foundation - Sisk 150

32 BUilDiNG a BUSiNESS
foundation
THE SiSk GROUP has reached its 150th anniversary as a fully irish-owned company
which has withstood world wars, ireland’s transition to independence, two global
depressions and more minor economic shakeouts to become one of the biggest
diversified family companies in ireland.
Such expansion would have seemed inconceivable to the young plasterer, named
John, who began the building business just 11 years after ireland’s worst crisis: the
Famine of 1845–1849.
One of John Sisk’s first major projects included the first building for the Cork Distillery
Company on Morrison’s island, constructed in 1868, at a time when the company
was based at 4 Frenche’s Quay, Cork.
The company went on to work on many convents, churches and houses, including
Crosshaven Convent; Bon Secours convent, and offices for The Cork Examiner and a
home for its owner Thomas Crosbie. Then in 1906, John Valentine (John V) – John’s
fourth son and a carpenter – returned to the family firm as a partner and it was he
who became the Son in John Sisk & Son.
From this point the company grew rapidly and John V’s tenacity and knack for
business – and a love of stone, wood and craftsmanship – was later carried through
by his son John Gerard (John G) who was born in 1911. Throughout this period Sisk
was pivotal in the realisation of the buildings that defined the emerging Church and
State in ireland.
By the early 20th century, Sisk had worked on many church buildings (including
the galleries at St Finbarr’s South Chapel in Cork, in 1881, and the iconic spire of
interior of St Patrick’s Church,
Newport, Co Mayo (1915–1917)

FoUNDatioN 33

34 BUilDiNG a BUSiNESS
Munster and Leinster Bank, South Mall,
Cork. A milestone in the development of
the company (1912). Marking the overlap of
John Sisk and his son John V

Holy Trinity church in 1890) and the hugely significant head office of the Munster &
Leinster Bank in the South Mall, Cork. Prior to this project, Sisk, now John Sisk & Son,
had also built banks in killaloe, Listowel, Fermoy, kilkee and Schull.
When Sisk began much of its significant work architectural styles were changing, and
with it building methods. Over the lifetime of the company it has followed the changes
from cut-stone to brick laying and more recently to structures of reinforced concrete
and steel.
A key building the company worked on was stylistically (not least in its interior
work) positioned at the heart of changes in irish architecture and politics: the
Honan Chapel, beside University College Cork, was paid for out of the Honan family
bequest, in 1914, to both build and furnish the chapel.
At a time when the irish language was being revived this was a truly irish building,
created by irish people using local materials (the walls, for instance, are in Cork
limestone).
The Honan Chapel was a welcome project in difficult times, as the first World War
was raging. indeed, Sisk even built accommodation huts at Victoria (later Collins)
Barracks in Cork. Four building firms were involved in the project constructing the
huts mainly in a field between the barracks and Assumption Road, and Sisk worked
to prove itself: “There would not be any one of the four that made as much money
as we did, because i was there from morning til night, up to my backside in mud and
rain,” John V remembered.
Top left: The foundation stone of
the Honan Chapel being laid by Dr
O’Callaghan, Bishop of Cork on May 18th,
1915. The Church opened for worship on
November 5th, 1916
Top right: An account of the design and
construction of the Munster and Leinster
Bank head office as displayed at 66 South
Mall, Cork
FoUNDatioN 35

36 BUilDiNG a BUSiNESS
The founder of the business, John Sisk, died at the age of 84, in October 1921. As Sisk
moved into a new independent phase under John V, a major project for Sisk was the
construction of the new Cork City Hall, which was to replace the one burned down
during the War of independence. Designed by Dublin architects Jones and kelly, the
foundation stone at Cork was laid on July 9th, 1932, by Eamon de Valera, who then
opened the building four years later on September 8th,1936.
By this time, John V’s son John G had joined the company as a civil engineer and
designed new offices for the company in Capwell Works, Douglas Street, into which
Sisk moved in 1933. He also worked on the City Hall job from the start.
When work in Cork dried up in 1937, John G found it necessary to move to Dublin
and open an office there. This was a dramatic move in a time that preceded modern
telecommunications and road infrastructure – developments which, we sometimes
forget, dramatically diminished what were then long distances.
The company established offices in inchicore and worked on a few smaller projects,
including Corpus Christi Church in Whitehall, Dublin, before landing a very prestigious
job, the construction of the first purpose-built offices for the new independent irish
government, the Department of industry and Commerce in kildare Street. However
the construction was hampered because it started in the build-up to the second
World War, and the job was carried out during the war years.
Opposite: Pagaentry for the opening
ceremony of Cork City Hall, attended by
president Eamon de Valera and Lord Mayor
Sean French
Top left: Cork City Hall 1930–1937. White
Cork limestone from Little island quarries
was used. Courtesy of Cork City & County
Archives
Top right: Foundation stone-laying
ceremony. Former taoiseach Eamon de
Valera has trowel in hand
Middle: The invitation issued for the
opening ceremony

FoUNDatioN 37

38 BUilDiNG a BUSiNESS
Left: Holy Trinity Church (1890)
Above and opposite top left: Architect D.J.
Coakley’s detailed drawings for the facade,
steeple and turrets of the Holy Trinity Church

Top right: The confined premises of the
company at Capwell in Cork before the
move to the Airport Road
FoUNDatioN 39
During the construction of the kildare Street building, Sisk landed another large
contract, the building of Cavan Cathedral in 1938. The craftsmanship on Cavan
Cathedral was exceptional and involved much decorative stonework. The exterior
is in Wicklow and Dublin granite, limestone, and Portland stone, while the interior is
mainly in sandstone and marble.
Because Cavan Cathedral was built during the war, many of the cathedral materials had
to be procured in the build up to, and during, the second World War. This proved difficult
and its successful completion was down to a lot of luck and a little bit of cunning.
A couple of years before Cavan Cathedral was completed in 1942, the structure of
the company changed and John G became managing director, and sole shareholder.
it was a difficult time in both the Cork and Dublin offices. in Cork, at the end of the
1930s, the company was really only working on the School of Commerce at Morrison’s
island, Cork, while in Dublin the staff was down to just three people, with many irish
workers heading abroad. Jobs in both cities included air-raid shelters.
in 1958 Sisk started to build another cathedral, in Galway, which also involved
complex craftsmanship. Pope Paul Vi sent Cardinal Cushing, from Boston, to open
Galway Cathedral on August 15th, 1965. The televised ceremony was attended by
many dignitaries including Cardinal Conway, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of
All ireland and president Eamon de Valera.

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As with the churches and cathedrals that Sisk had built, many of the banks it had
constructed to date were in a classical style. But a booklet to mark the opening of
Galway Cathedral gives an indication as to how tastes were beginning to change:
“There are indeed, conflicting opinions still: many would have preferred a bolder,
more contemporary design as being expressive of the new developments in Church
life. One must remember, however, that the building took six years to complete; its
walls were already some height before ‘conservative’ became a really bad word.”
The new hospitals, that were constructed as part of the Hospital Building Programme
under the newly elected coalition government of 1948, tended to be in a more
contemporary style. At last, it seemed, large-scale irish buildings were looking to
Modernism for inspiration, with their white concrete walls and rectangular plans.
The hospital building programme was accelerated under then minister for health,
Dr Noel Browne, in response to the tuberculosis crisis in ireland. in 1943 more than
half of the deaths in ireland’s 25 to 35 year olds were caused by TB, so in 1948 Sisk
signed ireland’s first million pound building contract for the construction of a new
tuberculosis treatment centre (Galway’s Merlin Park Sanatorium).
Left: interior of Galway Cathedral.
An ecclesiastical building on a grand
scale, unlikely to be repeated in
our time
Cavan Cathedral (1938–1941). One of
three cathedrals built by the company
during John G Sisk’s career. Pen and
wash by Fergal McCabe

FoUNDatioN 41

A major contemporary building for Sisk was Busaras – the central Dublin bus station
serving all the regions – designed by Michael Scott and built between 1945 and
1953. Despite divergent views on its design, the building won the Royal institute of
the Architects of ireland (RiAi) Triennial Gold medal in 1955, and it was featured on
a stamp in 1982.
Another contemporary-style tower built by Sisk is linked with the foundation of
the modern irish State. Liberty Hall’s origins were in the irish Transport and General
Worker’s Union, a forerunner of SiPTU (Services, industrial, Professional and Technical
Union) which now owns the building. The union, in its various forms, has been on
the Beresford Place/Eden Quay site in Dublin for more than 90 years.
Many of those involved in the union played a key part in the 1916 Rising. James
Connolly was the union’s acting general secretary when he led the irish Citizen Army
and other groups in the fight for independence. The location at Liberty Hall became
the headquarters of the committee that planned the Rising. The Proclamation of an
Opposite: Galway Cathedral under
construction, on the former site of a jail,
on the banks of the Corrib river
Above: John G Sisk (left) and minister for
health, Dr Noel Browne, signing the first of
three contracts for TB sanitoria in Galway,
Dublin and Cork. This was the first million
pound building contract in ireland. Standing
are William Cotter (l), company secretary, and
Norman White, architect
FoUNDatioN 43

44 BUilDiNG a BUSiNESS

Left: Liberty Hall at left foreground
with the irish Life headquarters
incorporating irish Life Mall and
Office Complex in background –
also constructed by Sisk. The irish
Life centre comprises a total of
eight buildings arranged around an
impressive entrance plaza and internal
garden court. A prominent feature is
the main tower building which rises
10 storeys over the entrance plaza and
forms the main element of the irish
Life headquarters
Right: Minister (later taoiseach) Jack
Lynch and John G Sisk at the opening
of the company’s new head office and
joinery works on the Naas Road, Dublin
(1964)
FoUNDatioN 45
independent Republic was printed in Liberty Hall and it was from here that Connolly
and others led the force of volunteers to seize the General Post Office (GPO) nearby.
Liberty Hall was among the buildings damaged during the fighting over the following
week. The Rising and the following War of independence led to the establishment
of the irish Free State in 1922. Work began on a new Liberty Hall in July 1961, and it
opened in 1965.
Then, in 1967, the company began building a bank that looked to the future in
its design. Having been used to building from the bottom upwards, laying brick
and stone, one atop the other, the Central Bank on Dublin’s Dame Street was a
structure that was effectively hung from its roof. The Central Bank project, designed
by Stephenson Gibney & Associates, was from start to finish steeped in controversy,
and at one point construction was halted for a year because of a design issue.
The bank was finished in 1978 – following a public inquiry, further planning
applications and appeals and Sam Stephenson was left reeling from the ferocity of
attacks on his character.
The Modernist work continued with the building of the Arts Block and Administration
Building at UCD, in the late 1960s, early 1970s – when the university was expanding
from its city centre location to the new campus at Belfield. in ireland this marked
the Lemass era which saw a modernisation of the country through the building of
industrial and educational establishments.

46 BUilDiNG a BUSiNESS

Left: Arts Block at Trinity College Dublin,
the first modern building within TCD’s
bounds
Right: Diagram depicting changes to
the planning permission granted for
the Central Bank Building on Dame
Street, Dublin. Photograph courtesy of
the irish Architectural Archive
FoUNDatioN 47
The design of the overall plan of the new UCD university campus was put out to
international competition and was won by a 27-year-old Polish man, Andrzej Wejchert.
Another important university project that Sisk worked on, also involved architects
from overseas. Trinity Arts Block, 1979, was the second project at the university
by Uk firm, ABk (Ahrends Burton and koralek) which went on to open an office
in ireland. They had won an international competition to design the now iconic-
Berkeley Library, answering a brief for a building that was of the 20th century, just as
Trinity’s previous buildings had been of their time.
“ABk were very demanding architects. They had a reputation for producing buildings
of a very high standard,” says kevin kelly, former managing director of John Sisk &
Son. “i think maybe they thought the irish construction industry couldn’t do things
properly, but by the time we had finished they realised that we were as good as – if
not better than – what they were used to.”
ABk and Sisk also teamed up on St. Andrew’s College in Booterstown, Dublin and
on other schools. As well as many university buildings, Sisk built several other third
level institutions, such as Regional Technical Colleges, now institutes of Technology.
Andy Devane of RkD designed Gonzaga College, where George, Hal and John
Sisk attended school and extensions to Clongowes Wood College, where other
members of the Sisk family were educated. More recently Sisk built the University of
Limerick Glucksman Library and information building (by architects Murray O’Laoire,
1997), Dublin City University library (Scott Tallon Walker, 2000), UCD Nova Building
(kavanagh Tuite, 2002) and the Cork School of Music (Murray O’Laoire, 2005).

48 BUilDiNG a BUSiNESS
Another symbol of the profound social change ireland was experiencing was the
£9.5 million Ballymun council housing project. This project of 3,021 homes was
conceived to relieve a massive housing crisis as Dublin’s inner city buildings were
falling into a state of disrepair. For this Sisk teamed up with English contractor Cubitts
and heating company Haden to create Cubitts Haden Sisk, with the National Building
Agency (a new state agency) as a client. The project was completed within a three year
deadline, and was 40 years ahead of its time in ireland in its use of pre-cast wall panels.
Such “off-site” construction techniques are now commonplace and can both minimise
building time and allow improved quality.
Although a very significant technical achievement, ireland’s society was not then
ready for multi-storey housing and unfortunately the Ballymun scheme was not
ultimately a social success. ■
Above: Opening ceremony of UCD Arts
Block. (l-r) Dr T. Murphy, registrar, UCD;
Padraig Faulkner, minister for education;
Andrzej Wejchert, architect; president of
ireland, Eamon de Valera; Prof. JJ Hogan,
president, UCD; Jack Lynch, taoiseach;
John G Sisk; Joe McHall, secretary, UCD
Opposite: Off-site manufactured elements
slotting into place in the technically
advanced Ballymun housing scheme
(1965–1968)

FoUNDatioN 49

50 BUilDiNG a BUSiNESS
Munster & Leinster Bank
Head Office
The £50,000 bank building was built on the South Mall, Cork, in 1912,
and rose to four storeys. it was built from Little island (Cork) limestone,
and designed in a classical style. The building is testimony to John V’s
attention to detail, and he enlisted the help of his brother Richard, a
plasterer, to complete the job to the highest specifications.
The specification called for plastering that was similar to that on the
Morning Post offices in Aldwych, London (the Post was later bought by
the Daily Telegraph).
John V was given a sample of the plaster but found it difficult to copy (it
did not rub off onto dark fabric whereas local samples did) and so he went
to London to try and find out the secret. He only discovered what it was
when he returned to ireland and licked the sample and tasted the elusive
ingredient: alum, a chemical more typically used in dyeing and tanning.
The bank project employed all of Sisk’s skills on materials that came
from around the world as well as local stone. The materials were crafted
by workers at the building company, including the ornate plasterwork in
the dome by John V’s brother Richard ■
Banking hall of AiB Bank, South Mall Cork, formerly
Munster & Leinster Bank head office

FoUNDatioN 51

52 BUilDiNG a BUSiNESS
The Honan chapel
The planning and design of the Honan Chapel reflected the growing Gaelic
revival and confidence in using decoration with Celtic themes.
But this was also a time of increasing industrialisation and there was a
counter movement that valued hand-crafted, as opposed to machine-made,
objects. This Arts and Crafts movement found an outlet in ireland when Lord
Mayo founded the Arts and Crafts Society of ireland in 1894. Later Sir John
O’Connell, former lawyer and later priest, joined that society in 1917 and
became a committee member.
But before this he was the driving force behind the building of the Honan
Chapel, along with Sir Bertram Windle, president of Queen’s College Cork/
UCC. The architect was James E McMullan but many feel that O’Connell had
a great influence on the design.
The chapel was in the Hiberno-Romanesque style which looked back to the
12th century for inspiration, to a time that was thought to be more truly irish
(although the term ‘Romanesque’ reveals also a European influence) and away
from British-sounding styles such as Victorian and Georgian.
The Honan Chapel’s facade is a copy of the 12th century Romanesque
St Cronan church in Roscrea, Co Tipperary, and its interior is similar to that
of Cormac’s Chapel, Cashel, Co Tipperary. The building also carries its own
miniature irish round tower at one end.
A renowned Arts and Craft architect at the time was William A Scott,
professor of architecture at UCD, and he became involved in the design of
Honan Chapel. He designed the wrought iron grille and hinges at the front
door as well as a sanctuary lamp and an altar plate set. This is important
because not only was the church itself influenced by Romanesque and Arts
and Crafts, the interior fittings were all beautifully crafted, most in a Celtic
style. Even the stained glass windows were created by masters: Harry Clarke
and people from artist Sarah Purser’s studio.
O’Connell wrote to Windle, that “all work was to be carried out in ireland,
and so far as possible carried out in Cork, by Cork labour.” That put Cork-based
Sisk in a good position to get the job and, in late 1914, Sisk was awarded the
contract for the new memorial chapel at University College Cork at a cost of
over £8,000. The foundation stone was laid in May 1915, and the following
year, O’Connell wrote in his publication The Honan Hostel Chapel, Cork, that
“no building, especially a chapel… can be so worthy as when it is built of
the stone of the land in which it is set, and when it is made by the labour of
men who will worship and pray in the church which their own hands have
helped to build.”
Along with the many other distinguished craftspeople, Sisk staff also
created some of the internal furniture, much of which bears the company’s
distinctive white oval plate, and the words, engraved in black, “John Sisk &
Son Builders Cork.”
The company carried out much of the oak work, often carved with chevron
patterns typical of the Romanesque period and some with open-work
interlacing. internal pieces created by Sisk include the confessional grille; a low
credence table; a music stool and a notice board. The company also made the
31 pews, a carved oak armchair for the university president with matching
kneeler and a pulpit comprising an oak lectern on a stand with steps and a
handrail. There is also iron-work, for instance in the vent panels in the ceiling
with interlaced animal patterns.
While the building’s Romanesque style looked far back, it also, strangely,
looked forward. its arched doorways already pointed to the Art Deco movement
while elements, such as Scott’s wrought ironwork, spoke of Art Nouveau ■
The Honan Chapel Cork, 1917. A perfectly detailed
gem with superb decorative elements. This was the
Collegiate chapel for University College Cork, thus
built adjacent to the non-denominational college

FoUNDatioN 53

The Sisk Name

Opposite: Honan Chapel pews, carved by William Sisk,
brother of John V
This page: Details of stone carvings, mosaic ceiling,
and stained glass of the Honan Chapel
FoUNDatioN 55

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cork city Hall
The design of Cork City Hall was in a traditional style, with references to the
Custom House in Dublin, designed by James Gandon in 1781 (which Sisk
was to later renovate). One of the architects on the project was Michael Scott
who was to work with Sisk again on the Dublin Busaras building, in 1945–53.
Building began in 1932 – the foundation stone was laid by Eamon de Valera
– and John G, in one of his first projects with the family business, was tasked
with marking out the positioning of the 900 piles. Some of those were so
near the cracked walls of the municipal baths that Sisk thought the building
might be seriously damaged when the piles were driven in. Sisk attempted
to take out insurance against this, to no avail. Luckily an oversight in previous
building work saved them: because the baths had been built without proper
drainage there was now a wide, deep trench outside the building to take
waste water. When John V found out about this he was relieved, “i knew the
trench would take up any vibration caused by the pile driver,” he said – and
he was right.
Much of the dressed limestone on the City Hall facade was quarried in
Little island, delivered onto site with an early electric crane and, at the cutting
edge of technology, sliced with large circular and swings saws.
yet simple hoists were also used, sometimes powered by mules. John G
remembered that the old man in charge of the mules complained that they were
not as good as the mules he knew in the American Civil War – 67 years earlier. ■
Cork City Hall. Photograph Courtesy of The
irish Examiner

FoUNDatioN 57

58 BUilDiNG a BUSiNESS
The Department of Industry and commerce
The team John G took to the inchicore offices in Dublin in 1937 included
foreman (and cousin) Herbert Dennis.
The first prestigious job they landed was the construction of the
Department of industry and Commerce in 1938, an entirely new section of
the government – in that it didn’t have a counterpart in the previous British
administration in ireland. The building was erected on the site of the former
Maples Hotel which had burnt down.
A competition to design the building, in kildare Street, just up, and across
the road from the current Dáil, was held in 1934. it was only open to architects
from ireland or those who had lived in the country for 10 years or more, and
it was won by architect JR Boyd Barrett. The building was of a conservative
design that sat neatly into its surroundings – indeed, even now many people
are only dimly aware of its existence – staying with the neo-Classicism that
predominated in ireland at the time, ignoring the emergence of Modernism
across the world.
yet the building does have elements that speak of its time, with Art Deco and
Art Nouveau constituents. This is evident in the flat roof, stepped doorway, tall
arched window, lino patterns within, polished timber ballustrades and stepped
stone fireplaces.
Tenders to build the 50,000sq ft offices were invited in February 1938, and
eight companies applied including Sisk, the only one not based in Dublin. it
was nine months before Sisk learned it had won the contract, and to announce
the fact the company took out an advert in The Irish Builder and Engineer.
Sisk had to agree to certain conditions, for instance that all of the steelwork
be sourced at Smith and Pearson in Dublin – a large commission considering
the steel-frame structure used 1,040 tons of metal (40 years later Sisk’s
Williaam Cox subsidiary was to buy Smith and Pearson’s window making
facility when the company went into receivership in 1979).
Stone used in the building came from ireland, with the granite sourced
in Ballyedmonduff in Dublin; limestone for the cornices, string courses and
carved elements came from Ballinasloe in Galway and some stone lining the
tall windows was from Ballybrew quarry in Wicklow.
Delays during the build were caused by trouble sourcing some materials,
often due to war and weather. Lifts, steel lockers and bronze door panels
were difficult to get during the war as was the Australian walnut specified
for timber panelling and doors, as the timber was then being swallowed up
by rifle production.
One person who became knowledgeable about stone during the kildare
Street project was 17-year-old William Cotter who started on site as a timeclerk
and was later involved in drawing some of the details of the building
(he subsequently spent his entire career at Sisk, including many years as
manager of Stone Developments). The job was completed in 1942.
John G praised his team: “i got a timekeeper, William Cotter. Herbert
Dennis was in charge with Jack Carmody and Paddy Woods under him. it
was finished in spite of all the local Jeremiahs who had us broke before we
started, and we made money on it.”
in particular John G attributed the success of the job to his cousin, Herbert
Dennis: “it was due to his untiring efforts that the kildare Street job was a
complete success.”■
Department of industry and Commerce, kildare
Street, Dublin

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60 BUilDiNG a BUSiNESS
1. Modern in many features yet blending with 18th
century facades, typical of this part of Dublin
2. The team of builders. Many like William Cotter,
Paddy Woods and Jack Carmody started on this
job and became lifelong Sisk employees (note the
absence of helmets and safety vests back then)
The Sisk Name
3. An advertisement that appeared in the Irish Builder
and Engineer from November 21, 1942. Courtesy of
the irish Architectural Archive
1
2 3
Opposite:
4. Classic detailing shown in the Australian walnut
staircase of this first office building commissioned
by the irish Free State
5. The minister’s office and those of the senior
civil servants were fitted out to a high standard
including wood panelled walls and Art Deco
fireplaces
6. Sculptures by Gabriel Hayes

4
5 6
FoUNDatioN 61

62 BUilDiNG a BUSiNESS
cavan cathedral
While working on the kildare St building, Sisk also won a sizeable contract to build
Cavan Cathedral in 1938 (or, to give it its full title, the Cathedral of St Patrick and
St Felim Cavan).
The craftsmanship on Cavan Cathedral was exemplary. Sisk established a
special drawing office in Dublin whose role was to interpret the architect’s
requirements and to predetermine the size, shape, finish of each of the
thousands of stones in the building and identify its location in the structure.
The stones were all cut to the required size and each was marked with an
identity letter and number. They were carefully checked when they were
delivered to site and stacked near where they would be used on the building.
The limestone (for the moulded cornicing and bases, pilasters and simple
carved caps on the aisle walls) and the Portland stone was crafted on a
stonecutting workshop on site.
Despite that background and all of the complexities of the job, “it was a
lucky job,” said John G, for whom it was the last job he managed personally
on site. “All went well. i bought all the timber a few weeks before war-time
rationing. i bought all the Portland stone before the quarries closed, also all
the copper for the roof one week before it was controlled and under ration.
“The most amazing piece of luck was the marble. This was ordered from a
very decent italian, Oliviero Danieli. My father rang me from Cork one night
and said, ’i think that Mussolini is going into war, you had better do something
about the trainload of marble columns (which had come through Belfast) or
they will be seized as contraband of war.’ i left that evening and was on the
border at the GNR station soon; saw the customs man and explained the
position and offered him a cheque for the duty of £8,000-odd. He explained
that he would have to have a guaranteed cheque but he was a Catholic and
i persuaded him i would cover it by morning. i then saw the station foreman
and gave him £5 to shunt the wagons of marble to our side of the border
and stayed there until he did so. i then phoned the Cork office and had my
Together with Galway Cathedral (1966), Cavan
Cathedral marks the end of an era in building. While
the structure used reinforced concrete and steel, the
visual effect is of a building which might have been
built 200 years earlier
cheque covered and the next morning italy was in the war: some timing…
by the skin of our teeth.”
it was said that the Cavan bishop, Patrick Finegan, had accelerated the
cathedral project in the knowledge that war was coming and that funds for
the build would be difficult to get afterwards. He was responsible for much
of the fundraising and his successor Bishop Patrick Lyons, who took on the
role in 1937, dedicated himself to the project. He blessed the site and turned
the first sod on September 28th 1938 and blessed the corner stone when
it was laid a year later. Other religious involvement in the build took place
when the 11ft 6ins high cast bronze cross was hoisted through 200ft of steel
scaffolding – flashing in the mid-day sun on the way up – and the choir sang
Te Deum (a hymn of thanksgiving).
The cathedral is in a classical style whose portico (porch or entrance)
has four Corinthian columns (made from Portland stone on site, each
requiring 1,200 stone cutter hours – not including the capital and base) with
elaborately carved capitals and figures of Christ, St Patrick and St Felim on
the tympanum (the flat panel above the columns, in this case triangular).
The high altar is in green Connemara marble and pink Midleton marble.
The pulpit on the south side, the statues and 28 interior columns are all in
italian marble. William Jones, who was an apprentice mason on the cathedral
job, recorded how these columns have a continuous 10 inch-diameter hole
drilled right through the length of the centre to allow 8 inch-diameter solid
steel columns (made by J&G McLoughlin, Dublin) to be inserted into them
which were designed to carry the weight of the overhanging clerestory walls.
John G paid close attention to the build, “i visited the job twice a week and
left the house [in Dublin] at 6am, visited the job and was back in the Phoenix
Park at 1pm eating my sandwiches and then on to the office to estimate till
6pm. in those days we really worked.” ■

DEvElopmENt 63

64 BUilDiNG a BUSiNESS
Galway cathedral
Galway Cathedral (Dedicated to Our Lady Assumed into Heaven & St. Nicholas)
involved complex craftsmanship. The design, begun in 1949, by architect John
Robinson, later of Robinson keefe Devane, alluded to a number of historic
styles. in December 1957, Sisk was given the contract to build it for £600,000.
in Irish Builder and Engineer magazine in December 1957 it was reported
that “the tender of John Sisk & Sons (Dublin) Ltd, at £599,488, has been
accepted for the erection of the walls, roof and dome and construction of
floors and windows of the Roman Catholic Cathedral.”
Construction on the seven year project began in February 1958 and soon
hard green granite was found a few feet under the surface but it didn’t slow
up progress.
The cathedral is in a cruciform plan with central dome. The building is made
from local, natural materials including two shades of local limestone to give
a variegated pattern. The high walls, requiring the workmen to scale great
heights during the build, are in rock-faced stone while finely-chiselled light
grey limestone highlights features such as windows, doors, arches columns
and moulding. The coffered ceiling is in cedar and the altar, sanctuary and
main passageway floors are in marble.
Pope Paul Vi decided to send Cardinal Cushing, from Boston, to open the
cathedral on August 15th, 1965, which he did in a televised ceremony attended
by many dignitaries including Cardinal Conway, Archbishop of Armagh and
Primate of All ireland; president Eamon de Valera; former president Sean
T O’kelly; opposition leader Liam Cosgrave and taoiseach Sean Lemass.
At the ceremony the Bishop of Galway praised John Sisk & Son: “The work
went through quietly and without break and was completed in seven years;
and even Solomon took seven years to build the temple in Jerusalem…
We did not set out to build a masterpiece or to initiate a new architectural
revolution. We had no higher ambition than to build a church that would be
solid, dignified and worthy of Galway, and so we built it not of concrete or
synthetic stone, but of good Galway limestone.”
John G Sisk spoke too, thanking his builders and client, and highlighting the
procurement and use of stone: “Building, as you know, is composed of roughly
50 per cent labour and 50 per cent material but in this case, as most of the
materials used in the job were not only irish, but local, we reckon that about
80 per cent of the cost of the work was paid in the city and county of Galway.” ■
The old gate of the jail has long been removed, and
the cathedral occupies this pivotal position with
confidence

DEvElopmENt 65

66 BUilDiNG a BUSiNESS

1
2 4
3 5
Opposite: interior of Galway Cathedral.
1. Cardinal D’Alton, the Archbishop of
Armagh, blessed the site and the
foundation stone on October 27th,
1957
2. Archbishop Michael Browne and
John G Sisk, beside Jack Lillis (site
agent)
3. Pope Paul Vi appointed Cardinal
Richard Cushing, Archbishop of
Boston, Pontifical Legate to dedicate
the cathedral which took place on
the Feast of the Assumption, August
15th, 1965
FoUNDatioN 67
4. Archbishop Brown flanked on the
left by architect, Fred Browne, and
John G Sisk, and on the right by Sean
McElligot (Sisk director), and site
agent Jack Lillis
5. L-R: Martin Cullen (clerk of works),
John G Sisk, Jack Lillis

68 BUilDiNG a BUSiNESS
Busaras
Built between 1945 and 1953 as the central Dublin bus station for all regional
buses, Busaras (from bus, and the irish ‘áras’ meaning building) was designed
in the international Style that had been emerging in Continental Europe and
the US before the war and was relatively new to ireland.
Architect Michael Scott had visited Europe and returned to ireland with no
reservations about designing in a Modernist style – shown in his own house
in Sandycove, and at Busaras. One of Michael Scott’s talents was also said to
be choosing staff, and many in the Busaras design team – including Patrick
Scott, kevin Roche, Robin Walker and Wilfred Cantwell – were keen to design
in a modular Modernist style. But by far the bravest decision on the project
was that of the then government to commission Michael Scott, knowing
that he would design in the Modern style.
Many of those involved in the project would say that the design of Busaras
was based on Swiss-born architect, Le Corbusier’s work, notably his Maison
Suisse in south Paris.
Busaras is not symmetrical as an overall form. This meant that the services,
lighting and various elements of the building (including the reinforcedconcrete
fins in the glazing, the wave form canopy) were carefully arranged to
fit into this template.
Overall, Busaras comprises separate volumes, although they do slide into
each other: with the bus station section emerging from the two rectangular
office buildings.
The architectural team was responsible for designing many of the internal
elements of the building, so, in a similar way to the Department of industry
and Commerce job and even the Honan Chapel in the early 1900s, Sisk
carried out both large-scale parts of the build and the more meticulous
details.
The building won the Royal institute of the Architects of ireland (RiAi)
Triennial Gold medal in 1955. it was featured on a stamp in 1982 ■
The building was left unfinished for years while changes
of government created uncertainty as to which agency
should occupy the offices over the bus station. Building
started in 1945, but it only opened in 1953

70 BUilDiNG a BUSiNESS
Hospital Building Programme
“i am faced in ireland today with a problem of gigantic proportions,” said
then minister for health, Dr Noel Browne in May 1948 (quoted in The Irish
Times). “There are very few irish families who have not been closely touched
by tuberculosis. i am faced with a waiting list of over 1,000 persons who are
awaiting admission for treatment to sanatoria.”
The Hospital Sweepstakes was set up by the government to help fund
the new medical centres. in 1948 Sisk won ireland’s first million pound
building contract for the construction of a new tuberculosis treatment
centre (Galway’s Merlin Park Sanatorium) and two weeks later, did the same
again for Sarsfield’s Court, Cork and Blanchardstown (now James Connolly
Memorial Hospital), Co Dublin.
Over the years Sisk won a number of hospital building projects, including
the St Clare in Glasnevin; Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin; Cavan
Regional Hospital; Cork University Hospital; Limerick Regional Hospital;
extensions to Mercy Hospital, Cork, and Mount Carmel, Dublin; University
College Hospital Galway (phase 2); Mayo General Hospital, Castlebar; St
James’s Hospital; Bons Secours, Glasnevin (new wards), St Joseph’s, Clonmel
and The Mater, Dublin.
The design of the sanitoria was based on the concept of isolating TB patients
– the only treatment then known – and thus they were composed of a large
number of separate buildings set in a rural parkland environment.
One Sisk story is told about an incident when the sanatorium at Sarsfield’s
Court, Cork, was being built. The foreman mason, Jim Freeman, was apparently
discussing some item with the foreman carpenter, Dan O’Brien, when a gust
of wind carried the plans away. Freeman set off in pursuit. When Jim returned,
the foreman carpenter remarked, ‘Do you know Jim, that is the first time i ever
saw a mason following the plans’.
Just as construction was finishing on the three sanatoria, at last an
effective drug treatment for TB was discovered, and so the buildings
were converted into hospitals. ■
Architect’s impression of the new Mater
Adult Hospital. Sisk started construction in
September 2009

DEvElopmENt 71

1
2
3
4

5 7
6 8
Hospitals
Opposite page:
1. Mount Carmel Hospital,
Rathgar, Dublin
2. Whitfield Clinic, Waterford
3. St. Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin
4. Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children,
Crumlin, Dublin
This page:
5. Limerick Regional Hospital
6. Mater Hospital, Dublin
FoUNDatioN 73
7. University College Hospital, Galway
8. University College Hospital Cork A&E

74 BUilDiNG a BUSiNESS
Liberty Hall
Liberty Hall was evacuated in 1956 and demolished over three months in
1958. Architect and structural engineer Desmond Rea O’kelly was appointed,
along with Sisk who embraced the then modern building techniques involved
in the construction of the tallest tower in Dublin, at 17 storeys and 60 m (198ft),
and ireland’s first skyscraper. Work began on site on July 20th, 1961.
Liberty Hall’s non-reflective glass led some to call it a ‘crystal tower’ and
a review in Irish Builder and Engineer magazine said: “Under the changing
skies of our climate – at night lighted up, or in the daytime – it always looks
handsome.”
Liberty Hall designer O’kelly says that the building was inspired by Frank
Lloyd Wright’s Johnson Wax building in Wisconsin and that the distinctive
wavy roof atop Liberty Hall was not in a reference to the nearby Busarus, as
some have suggested.
A significant and memorable figure in Sisk’s history, Jack Carmody, had
joined Sisk in 1938 as a carpenter on the kildare St job and went on to become
a legendary foreman in the company. Jack came from Co Clare and his father,
Martin, was a train driver on the West Clare Railway who is said by his family to
have inspired the song Are ye right there Michael? by Percy French.
Carmody, who was involved in many Sisk jobs including Shannon airport,
Crumlin Hospital, Blanchardstown Sanitorium and UCD, had a fairly fierce
reputation which also ensured that jobs got done. “He was a colourful
character,” remembers his son Paul. “He would roar and shout until he got his
own way. He was not a big man but he was very determined. He had a great
drive to bring people along and ensure that the building was done to proper
standards and quality, and on time. Lots of architects would want him to be
on a job because they knew it would be done right”■
Top : Jack Carmody, a legend in the irish building
industry, who worked for John Sisk & Son for 44 years
(1938–1982)
Middle: invitation to the opening of Liberty Hall
Opposite: Liberty Hall, offices of SiPTU, ireland’s largest
trade union. Photograph: Bryan O’Brian, courtesy of
The irish Times

FoUNDatioN 75

76 BUilDiNG a BUSiNESS
The central Bank
The Central Bank on Dublin’s Dame St was designed by Stephenson Gibney
and Associates to be a brave new building in central Dublin. Of substantial
height, which in Dublin – especially then – meant eight storeys, it was set back
from the street and largely invisible from nearby roads.
The arguments about the new Central Bank building had started before
building began in 1967 and it took a long time for the formidable structure
to be accepted – and then not by everybody. The completed building wears
design decisions that would be more suited to the skyscraper that many
appeared to think it was. The thin base it stands on helps to give the building
a human scale at street level – being the size of a house. The overhanging
floors above are held up from the roof on cables that plummet down the
external walls. External structural supports as part of the overall design had
been heralded by the Centre Pompidou in Paris a few years earlier.
“it was a unique construction and nothing had been done like this in
ireland before,” recalls kevin kelly, former Sisk managing director and at that
time the regional director in charge of the build.
“it was constructed from the top down. We used a system called slipform
to construct the cores [a type of concrete formwork]. Then we put on the
roof and assembled the building by making the floor at ground level and
then hanging it from the roof, from a metal bar, and then jacking each floor
into position and fixing it at the core. it was a challenging project using a lot
of novel techniques, other buildings like it had been built elsewhere but we
had never seen anything like it in ireland.”
in fact general jitters about the radical new structure finally halted the
project in 1974. Then minister for local government, Jimmy Tully, issued
instructions for work to cease on the Central Bank. The reason was that it was
higher than the original approved design.
“it turned out that when they developed the design they put in air
conditioning so the extra floor-to-ceiling height, when multiplied by seven,
was substantially greater,” says kelly.
The builders were initially told that work would stop for about a month
but the site was closed for the best part of 12 months. The bank was finally
completed in 1978. Whatever people thought about the design of the
building, the formation of the building’s structural supports certainly enables
good views. And that’s the surprise for those few lucky enough to enter this
building. While from the outside those bands of concrete and long slits of
glass suggest a building that is weighty enough to deal with the country’s
finances, inside you find that those horizontal bands of glass are actually the
full height of a floor, with the coffered ceilings and services tucked behind
the concrete strips. The floor shoots out by about one and a half metres
beyond the glass wall so the eye is carried right out to the edge ■
Opposite: Central Bank, Dame St, Dublin. See a video
of the project at www.sisk150.com

DEvElopmENt 77

The Sisk Name

Opposite: A ‘top down” construction process. First
the concrete core, then the steel roof, then the
suspended floors. Photographs courtesy of irish
Architectural Archive
Below left and bottom: Splendid views over Dublin
enjoyed by the directors and staff of the Central Bank.
The panorama has significantly changed to the east
with the major development of the international
Financial Services Centre, the Gasometer was
demolished but Trinity College and the Georgian
and Victorian Liffey-side facades endure
Bottom right: interior details of the Central Bank on
opening in 1978
FoUNDatioN 79

80 BUilDiNG a BUSiNESS
Arts Block and Administration
Building, UcD
Polish architect Andrzej Wejchert came to ireland to work on his first major
job, the design of UCD, which he did with local architects RkD (Robinson
keefe Devane) who had previously worked with Sisk.
“it was my first meeting with the irish building industry and i really felt that
i was in very good hands,” Andrzej Wejchert recalled shortly before he died
in May, 2009.
“Sisk maintained a consistent moral profile and reliability right through
the project. They embraced the project with great gusto. They were masters
because, in addition to precast technology, they also had in situ concrete
[created on site] and the quality of the white concrete by Sisk was astonishingly
beautiful, as can be seen today. Derry O’Donovan was one of the directors who
ran the job and Mr Sisk was always in the background.
“They also had a fantastic site agent, Jack Carmody, with whom i had
endless discussions about what is white because i was talking about white
concrete and was trying to identify just how white white concrete should be.
He was a very experienced contractor and i was a young architect so there
were potential tensions but he was quite an individual and totally disarmed
me because he told me that in his family home they had some LPs which
were recorded by the Polish pianist and prime minister ignacy Paderewski.
i found it extraordinary that i could talk with a site agent who knew about
classical Polish music from his home. We were great friends.”
Sisk was not daunted by new building technologies, says Wejchert. “We
were at the edge of technology, using pre-stressed concrete with complex
cables going in two directions. it was a very innovative structure.
“The whole issue of concrete at UCD involved a fairly thorough thinking
about resources available in ireland. ireland didn’t have steel in the same way
as the US which had already developed it as a structural element. But ireland
had stone as its most important indigenous material and crushed stone, and
therefore cement and therefore concrete, was really an irish material.
“i also thought that the university would stay around for a long time and i was
looking for a certain element of permanence; that’s why i used concrete.”
But the brickwork, too, was a cause for celebration, Wejchert remembered.
“One brick silicate wall in front of the Administration building at UCD was not
vertical so it was not an easy wall for bricklayers to build. it involved inclined
joints made in such a way as to prevent rain water getting in. you couldn’t
plumb it because it was not straight.” He praised the Farrell brothers, working
for Sisk at the time, for overcoming the problem.
“When we were doing Blanchardstown Shopping Centre in 1992 – about 20
years after UCD – where there was a lot of brick work, we built sample walls and
who should i meet on site but the Farrell brothers. That was incredible, it was
like meeting your dearest friend,” Wejchert recalled. He pointed to a picture of
a wall they built. “imagine this number of bricks put there not by a machine
but by a man. Look at the consistency of that. i started to question how it was
humanly possible to get this consistently, it is almost inhuman, and i talked
about it to Sisk director Paul Hackett. He just said, ‘the secret is supervision,
supervision, supervision’, and when you think about it that is perhaps what
makes Sisk so extremely good today.” ■
Arts Block and Library at University College Dublin
campus at Belfield. Moving out of the city centre
to the new campus was a brave and successful
initiative of the then president of the college, Prof.
Michael Tierney

DEvElopmENt 81

The Sisk Name

Opposite: Administration building entrance.
1. Glazed tunnel joining the Arts Block and
Administration buildings
2. The late Andrzej Wejchert, architect
3. President of UCD, Professor JJ Hogan, left,
Diarmuid (Derry) O’Donovan (Sisk director)
centre, Andrzej Wejchert, right
4. UCD Nova built by Sisk in 2002
1
2
4
3
FoUNDatioN 83

84 BUilDiNG a BUSiNESS
Ballymun
The Ballymun council housing project was a joint venture between Cubitts,
Haden and Sisk, and the National Building Agency. This project of 3260
homes was built on the site of a former agricultural college to relieve a
housing crisis in a country where local authority building had been on the
decline since the mid-1950s. After four deaths in 1963 from falling buildings,
Dublin Corporation’s Housing Committee sought ways of removing people
from dangerous inner-city structures.
The Department of Local Government put out a call for contractors, saying,
“The urgency of the housing situation requires that these dwellings should
be provided as speedily as possible ...in these circumstances consideration
will be given to proposals employing new building methods and techniques.”
People are well acquainted with the fact that this housing project, which
included towers of up to 15 storeys, was system-built. The goal was to
construct 84 homes a month, or about 1,000 a year, using pre-cast Balency
system blocks which contained all ducts for services, screw fixings and
plumbing. The system was developed in France and used precast concrete
wall panels for internal partitions and external cladding, and floor slabs that
contained heating coils and electric wiring. They were made in a plant just
500 yards from the site.
A contract was signed by Sisk in February 1965 for 1,000 homes a year and
John G Sisk was reported in The Irish Times saying that he would like to assure
the minister for local government, Neil Blaney, that the consortium would
make every endeavour to carry out the contract in time.
All the elements of the build were standardised leading to floor-to-floor
heights of 8ft 6in throughout the flats, the concentration of all services (such
as plumbing, ventilation, heating, gas, water) into a `technical block` (a precast
concrete element measuring 5ft 6in long and 1ft 3in wide) and there was one
standard bathroom plan in all flats (all measuring 7ft 6in and 5ft 6in) and a
standard arrangement of kitchen fittings (despite several different plans).
A ceremonial gathering in December 1968 saw the last precast unit
being lifted in (of that phase), marking the completion of 2,616 flats (with
the remainder to be finished by the following February to eventually house
about 12,000 people). The final tally came to 3,260 dwellings in place by the
summer of 1969.
Today apartment living is an accepted part of irish people’s experience, but in
the 1960s it was novel and perceived as alien in ireland. Ballymun did not succeed
as a social project, but it was a milestone in the development of the new ireland,
just like many of the landmark projects with which Sisk has been involved. ■
Ballymun Housing Project (1965–1968). Technically
and contractually innovative, it was said to be the
largest public housing project in Europe at the time.
See a video of the project at www.sisk150.com

FoUNDatioN 85