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.