Modern Quarrying Jan-Feb 2018

AT THE QUARRY FACE WITH KILLALA

Local quarryman blasts rock in Ireland

to incorporate concrete production facilities in Castlebar, Claregalway and Ballisodare. Taylor says Irelandwas booming during that period, and it wasn’t long before he attempted to open up a quarry of his own. “Armed with a partner, I started the pro- cess and drove around Ireland every week- end looking for suitable quarry land. I also placed an advertisement in the local news- paper which earned some response, and went out to investigate.” Taylor’s partner Brendan Mitchell, is a native of Ballina County Mayo with vari- ous business interests in the UK. “One of the land sites in the Mulafarry area of Killala County Mayo seemed ideal, so we bought it and started the two-year stringent planning process.” Discussing this further, Taylor says he was delighted when he finally received the requisite planning permission. “I went out and bought my wife the biggest bunch of roses I had ever seen,”he adds. “The real difficult part was telling Frank that I was about to leave to start up my own business venture, but he understood and we have remained good friends.”

a change. I had been working for Lafarge for 20 years and was managing Rooikraal Quarry at the time. “Murray Alston, who had been my boss, had already left for the UK and I contacted him and enquired about the job market over there. I hit the jackpot when he sold a crusher to an Irish quarry owner and passed my name on to him,” he says. “A few weeks later I received a call from Frank Harrington asking me to come over and have a look. “Apart from me battling to under- stand Frank’s accent, we seemed to get on well together at the interview, and within two months, the Taylor family had moved to Ireland.” The Harrington Concrete & Quarries and Harrington Concrete (Sligo) group, is one of the largest independent manufac- turers of concrete and quarry stone prod- ucts in the Republic of Ireland. It is a family-run company, formerly known as Frank Harrington Ltd, with experience in the sand and gravel busi- ness for over half a century. The head office was first established in 1971 at Kilkelly, County Mayo, and has grown

M odern Quarrying con- tacted Rod Taylor to ask how this Durbanite ended up in Ireland of all places: “In 2002 at the age of 42, with two small children and one on the way, I decided it was time for industry members will know, let Modern Quarrying know of a visit he had paid to Ireland recently as part of a European vacation. There he caught up with an old friend and colleague Rod Taylor who, some 16 years back was quarry manager at Ridgeview and Rooikraal before emigrating to Ireland. It is always lovely to hear about our quarrymen who have made good in other parts of the world, and a while back Eike Grunwald, whommany of our older

The Killala Rock Quarry in Mulafarry area of Killala County Mayo started operations in January 2005.

18

MODERN QUARRYING Quarter 1 / 2018