Archive News
Business born from a bucket now a global success story
Date Published: 29-Nov-2012
An appearance on a television programme, coupled with dogged persistence and an unwillingness to take no for an answer have all contributed to one of the West of Ireland’s major success stories which now celebrates 25 years in existence.
The audience laughed, and some were in convulsions when John Concannon from Kilconly in North Galway arrived on The Late Late Show with a three-headed bucket that he invented out of sheer frustration when working on his father’s farm.
Feeding calves with one bucket drove him mad but an idea flashed in his mind and he proceeded to attach three buckets together . . . but little did he know at the time that it would be the start of a multi-million pound business and he would become a hugely significant employer, not alone in Tuam, but across Europe and Africa.
The story of how John Concannon got his slot on The Late Late is a well-known one. He kept sending his three-headed buckets to a researcher on the programme until she had five or six and eventually – probably in an effort to stop him leaving buckets at the RTÉ reception desk – he was allocated a two-minute slot on the prime-time show.
Back in 1987, with a lot of rural Ireland still in two-channel land, The Late Late Show was the place to be and the 31-year-old with his unique business idea got the chance of a lifetime to prove himself. It didn’t bother him that the audience were in stitches when he appeared in a suit, armed with his three-headed bucket.
In fact, it worked to his advantage because what started as a two-minute slot ended up lasting for 12 minutes and during that time, the man with the distinctive North Galway accent had taken the first step on a journey that would provide employment for hundreds of people as well as supplying the farming community with a series of innovative products.
Twenty-five years later John Concannon still resides in Kilconly; he still speaks much the same way as he did when he appeared with Gaybo on The Late Late; he could be mixing with the country’s glitterati but instead he leads a simple life and is best pleased by having a game of golf with a few locals with whom he can have a laugh.
There are certainly no airs and graces to the man who spends his time devising new products and exploring new markets here and in Europe. He is more at home promoting his products at the National Ploughing Championships than he would be sitting at an opera or attending a glamorous bash.
Even to mark the 25th anniversary of JFC Manufacturing in Tuam, he did not want a lavish occasion and instead brought his staff out for a few pints in Kilmaine. He doesn’t flaunt his wealth, yet he has a reputation for his huge generosity.
What you see is what you get with John Concannon. He is now a very successful businessman and, yet, he devotes a major part of his time towards charitable causes. He is, to a large degree, responsible for the establishment of the Pieta House suicide prevention centre in Tuam, which will open next year.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.
People’s living conditions less than 100 years ago were frightening. We have come a long way. We talk about water charges today, but back then the local District Councils were erecting pumps for local communities and the lovely town of Mountbellew, according to Council minutes, had open sewers,” says Galway County Council archivist Patria McWalter.
Patria believes we “need to take pride in our history, and we should take the same pride in our historical records as we do in our built heritage”. When you see the wealth of material in her care, this belief makes sense.
She is in charge of caring for the rich collection of administrative records owned by Galway County Council and says “these records are as much part of our history as the Rock of Cashel is. They document our lives and our ancestors’ lives. And nobody can plan for the future unless you learn from the past, what worked and what didn’t”.
Archivists and librarians are often unfairly regarded as being dry, academic types, but that’s certainly not true of Patria. Her enthusiasm is infectious as she turns the pages of several minute books from Galway’s Rural District Councils, all of them at least 100 years old.
Part of her role involved cataloguing all the records of the Councils – Ballinasloe, Clifden, Galway, Gort, Loughrea, Mountbellew, Portumna and Tuam. These records mostly consisted of minutes of various meetings.
When she was cataloguing them she realised their worth to local historians and researchers, so she decided to compile a guide to their content. The result is For the Record: The Archives of Galway’s Rural District Councils, which will be a valuable asset to anybody with an interest in history.
Many representatives on these Councils were local personalities and several were arrested during the political upheaval of the era, she explains.
And, ushering in a new era in history, women were allowed to sit on these Rural District Councils – at the time they were not allowed to sit on County Councils.
All of this information is included in Patria’s introductory essay to the attractively produced A4 size guide, which gives a glimpse into how these Rural Councils operated and the way political thinking changed in Ireland during a short 26-year period. In the early 1900s, these Councils supported Home Rule, but by 1920, they were calling for full independence and refusing to recognise the British administration.
“I love the tone,” says Patria of the minutes from meetings. “The language was very emotive.”
That was certainly true of the Gort Rural District Council. At a meeting in 1907, following riots in Dublin at the premiere of JM Synge’s play, The Playboy of the Western World the councillors’ response was vehement. They recorded their decision to “protest most emphatically against the libellous comedy, The Playboy of the Western World, that was belched forth during the past week in the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, under the fostering care of Lady Gregory and Mr Yeats. We congratulate the good people of Dublin in howling down the gross buffoonery and immoral suggestions that are scattered throughout this scandalous performance.
For more from the archives see this week’s Tribunes here
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
SLIGO 0-9
GALWAY 1-4
FRANK FARRAGHER IN ENNISCRONE
GALWAY’S first serious examination of the 2013 season rather disturbingly ended with a rating well below the 40% pass mark at the idyllic, if rather Siberian, seaside setting of Enniscrone on Sunday last.
The defeat cost Galway a place in the FBD League Final against Leitrim and also put a fair dent on their confidence shield for the bigger tests that lie ahead in February.
There was no fluke element in this success by an understrength Sligo side and by the time Leitrim referee, Frank Flynn, sounded the final whistle, there wasn’t a perished soul in the crowd of about 500 who could question the justice of the outcome.
It is only pre-season and last Sunday’s blast of dry polar winds did remind everyone that this is far from summer football, but make no mistake about it, the match did lay down some very worrying markers for Galway following a couple of victories over below par third level college teams.
Galway did start the game quite positively, leading by four points at the end of a first quarter when they missed as much more, but when Sligo stepped up the tempo of the game in the 10 minutes before half-time, the maroon resistance crumbled with frightening rapidity.
Some of the statistics of the match make for grim perusal. Over the course of the hour, Galway only scored two points from play and they went through a 52 minute period of the match, without raising a white flag – admittedly a late rally did bring them close to a draw but that would have been very rough justice on Sligo.
Sligo were backable at 9/4 coming into this match, the odds being stretched with the ‘missing list’ on Kevin Walsh’s team sheet – Adrian Marren, Stephen Coen, Tony Taylor, Ross Donovan, David Kelly, David Maye, Johnny Davey and Eamon O’Hara, were all marked absent for a variety of reasons.
Walsh has his Sligo side well schooled in the high intensity, close quarters type of football, and the harder Galway tried to go through the short game channels, the more the home side bottled them up.
Galway badly needed to find some variety in their attacking strategy and maybe there is a lot to be said for the traditional Meath style of giving long, quick ball to a full forward line with a big target man on the edge of the square – given Paul Conroy’s prowess close to goal last season, maybe it is time to ‘settle’ on a few basics.
Defensively, Galway were reasonably solid with Gary Sice at centre back probably their best player – he was one of the few men in maroon to deliver decent long ball deep into the attacking zone – while Finian Hanley, Conor Costello and Gary O’Donnell also kept things tight.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
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