What is under our noses’
dustry We Sell Stone suffered badly when the Tiger gasped and died in 2008. In its wake, David has many reasons to be despondent but he is quintessentially an optimist, always trying new things and pushing out boundaries.
“I did consider leaving Ireland again after the crash but this is home, this is where my wife and son are, where my extended family, my neighbours and friends are. I want to live and make my contribution here.”
Skill base
The stone business has been downsized but David is constantly striving to reach out to niche markets and new customers.
“In the last few years we tried a few ventures to maximise the use of our resources and respond to the different customer needs.
“Our latest venture is the Stone Mastery Academy which we hope will keep the craft of stonework alive, increase the skill-base in the locality and lead to a greater appreciation of stone and its place in the built environment.”
He is a great believer in maximising local resources. “There are plenty of skills and resources in every community if we only look around,” he contends.
Living outside the country for a while, he believes, helped him to appreciate what is here.
“Someone coming from the outside can often open our eyes to what is under our noses. For instance, I mentioned earlier that there are the remains of five old mills around Roscrea; a German man settled in the locality is amazed we haven’t sought to refurbish these mills to generate electricity for the locality. It would give new life to old stone structures and revive old crafts while producing green energy and combating the great modern threat, climate change.”
It’s a case of back to the future, without the magic.