Sources of Stone: Ireland, Part II

   Before continuing with a look at Irish stone producers, let’s take a look at one of the island’s fabled stone – Irish blue limestone – and the place called the “Marble City.”
   Irish blue limestone was the material of choice for many tombs fashioned through the 13th and 16th centuries which can be seen today in St Canice´s Cathedral in Kilkenny City. (The sobriquet “Marble City” came into general use shortly after 1730.)
   In the mid-1700s, the Colles family began to extract and work Kilkenny marble (polishable limestone) on a considerable scale. This industry continued for nearly 200 years, until concrete became the mass building material. Quarrying of what is today called Irish blue limestone continued intermittently until the latest boom period began around 1995.
   A unique property of some varieties of the hard limestone is that the surface colour can be modified from light grey through blue to black. The black, resulting from high polishing, can be seen on street benches in Kilkenny City and on tombs in St Canice´s Cathedral. The current producers – Kilkenny Blue Limestone, McKeon  Stone, Stone Developments and Murphy Stone – produced a 64-page booklet available on request.

    Irish stone company profiles follow in order of reported annual
revenues. (Some companies declined to disclose certain financial
information.)

MURPHYSTONE
   This is the trade name of James Murphy & Sons Ltd. founded in 1890 in Dublin. The company owns an Irish blue limestone quarry in County Roscommon and a granite quarry at Barnacullia, Sandyford, County Dublin.
   The granite is used locally for small private building work. However, a contract was recently obtained to supply 700m²-800 m² when the planning department of a local authority insisted on the use of local stone.
   In August 2006, Murphystone moved to a new factory and offices near the Barnacullia quarry. The factory includes a new 2.7-meter-diameter circular saw, to complement an existing one,for all primary sawing.
   “Our granite quarry has a good future,” says Gerry Cotter, sales director. “Experienced users know that when Chinese grey granite weathers, it has no life.”
   Murphystone supplies the building industry and monumental sculptors. It has some 20 people on staff; turnover in 2005 was approximately €2 million ($2.36 million) It doesn’t supply outside Ireland at this point, though an export enquiry would be seriously considered.
   Murphystone: www.murphystone.com
  
CONNEMARA GREEN MARBLE QUARRIES PLC
   According to Kevin Joyce, Connemara Green’s chairman, his father bought the Barnanoraun quarry more than 50 years ago, although it’s believed that green marble has been quarried in the region for perhaps 400 years.
   Joyce lived in the United States for many years, but moved back in the early 1980s; he bought the quarry when his father died in 1994. Barnanoraun (or Ballynahinch) quarry is estimated to hold about 1.5-million tons of marble. Approximately 10,000 tons are extracted per year at present.
   The Precambrian stone is around 750 million years old, and it shows twisted and interlocking bands of serpentine in varying shades of green, sepia, cream and grey, interrupted by veins of crystalline calcite and dolomite. Because of its mineralogical and physical properties, it’s a lot more difficult than the average marble to cut.
    “The quarry is operated on a campaign basis like all the decorative marble in Europe, for on-and-off periods with care and maintenance only during the off periods,” Joyce says. Blocks of marble of up to 40 tones are diamond-wire-sawn from the quarry. When they have been cut to smaller sizes they either go to CGMQ´s own tile line at Recess, or they are shipped out to Antolini Luigi & C. in Italy to be sawn into slabs.
   Tile production at the Recess factory during one week in late June 2006 exceeded the production at any time during the last two years. “We are in the process of revamping the factory with major plans to build some new showrooms and a bespoke (custom) manufacturing plant for high-end marble, granite and semiprecious products,” Joyce says. “We continue to sell slabs and tiles at increasing rates all the time, with some major projects just completed in Ireland, the United States and Dubai – with more to come.”
   Connemara Green Marble Quarries plc: www.connemarble.ie
   
CONNEMARA MARBLE INDUSTRIES LTD
   The only other Connemara marble quarry currently operating, the Streamstown operations near Clifden, was first opened around the turn of the 19th century. It was bought from the previous owners, Stonefacings Ltd., by Mr Ambrose Joyce Sr. in 1996.
   According to Ambrose Joyce Jr., “Our company, Connemara Marble Industries, has decided to specialize in products that foreign would-be competitors do not make – jewelry.” A wide range of costume jewelry and decorative products for the home are produced in a small workshop at the rear of the Connemara Marble Visitor Centre on the main road passing through Moycullen in County Galway.
   In 1983, diamond-wire extraction technology was first introduced at the Streamstown quarry. By 1985, the cutting rate was reported as around 4 m²/hour, while labor costs were halved compared with the previous helicoidal wire and loose-abrasive method.
   Connemara Marble Industries Ltd.: Tel + 383-91-555102.
  
LISCANNOR STONE CO.
   Liscannor Stone is the name given to a variety of thinly bedded flagstones and sandstones quarried around the Cliffs of Moher and in the townland of Luogh, County Clare. In 1895 the quarries employed over 350 people and the stone was exported to Great Britain.
   It’s still a popular flooring stone, though the use is almost exclusively in Ireland.The colour is typically dark silver grey to blue grey.
   Liscannor Stone Co.: www.therockshop.ie
  
S..MCCONNELL & SONS LTD.
   McConnell’s factory in County Down, at the foot of the Mourne Mountains, is best known nowadays as the creator of the memorial to the late Princess Diana, unveiled in London in 2004.
   The firm used state-of-the-art technology, including an OMAG CNC profiling machine, to cut 550 pieces of Cornish De Lank granite to an accuracy of +/- 2 mm for the memorial. (No blame can be attached to the architects or McConnell’s for misuse of the site by some young visitors.)
   The firm has been in business for 40 years. In 2005, the firm provided work for the restoration and reconstruction of the Richmond Theatre Fire Memorial at the Monumental Church in Richmond, Virginia.
   When contacted this summer, Alan McConnell confirmed that the firm’s granite quarries at Castlewellen and Newcastle are currently the only two active dimensional stone quarries in Northern Ireland.
   S.McConnell & Sons Ltd.: www.smcconnellandsons.com
  
WE SELL STONE
   The company describes itself as “one of the largest producers and distributors of natural stone in Ireland,” although this isn’t the view of others in the industry. However, it does produce the biscuit-colored Slieve Bloom sandstone from its own quarry.
   We Sell Stone.Com: www.wesellstone.com
  
HOWTHSTONE
   This is an example of a small, traditional Irish stone company supplying the local market only. Located on the Hill of Howth in the north of Dublin Bay, the small sandstone quarry was originally acquired by George Cooke Sr. in the early 1900s.
   Flagstones, random stone and chippings are the basic products. Other stones from all over Ireland can be supplied. Most clients are private builders in the exclusive Howth area.
   Howthstone: www.howthstone.com
  
   And, there still may be life in dormant Irish quarries. A partnership between Consarc Design Group and Queen´s University, Belfast, is carrying out surveys of existing or recently abandoned quarries in Northern Ireland to gauge the availability of stone for conservation and repair. A database will be available on www.ehsni.gov.uk sometime next year.

This article first appeared in the November 2006 print edition of Stone Business. ©2006 Western Business Media Inc.