Ronan and Noel asked around and was keen to get someone to help him start and show him the ropes. He wanted to gain as much information about a coffin, or “the boat with two sterns” as one wily punter put it to me recently. That’s when they met the O’connors of Firies.

“They are undertakers that make coffins for their own business only and they showed us what we needed to know. They’re very genuine people,” he said.

Thereafter, Arca Coffin-Makers was born and the shed adjacent to Ronan’s home became the ‘Arca workshop’. Noel informed me that all their raw materials are locally sourced.

Photo by Aspinalls.

coffins construction ireland


Business Opportunities Weblog editor and publisher Dane Carlson lives in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, just 15 miles from Yosemite National Park. He accidentally became a professional blogger in 2001. He has added 12,203 posts to the site.

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