Waking Hours

Paul Murphy (55) is an antique restorer and former security consultant. He lives on Collins Avenue, where you can see his phone boxes. He lives with his wife, Mary, and their two children — Stephen (28) and Sarah (26)

Paul Murphy is Phone Box Man

Imake coffee for me and my wife, Mary. I bring it upstairs and she gets ready for work. When she is gone, I might have a little snooze. I don’t always get up too early. Then I will come down and have a good healthy breakfast.

I’m always on the iPad to check what’s happening on Instagram. I post photos and videos of any project I’m working on. People love that, and they are a great support. They ask: how did you do that?

If there is a phone box I’m restoring out in the garden, that will consume my time. I also do a lot of interior DIY, carpentry and antique restoration. I’ve just set up a business which encompasses all of this.

It’s called Phone Box Man.

It all started when I spotted an ad for an old Irish phone box on DoneDeal. It was beautiful. Without even seeing it in Westmeath, I said, I’ll come and get it. It was €950.

I was out of work at the time and it was a lot of money. Mary said, ‘Go for it’. She knew that it would give me an interest. She’s brilliant and she always buys into all my ideas.

It was in a state. When I saw it, I didn’t know how I was going to do it. The concrete window frames were smashed and I was going to have to make them, as well as a door frame. I needed to repair all the damage and strip it down.

So I had to learn all those skills. YouTube is great and there are products out there — like fibreglass concrete — for repairing concrete. I learned as I was going along. I sold it at an auction for ¤5,000. I’ve done about five phone boxes now, so I’m getting better.

The phone boxes meant a lot to me and to loads of people because of the memories. They remember pressing button A when they heard a voice. There’s a beautiful film on YouTube called Bye Bye Now telling all the stories connected with them. There was a man ringing a hospital to see if his wife had a baby and then there was the part they played in all the courtships. One phone in Rathmines didn’t take coins, so you could talk for free. There were always queues a mile long because everybody knew about it.

If I have a phone box to do, it will take about two months. But I don’t do eight hours straight at it. I will do other things like sourcing vintage lights or old clocks. These are more of my passions.

For 30 years, I worked in electronic security, CCTV and all of that. Then in 2008, the crash happened and I lost my job. It was very hard to get out of bed. I was sitting in front of the telly and it was a horrible place to be. I suffered from depression and anxiety all along, but I never really acknowledged it. Losing my job brought it to the fore.

In 2012, my dad was dying and we were minding him at home. My work wasn’t going so good. I went to the doctor and he told me to give up drink for a month. I did that and then I stayed off it.

I wouldn’t be doing this work if I was drinking. It was a problem. I was self-medicating my depression with alcohol and making it worse.

Drink was a big part of my life and I’ve replaced that with creativity. You give yourself the time to do that because you are waking up with a clear head and doing stuff that is worthwhile. Giving up drink was the best thing that ever happened. Mary gave up drink shortly after me.

When I started to restore the phone box, my depression lifted. I was doing something worthwhile. People often stop to admire them.

I’m not a carpenter or a joiner and I have taken lumps out of my hands. You just need to have passion and patience.

But if you want to do something, you’ll do it. Look up a YouTube video or ask someone. I will always ask an expert. I put up pictures of my disasters as well. Everyone loves to see a disaster.

I like to restore things and keep them the way they were. I bring them back to life. I’m not into upcycling — painting something old with, say, a bright shade of pink.

I also love older stuff because it is made much better than the stuff nowadays and it’s made to last. I love to know where things came from, and if there’s a story to them.

There is a big demand for phone boxes with Tidy Towns. All the villages want them as centrepieces because it’s bringing back something that was in the village before. My most recent one went to Kilmeague in Kildare. They are putting a defibrillator in it. There are some old phone boxes in pubs and some nursing homes have them, too. It’s part of the treatment for dementia, to bring back memories.

During my bad times, there was no motivation to get out of bed. Now it’s lovely to get immersed in something.

“Drink was a big part of my life and a problem. I’ve replaced that with creativity”

As Mary is out working, I get the dinner ready. But I don’t always get it done if I’m caught up in something. There is no pressure or resentment about that.

We go to bed very early, probably too early. We could be in bed by 8pm. She crochets all the time and she unwinds with that. We have the telly on and we’d catch up with each other and have a bit of fun and a laugh. And we plan our next adventures.

We’re not very sociable and we do our own thing. But we have good times and lovely holidays. They say that if you haven’t been affected by the lockdown, then you are unsociable. That’s definitely me.