150 Year SISK - The Irish Times Special Report

THE IRISH TIMES

STRENGTH – DIVERSITY – EXPERIENCE

SPECIAL REPORT FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2009

Offices throughout Ireland:Dublin, Cork, Dundalk, Galway,Limerick, Sligo, Waterford & Belfast

We operate across allsectors of the Irishconstruction market;

John Sisk & Son Ltd.delivering excellence inconstruction on the Nation’sbuildings for 150 years.

Cork City Hall1936

St.Mary’s of the Rosary,Nenagh 1896

Dept. Industry &Commerce 1942

Wexford Bridge1959

Galway Cathedral1965

Central Bank, Dublin1978

Royal Hospital, Kilmainham(Restoration) 1980

Dundrum Town Centre2005

● Civil Engineering● Commercial● Education● Energy● Healthcare● Hotel● Industrial● Leisure● Pharmaceutical● Public Buildings● Residential● Retail

Visit www.sisk.iefor further information and

our anniversary website withhistorical timeline and video.

Mr.John Sisk, Founder

Laying the foundations Family company Sisk has traded through wars andtimes of boom and bust to shape Ireland’s architectural landscape

Family values Group chief executive Liam Nagle on the Sisk Groupphilosophy, and growth and continuity in a volatile industry

Social conscience Giving something back to the community is a core valueat Sisk, which is involved in a variety of charitable projects

Rich diversity Expanding the business, whether into other countries orhealthcare, has been crucial to the success of Sisk

Portrait Sisk founder John Sisk, whose father died during the Famine

Making history Sisk’s buildings reflect various chapters in Irish history, fromchurch and State to the Celtic Tiger boom

Working togetherWith the State’s ability to borrow to fund infrastructureseverely limited, public-private partnership has a role to play

On home ground The rebirth of Lansdowne Road as the state-of-the-artAviva Stadium has provided an exciting challenge for Sisk

Great in Britain Sisk’s UK operation is celebrating its silver jubilee, withmore than 400 people and has numerous prestigious projects to its name

Docklands turnaround The revitalisation of Dublin’s Docklands has providedSisk with some of its most prestigous buidings

Portrait John Valentine Sisk, who in 1880 began working as an apprentice atthe age of 13 with his father

Gaelic pride Croke Park is Sisk’s most admired and renowned project. Whatwent into creating the iconic stadium on Dublin’s northside?

The Cork connection From its first appearance on a 1687 lease, the name Siskhas had a profound influence on the urban landscape of Cork city

Portrait John G Sisk, who opened the company’s Dublin office in the 1930s

Medical matters Aware that the boom could not last forever, Sisk group usedthe good times to make a successful expansion into the healthcare industry

Portrait Current chairman of the group George Sisk recounts four decades inthe family business and international expansion

The test of time Sisk’s conservation and restoration arm ensures someof Ireland’s most important stone buildings are preserved for the future

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SISK AT 150EDITOR: Madeleine Lyons PRODUCTION EDITOR: Rachel Collins PRODUCTION AND DESIGN: Emma SomersCONTACT: Special Reports Department, The Irish Times, Tara St, Dublin 2 TEL: 01-6758000 E-MAIL: [email protected]: Dermot Tierney at Special Reports Bureau TEL: 01-873 4233 E-MAIL: [email protected]

Image above: Construction of the American Air Museum in Cambridgeshire in the UKFront cover images, from left: National Conference Centre, Spencer Dock, Dublin; St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin; Dundrum Town Centre, Dublin; Central Bank, Dame Street, Dublin; Centocor facility, Ringaskiddy, CoCork; distribution for Bosch; Croke Park Stadium, Dublin; Sisk Healthcare

THE IRISH TIMES Sisk at 150 | March 13, 2009 | 3

04 | THE IRISH TIMES Sisk at 150 | March 13, 2009

WORDSBY EMMACULLINANPHOTOGRAPHBY BRYANO’BRIEN

SISK AT 150 LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS

THE SISK building company wasfounded in 1859, just a decadeafter the famine. Since then ithas traded through wars and de-pressions to remain a whollyIrish-owned company, diversify-ing into other fields such ashealthcare and distribution.

It all began with a young man named Johnwhose father Patrick died during the Famine.Patrick was believed to have been a plasterer, tak-ing the building line back even further. At theage of 11, John became an apprentice to a plaster-er called Richard Martin, a Quaker.

John began the building company just beforehis marriage to Kate Burke in 1859 and one ofthe first Sisk projects was a building for the CorkDistillery Company on Morrison’s Island.

John and Kate had six sons, four of whom en-tered the building trade. Nicholas worked as aplasterer and tiler; William was a carpenter andwoodcarver (his work can be seen in the Bunny-connellan Hotel in Myrtleville, Co Cork); Rich-ard was a plasterer and, later, foreman; and JohnValentine started out as an apprentice carpenterand set up on his own in 1900.

Six years later, when his father became ill andthe original business was in trouble, John Valen-tine returned to the family firm and formed apartnership with his father: John Sisk & Son. Bythen the company had worked on many con-vents, churches and houses, including Crosshav-en Convent, Bon Secours convent and offices forthe then Cork Examiner and a home for its own-er, Thomas Crosbie.

After John V, as he was fondly known, becamea partner, the company grew rapidly and had asolid grounding in Cork by the early 20th centu-ry, having worked on church buildings (includ-ing the galleries at St Finbarr’s South Chapel inCork in 1881 and the spire of Holy Trinity churchin 1890) and the Munster and Leinster Bankbuilding in South Mall.

The classical building employed the builders’craftsmanship with materials that came fromaround the world, as well as local stone, includ-ing Little Island (Cork) limestone.

In 1859, the Gothic revival was in full swing.But when Sisk began much of its significantwork, architectural styles were changing – and,with them, building methods.

Over its lifetime, the company has followedthe changes from cut-stone to bricklaying and

then reinforced concrete structures.The Honan Chapel in Cork, a key building on

which the company worked, was both stylistical-ly and structurally positioned at the heart ofchanges in architectural styles and politics. Be-side University College Cork, it was paid for outof the Honan family bequest in 1914.

Ireland was breaking away from British ruleand the chapel drew on Celtic influences. It wasalso influenced by the Arts and Crafts Move-ment, which referenced handcrafted objects at atime of increased industrialisation.

The chapel’s Hiberno-Romanesque style drewon 12th-century buildings for inspiration. Itsfacade is a copy of the 12th-century Romanesque

St Cronan church in Roscrea and its interior issimilar to that of Cormac’s Chapel in Cashel –both in Co Tipperary. The building also has aminiature Irish round tower at one end.

In October 1921, just months before the sign-ing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty that would lead toIrish independence, the founder of the business,John Sisk, died at the age of 84. In his will, he leftmoney to his family and the firm to his partnerand son, John V.

As Ireland was getting to grips with going italone, John V, too, was now solely in charge ofthe company’s destiny, although his second son,John G, was to play a large role in the future ofthe company.

John G joined the firm at the age of 20 as anapprentice engineer. One large job at the timewas the construction of the new Cork City Hall,which was to replace the one burned during theWar of Independence.

It was designed by Dublin architects Jones &Kelly in a traditional style and has references tothe Custom House in Dublin, which was de-signed by James Gandon in 1781 (and which Siskwas to later renovate).

The foundation stone at Cork was laid on July9th, 1932 by Éamon de Valera, who opened thebuilding four years later on September 8th, 1936.Much of the dressed limestone on the City Hallfaçade was quarried in Little Island, deliveredwith an early electric crane and, at the cuttingedge of technology, sliced with large circular andswing saws.

During the build, one of John G’s tasks was toscour the papers for jobs for which the companycould tender, but there was often nothing forweeks on end. Once asked if these were bad eco-nomic times, he quipped: “There were no eco-nomic times.” There was no social security andoften they would have to get breakfast for menwho came to work and fainted with weakness.

John G decided to open an office in Dublinsoon after becoming engaged to Mary Magdalenand the couple set up home in Ranelagh. As com-pany secretary, she was to prove crucial to thesuccess of the Dublin operation, although it gotoff to a slow start.

The company worked on a few smallerprojects, including Corpus Christi Church inWhitehall, Dublin, before landing the prestig-ious job of constructing the first purpose-built of-fices for the new independent Irish government:the then Department of Industry and Commercein Kildare Street.

A competition to design the building was heldin 1934 and was won by architect JR Boyd Bar-rett (Michael Scott also entered).The design was conservative and slipped neatlyinto its surroundings, staying with the neo-Classi-cism that predominated in Ireland at the time, de-spite the spread of Modernism across the world.

Continued on page 6

Liberty Hall in Dublin (left);Cork City Hall (above); JohnG Sisk (top centre) meetsthen-president Eamon deValera (top left)

“As Irelandwasgettingtogripswithgoing it

alone, JohnV, too,wasnowsolely in chargeof thecompany’s destiny followinghisfather’s death inOctober 1921

Towering successSince they began trading in 1859, the Sisk family’s influence has been felt right acrossthe country, building some of Ireland’s most iconic buildings



Continued from page 5

Yet the building has elements that speak of itstime, with Art Deco and Art Nouveau constitu-ents.

During the construction of the Kildare Streetbuilding, Sisk won the contract to build Cavan Ca-thedral in 1938.

Again this involved specialist craftsmanship,not least on the decorative stonework. Sisk estab-lished a drawing office in Dublin to predeter-mine the size, shape and finish of each of thethousands of stones in the building and to identi-fy their location in the structure.

As with the Kildare Street job, Cavan Cathe-dral was built during the second World War andmany of the materials were difficult to procure.Despite that, “it was a lucky job”, said John G. “Ibought all the timber a few weeks before ration-ing, half from Belfast and half from Dublin. Ibought all the Portland stone before the quarriesclosed, also all the copper for the roof one weekbefore it was controlled and under ration.

“The most amazing piece of luck was the mar-ble. This was ordered from a very decent Italian,Oliviero Danieli. My father rang me from Corkone night and said: ‘I think that Mussolini is go-ing into war, you had better do something aboutthe trainload of marble columns [which hadcome through Belfast] or they will be seized ascontraband of war.’

“I left that evening and was on the Border atthe Great Northern Railway station soon, sawthe customs man and explained the position andoffered him a cheque for the duty of £8,000-odd.I then saw the station foreman and gave him £5to shunt the wagons of marble to our side of theBorder and stayed there until he did so. The nextmorning Italy was in the war: some timing . . .by the skin of our teeth.”

A couple of years before Cavan Cathedral wascompleted in 1942, the structure of the company

changed and John V, then in his 70s, gave mostof the shares to his son, John G.

In 1958 John Sisk & Son began work on anoth-er cathedral, in Galway, which also involved com-plex craftsmanship.

A booklet to mark the opening of Galway Ca-thedral gives an indication of how tastes werechanging: “Many would have preferred a bolder,more contemporary design as being expressiveof the new developments in church life. Onemust remember, however, that the building tooksix years to complete; its walls were alreadysome height before ‘conservative’ became a real-ly bad word.”

In 1967, three years after finishing Galway Ca-thedral, the company won the contract to buildthe Central Bank on Dame Street in Dublin,working with cutting-edge technology and struc-tural forms. The structure, that was effectivelyhung from its apex, was designed by StephensonGibney Associates.

The bank was finished in 1978 – following apublic inquiry, a few planning applications and

appeals, and Stephenson complaining about theferocity of attacks on his character.

As with the Central Bank, the hospitals con-structed as part of the new 1948 coalition govern-ment’s building programme tended towards acontemporary style.

At last, large-scale Irish buildings, with theirwhite concrete walls and rectangular plans, werelooking to modernism – and continental Europe– for inspiration. The designers of the Sisk-builtSt Vincent’s Hospital, Downes and Meehan archi-tects, took inspiration from the Bürgerspital Hos-pital in Basel.

Crumlin hospital, built by Sisk in 1946, was de-signed in a very different style by some of the ar-chitects at Robinson Keefe Devane (RKD), whohad worked on Galway Cathedral; partner AndyDevane had studied under Frank Lloyd Wrightin the US.

On July 20th, 1961 Sisk began building LibertyHall, Ireland’s first skyscraper and the tallesttower in Dublin at 17 storeys (60m). Liberty Halldesigner Desmond Ri O’Kelly said the buildingwas inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s JohnsonWax building in Wisconsin but that its wavy roofwas not a reference to the nearby Busáras, de-signed by Michael Scott and built by Sisk be-tween 1945 and 1953.

It was designed in the International style that

had emerged in Europe and the US before thewar – a style in which Dublin airport was also de-signed, by a team led by Desmond Fitzgerald.

Not long after the completion of Busáras, JohnV, then in his 90s, became ill. He died on July2nd, 1957. John G had not only lost a father but afriend; the pair are said to have possessed some-thing nearing telepathy when communicating atmeetings.

The Modernist work continued and includedthe Arts Block and Administration Building atUCD in Belfield in the late 1960s and early

1970s. The buildings were designed by a27-year-old Polish man called An-

drzej Wejchert, working withlocal architects RKD. Siskalso worked on the Arts

Clockwise from above:the Arts building in UCD;Offaly County Council; theCentral Bank on DameStreet in Dublin; theDepartment of Industry andCommerce on KildareStreet; Galway Cathedral

“His son,Hal, is proudofhis father andputsmuch

of thebusiness’s continuedsuccessdown tohis bravery:‘JohnGventuredwhereothersmerely speculated.’

SISK AT 150 LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS


Building the foundations of societySchools and third levelGonzaga College (1948-1958)Clongowes Wood Collegedormitory and science block(1958-1968)Dublin City University library(Scott Tallon Walker, 2000)UCD Nova Building(Kavanagh Tuite, 2002)Cork School of Music(Murray Ó Laoire, 2005)

Social projectsSisk was involved in a varietyof council-housing projects inDublin as well as the£9.5 million Ballymun project.

Industrial facilitiesSisk built many industrialfacilities following theattraction of inwardinvestment by the IDA –including Potez, Pfizer,Hewlett Packard, Wyeth,Bausch and Lomb, Allerganand Johnson & Johnson

Shopping centresSisk built many of thecountry’s shopping centresduring the boom includingBlanchardstown, Pavilions,Liffey Valley, Whitewater,Scotch Hall and The Square,

as well as Dundrum towncentre in Dublin’s southside.Dundrum is Sisk’s largestbuilding project to date,valued at ¤420 million. At itspeak 1600 people wereinvolved in its construction.

Civic officesDún Laoghaire/Rathdowntown hall (McCullough Mulvinand RKD Architects)Limerick County Council HQ(Bucholz McEvoy)Offaly county offices (ABK)Athlone offices (KeithWilliams Architects)

Block in Trinity College Dublin, from 1968 to1979, Ahrends Burton and Koralek’s (ABK) sec-ond project at the university, the first being thenow iconic Berkeley Library. ABK and Sisk alsoteamed up on St Andrew’s College in Booters-town, Dublin, in 1968.

When times were hard in Ireland, Sisk set upin other countries and has worked in Africa, Ger-many and the UK, where it still has a substantial

business. The company also diversified over theyears, into distribution for Bosch, specialist archi-tectural glass and healthcare.

It also set up a civil-engineering arm to buildinfrastructure such as roads and waste-manage-ment systems.

When the economy picked up in the early1990s, Sisk was well-placed to build key boombuildings, such as Croke Park and Lansdowne

Road stadium, which is now on site. The compa-ny also built many of Ireland’s shopping centresand civic offices around the country.

When the recent downturn hit, Sisk was in thefortunate position of having some large jobs onsite, including the Lansdowne project and Spen-cer Dock, to the north of the Liffey, with its con-ference centre, by architect Kevin Roche. Acrossthe river, Sisk is building the Grand Canal thea-tre, by architect Daniel Libeskind, and the compa-

ny has just won a contract for the Mater hospital.The man who had expanded the company

from Cork to Dublin (and later beyond), John G,died in 2001 at the age of 90, but he had alreadyhanded over to the next generation in 1974.

His son Hal is proud of his father and putsmuch of the business’s continued success downto his bravery. “John G ventured where othersmerely speculated,” he says.

1837John Sisk is born onSeptember 30th. Fromthe age of 11 he learnedhis trade fromQuakerplasterer Richard Martin

1845Start of theGreat Famine,duringwhichJohn’s fatherPatrick died

1859John Sisk starts thebuilding company andmarries Kate Burke –they have six sons,four of whom laterwork for their father

1861Civil war starts in the US

1868John Valentine Sisk isborn. Although three ofhis brothers also workfor the company, it isJohn Vwho later goesinto partnership with hisfather and is left thecompany after his death

1884Founding ofthe GAA –morethan 100years laterSisk willbuild Croke Park

1911JohnGerard Sisk(John G), whowill latertake over the company,is born

1912Sisk builds the Munsterand Leinster Bank,designed by architectArthur Hill, in Cork city

1914The firstWorldWarstartsandimpactsthe supply of buildingmaterials. Sisk employedto build bunkers

1916Sisk builds theHonanChapel in Cork

1921Irish civil war; death ofJohn Sisk; Cork City Hallburned down during thefighting

TIMELINE

“Not longafter thecompletionofBusáras,

JohnV, then in his90s, becameill anddiedonJuly 2nd, 1957.JohnGhadnot only lost a fatherbuta friend

SISK 150

OVER THE past 150 years,Sisk has been responsiblefor some of the most famousand iconic buildings in thecountry – including LibertyHall, Busáras, Cork CityHall, the Central Bank, thenew Croke Park stadium,

Nenagh Cathedral and many of the country’slargest industrial plants.

Today, the company logo can be seen on land-mark projects such as the National ConferenceCentre on Dublin’s Spencer Dock and the newLansdowne Road stadium.

Sisk is also one of the largest privately-ownedcompanies in Ireland. In 2007, turnover exceed-ed ¤1.6 billion, with 2,800 people employedacross its operations.

Possibly the most remarkable thing about thecompany is its longevity. In a notoriously volatileindustry that swings from boom to bust withalarming regularity, Sisk can celebrate

150 years of near unbroken success and growth.Group chief executive Liam Nagle has no

doubt about the key reason for that success.“Sisk is a family business. This is vitally impor-

tant as it allows us to take a long-term view interms of strategy,” he says.

“It also makes us culturally unique. Everyoneworking in the business knows who the Sisk fami-ly are and understands the company and familyvalues. One of the areas where this has very visi-ble benefits is in staff retention – when you walkaround any one of our offices or sites you’ll findpeople who have been with us for 20 and30 years – and more.”

The long-term view he speaks of is facilitatedby an ownership structure that is very differentto companies quoted on the stock market.

“I would not for a moment criticise the plcmodel of ownership,” says Nagle. “But it doeshelp that we are not driven by quarter-on-quar-ter results. We are as aggressive as anyone elsein terms of growing the company, but we can af-

ford to take a longer-term view and I believe thisgives us a competitive advantage.”

And long term means just that. “The businessis now owned by the fifth generation of the Siskfamily and I am very much aware that my job isnot just to deliver results this year, or next year,but to continue building the business for futuregenerations – that’s a pretty awesome chal-lenge,” he says.

“Our vision is to create a diversified businessbuilt around our historic strength and culture; abusiness that delivers results for all of its stake-holders, including the Sisk family, our staff andour clients.”

The relative simplicity of this vision is reflect-ed in the group’s strategic plan.

“Our strategy is fairly simple,” Nagle says.“We will continue to do what we already do welland continue to invest in the various businessesin the group. We will continue to diversify intosensible areas. And we will start to behave moreas the Sisk Group and make our 10 companies

For 150 years Sisk has followed asimple but effective strategy and thegroup’s chief executive, Liam Nagle,has no intention of abandoning thisphilosophy in the future

ABOVE: Liam Nagle, chiefexecutive of Sisk.Photograph:Brenda Fitzsimons

OPPOSITE PAGE(from top): Busáras, whichwas built between 1945 and1953; the NationalConference Centre,Photograph: David Sleator;the Aviva Stadium atLansdowne Road Stadiumunder construction

Familyfortunes


WORDSBY BARRYMcCALL

SISK AT 150 LIAM NAGLE

greater than the sum of their parts.“It is a simple story,” he says. “It is not a com-

plex strategic plan.”The last aim of behaving more like a group

does not herald any fundamental change in cul-ture. On the contrary, this move is also driven bythe long-held values of the company.

“We are very consciously not creating somekind of a corporate centre which is distancedfrom the operating companies in the group. Allof our people are empowered to make decisionsand grow their businesses.

“It is out there at the coalface that business iswon and done and delivered. Whether it’s selling

a washing machine in Origo or tendering for ajob in the construction business, the expertise isout in those companies and we are very con-scious of not interfering with that.”

Looking to the future of the group, he be-lieves that Sisk’s history holds the key to its long-term success.

“The Sisk group has managed its way throughcivil wars, depressions, recessions and WorldWars and we have done this through diversify-ing and continually looking for new and differ-ent things to do,” he points out.

“We travelled abroad to the UK in the 1980s,to Africa in the 1970s and 1980s, and to Germa-ny in the 1980s and 1990s when work was thinon the ground here.

“In Ireland, we constantly diversified andmoved into different areas such as civil works.For example, we recently moved into the roadbuilding area and were part of the consortium re-sponsible for the new Cashel Bypass – and weare currently involved in the construction of theShannon Tunnel.

“Over the decades, we have demonstrated theability to change in order to win work; we have agreat reputation for the delivery of good-qualitywork, on time and on budget and thatreputation is now standing to us in the toughertimes.

“We like to think that when people want some-thing done properly they’ll come to Sisk.”

This ability to change is particularly impor-tant in the current environment, where tenderprices have dropped by more than 20 per centover the past 18 months. “Even in the goodtimes, we were only earning profits of around3 per cent of turnover so we have to becomeeven more efficient,” he says.

He cites the Lansdowne Road stadium projectas an example. “We planned that project fromthe end to the beginning rather than the otherway around. This means that the porta-cabinsthat we put down at the beginning of the projecthaven’t been moved once – and will not bemoved until we take them off site.

“Just a few years ago, we would probably havemoved them four or five times by now, addingcost in the project. It is strategic thinking likethis that keeps us ahead of our competitors.”

His recipe for future success includes two keyingredients: keeping the cost base at the rightlevel and making the company as efficient as pos-sible. “In addition, we aim to win a decent shareof the business that’s out there; we will makesure that clients know about Sisk and our longev-ity and reliability; and we will probably look attravelling again and looking for work abroad.

“Thanks to the growth in the Irish economyover the past few decades, the scale of theprojects we have been involved in here at homehas grown greatly and this has given us the expe-rience and expertise to be able to go after largerprojects in the UK and in mainland Europe.”

1929TheWall Street Crash;John G remembersbuyingmeals forhungryworkers during the1930s recession

1931John G joins thecompany, havinggraduated inengineering from UCC

1936Company incorporated,with John V’s sonsRaymond and John Gbecoming directors

1937Sisk sets up StoneDevelopments toensure a secure andgood quality stonesupply to the firm

1938Sisk & Sonmoves toDublin. After a sluggishstart it lands valuablecontracts, including thefirst office of theindependentgovernment andCavan Cathe-dral (right);the companylands itshighestvalue jobto date,CastlereaMentalHospital, at £180,000

1940Sisk devises away ofmixing coal duff (smallparticles) and pitch(solid petroleum), usedto fuel trains during theEmergency; John Gbecomesmanagingdirector

1941The Emergency (thesecondWorldWar);Sisk is contracted tobuild air-raid shelters

1946Sisk commissions alogo fromBritish firmReynolds Stone,which alsodesigned£5 and£10 notes.Sisk asked for a designthat would work onnotepaper and sitehoardings. The design,which cost £50, haslasted to this day

TIMELINE

“TheSiskgrouphasmanaged itsway through

civilwars, depressions,recessionsandWorldWarsbydiversifyingandcontinuallylooking for newthings todo


SISK 150

CORPORATE SOCIAL Responsi-bility (CSR) is a new term foran old concept; that of being agood neighbour. It’s somethingthe Sisk Group has worked to-wards in a low-key way for dec-ades.

In one long-running project,staff volunteer each year to build toys in thecompany’s joinery workshop in the run-up toChristmas. These are then distributed to charita-ble organisations around the country.

This year, to mark the group’s 150th anniversa-ry, Sisk is embarking on a major new CSR initia-tive, partnering with charitable organisationsaround the country as part of a comprehensivevolunteering programme.

“We plan on recognising the great milestoneof our anniversary in a number of ways during2009, ways which will be consistent with ourvalues and ethos as a family business,” says Siskchief executive Liam Nagle.

Representatives from across the business haveidentified a number of local community and char-itable organisations, as well as one overseasorganisation, to work with. “Each of these part-ner organisations has identified a project orchallenge they need help with that would createa meaningful impact,” says Nagle.

Continued on page 12


As a family business, Siskhas always believed ingiving back to thecommunity. The group isinvolved in a variety ofprojects from communityhousing to toymaking

“OUR COMMITMENT to CSR isn’t just about giving money to projects, it isabout using the skill base we have in Sisk to help make a difference,” saysLiam Nagle, Sisk chief executive.One of the most tangible aspects of Sisk’s CSR activities this year will be

its help building 16 affordable homes for people in need in Ireland. Workingwith international agency Habitat for Humanity, which has provided shelterfor more than one million people worldwide, the houses will be built inElmdale in Ballyfermot, Dublin.“Dublin City Council is giving us the land and Sisk is helping us build

them,” says Habitat for Humanity executive director Kevin McGarry.The three-bedroom, 92sq m houses will have front and back gardens and

will be owned by the residents, with the aid of special mortgages organisedfor them by the charity and EBS.“These are people who are working but whose income would not be

enough to be entertained by a mortgage provider ordinarily,” says McGarry.“Each buyer will also commit to putting 500 ‘sweat-equity’ hours into theirhome.”Habitat for Humanity will work with each family throughout the term of

their mortgage, providing help and support.“Sisk’s input makes a fantastic difference because their expertise will

ensure the houses are built professionally and to the highest standards. Italso brings down the price of the home for the buyer,” says McGarry.“These are not houses we are building, but homes. Not estates, but

communities. What we are doing will benefit each family for generations tocome.”Sisk’s CSR initiative not only looks at local projects but at programmes

overseas too. This year a group of volunteers will travel to Mozambique, alsowith Habitat for Humanity.The charity has built 300,000 homes around the world since its inception

in 1976. For two weeks volunteers will help build between 10 and 15 homesin partnership with local communities there.

AS PART of the group’s CSR initiative, Siskemployees will be volunteering for streetcollections in aid of the Irish HospiceFoundation’s two Sunflower Days in June. Allfunds raised locally will stay local, helpingdevelop hospice services in that region.Further fundraising initiatives are also plannedto collect money for the Children’s PalliativeCare programme.

Sunflower Days

Onegoodturn

WORDSBY SANDRAO’CONNELL

SISK AT 150 SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

HABITAT FOR HUMANITY

SISK VOLUNTEERS arehelping to clean up thecoastline in Bray, CoWicklow.Working with Clean

Coast Project organisers,the volunteers will helprestore the cliff walkbetween Bray andGreystones.The work involves

maintaining paths,rebuilding walls, cuttingback overhanging bushes,repairing fences andcleaning up litter.

THE SISK Group’s construction expertise makes it a perfect partner for housing organisationCluid. Sisk will work with Cluid to help provide practical assistance such as painting, decoratingand generally improving the standards and appearance of social housing for low-income familiesand older people.


CHRISTMAS TOYMAKING

CLUID

Clean CoastProject, Bray

Depaul TrustThe Sisk Group isproviding resources to theDepaul Trust, which workswith some of the mostmarginalised homelesspeople in Dublin andBelfast.The Depaul Trust

provides accommodation,outreach services, trainingand medical assistance forhomeless people.

SISK AT 150 SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

FOR ALMOST half a century, trainees at theSisk joinery have manufactured and deliveredcountless numbers of toys to hospitals,hospices, women’s shelters and children’scharitable organisations around the country atChristmas time.“It has been very low key, not something we

publicise,” says Dave Treacy, who heads upthe company’s training unit.“Typically we start into toy making in

October and our aim is to have everythingdelivered by the second week in December –when the lads dress up in Santa suits andhead off in their trucks.”Toymaking aside, Treacy believes the very

fact of having a training centre is a goodindicator of the group’s commitment totraining and development.“It is part of our ethos. Every year we take in

a number of school-leavers and train them upas carpenters and joiners over a four-yearapprenticeship. Most of our senior sitemanagers have come up through the in-housetraining system this way.”As carpenters are often among the first and

last to be on site during the building process,they get a great overview of all aspects ofbuilding, he said.“Those trained up in house this way are the

best – they have the trade background andthink the Sisk way, which is to say, theybelieve in quality and in getting the job doneright.”

1948Sisk wins its first£1million contract, forGalway Sanatorium

1954Sisk isappointeddistributorof Boschpowertoolsin Ireland

1957Sisk begins to work inAfrica

1958Sisk joinswith DutchfirmHBM (HollandacheBetonMaatschippis), apre-stressed reinforcedconcrete specialist toform civils company,Ascon; Sisk works on itsfirst industrial project forheating company Potez

1959Sisk celebrates its first100 years in business

1964Sisk adds to its portfolioof stone quarries bybuying a quarry at OldLeighlin in Carlow, nowthe headquarters ofStone Developments;Sisk builds its ownheadquarters; John Gsets up a training centrethat supplies craftedtimber tomany Sisk jobsand alsomakes toys forcharities at Christmas1965

Sisk finishes work onIreland’s tallest building,Liberty Hall, whichopens onMay 1st with areading of theProclamation ofIndependence

1966George Sisk becomesmanaging director inCork; Sisk builds GalwayCathedral; Sisk goes intopartnership with Cubitsto build flats atBallymun (below);it establishes specialistglazing company,now known asWilliaamCox

TIMELINE

ONE OF the most importantinitiatives the Sisk Group will beinvolved in this year is in helpingprovide cardio-pulmonaryresuscitation (CPR) training to27,500 transition year studentsaround the State in associationwith the Irish Heart Foundation.“Heart attack is the most

prevalent cause of death inIreland but the quicker a patientwho has had a heart attack getsassistance, the better theoutcome,” explains Conor Healy,sales manager with CardiacServices, part of the Sisk Group.According to Michael O'Shea

chief executive of the Irish HeartFoundation: “If a person iscollapsed for five minutes, theirchance of survival could bereduced by as much as 50 percent. Knowing a simple skill likeCPR could make all thedifference. The support from(Sisk) Cardiac Services and otherdonors is extremely vital to thesuccess of this important

project."The CPR 4 Schools

programme has already provedsuccessful in the US and Norway.“Studies show each pupil willteach, on average, three otherpeople the technique, bringingtheir knowledge home andsharing it with family members,”says Healy.The schools programme

makes use of a mannequin,booklet pack and a DVD, whichtakes just 20 minutes to play;Sisk is helping by contributingfunds.“It is a very important project

for us to be involved inbecause . . . awareness of CPRwill be raised in the communityand lives will be saved,” Healysays.

THE SISK Group isparticipating in theSchools BusinessPartnership Programme,which is run by thenon-profit organisationBusiness in theCommunity.Through its Skills @

Work programme, staffoffer pupils “day in thelife” talks, CVworkshops, mockinterviews and companyvisits for pupils.In this way, children

in disadvantaged areassee first-hand the linkbetween educationand work, helpingencourage studentswho might otherwisebe tempted to leaveschool early tocomplete their studies.


SCHOOLS BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP PROGRAMME

IRISH HEART FOUNDATION

School of the Holy Spirit, Kilkenny

SISK 150

IN KILKENNY, Sisk is helping to create a sensory garden as aneducational, therapeutic and healing environment for the School ofthe Holy Spirit, which provides education for children with specialneeds. The garden will contain features such as sculptures andinteractive water features that make different sounds. Pathways andwalls will have different textures and shapes to feel. It will also growfragrant flowers and herbs, making for a stimulating play space for achild’s every sense.Sisk is also partnering with Respond! to help create community

gardens in housing estates in Drogheda, Co Louth, and Galway city.

Dr Ross Murphy (right)addresses an Irish Heart

Foundation Conference onsudden cardiac deaths.

Photograph: Bryan O’Brien

IN THE early 1990s, when the former EastGermany was undergoing a constructionboom following reunification, Irish visitorsto the country were often surprised to seethe Sisk GMBH sign on sites. This is justone example of the Sisk Group’s willingnessto diversify and travel in order to sustainand grow its business. Today the Sisk

Group comprises 10 separate companies span-ning construction, domestic appliances, health-care and property. The healthcare division typi-fies the way in which the company’s diversifica-tion strategy has worked over the years.

“The reason for our diversification strategy isthat it was recognised that the significantgrowth which had been experienced in the con-struction sector was not sustainable and that wehad to look to other areas for future growth,”says Sisk Group chief executive Liam Nagle.

“The logic of the diversification into health-care was that the country has a growing olderpopulation which is very health-conscious, aswell as the fact that the sector is counter-cyclicalto the construction and property areas,” headds. “Also, being a distribution business it wasa good fit with our existing Origo division, whichwas already in that area. We already understoodwhat it took to make a good distribution busi-ness and we were able to bring this experienceto build the healthcare division.”

The Sisk healthcare division currently com-prises four separate companies: M.E.D. Surgi-cal, which specialises in the distribution of surgi-cal products to operating theatres; Cardiac Serv-ices, a leading supplier of diagnostic and thera-peutic healthcare equipment; Tekno Surgical, asupplier of orthopaedic, aesthetic and generalsurgical products; and Synapse, which suppliesequipment into a number of critical clinical are-as, including cardiology, endovascular and neu-roradiology.

“The healthcare division is very new,” Naglepoints out. “We only made the first acquisitionin 2006 and we made five acquisitions withintwo years and have built up the division into abusiness with ¤100 million turnover per annumand 200 staff. Part of the reason why we wereable to do this is because Sisk is a family busi-ness. We were able to talk to other family busi-nesses on an equal footing and they were happyto sell some of their family jewels to us, knowing

that they would be well looked after.”The Sisk Group also takes a different

approach to acquisitions from many other firms.“Most firms look to generate synergies and gainsfrom acquisitions very quickly,” Nagle explains.“We are different. We have what we term a softintegration approach where we keep the ac-quired businesses intact and invest in them. Webelieve this is better in the longer term.”

While the move into healthcare product distri-bution was driven by a desire not to be over-reli-ant on the construction and property sector, theestablishment of the Stone Developments busi-ness came about as a result of the needs of thecore business. Stone Developments is a leadingproducer and supplier of Irish limestone to theIrish, British and European markets. It operatesquarries in Carlow and Kilkenny and has produc-tion facilities in both Ireland and Belgium. It is al-so a leading stone-cladding contractor in Ire-land, supplying and fixing Irish- and internation-al-sourced natural stone.

“Back in the 1930s, one of our major contractswas the construction of the mental hospital inCastlerea in Co Roscommon,” says Nagle. “Thearchitect insisted on a particular limestone finishto the building, which required a consistent sup-ply of stone. John G Sisk, who was in charge ofthe business at the time, bought a quarry in Balli-nasloe to ensure this consistent supply and thatgrew into the stone business. After that, a quarrywas opened in the Dublin Mountains and todaywe have the Carlow and Kilkenny quarries.”

The Origo electrical and electronic goodsdistribution business started out similarly from aneed by the company to import electrical equip-ment from Bosch in Germany for its own use.

Another division closely linked to the needs ofthe core business is Williaam Cox, a 50:50 jointventure between Sisk and CRH. Its main busi-ness is the design, manufacture and installationof large-scale architectural glazing and claddingsolutions. It is also a leading supplier of smoke-and heat-ventilation systems, daylight productsand cladding systems. Among this company’smost significant contracts at present is the glaz-ing for the new Lansdowne Road stadium.

Along with the Irish and UK construction com-panies, the group’s portfolio of businesses is com-pleted by property investment company KorineProperty. It is mainly a “partner of choice” for

landowners or businesses that wish to develop orredevelop their property on a joint-venture ba-sis. Korine’s experienced management team canhelp landowners wanting to realise potentialfrom property.

Recently Sisk also opened offices in Dubai andAbbu Dhabi where it has had very “positive dis-cussions” about potential projects.

In its diversification drive over the years Siskhas consistently resisted the temptation to be-come a builder developer. “Our focus is on con-struction in partnership with our clients,” Naglesays. “Why should we go into competition withdevelopers who are also our clients?

“In the past, we have looked abroad for newbusiness and we will do so again. We are current-ly on the preferred bidder list for the new foot-ball stadium in Warsaw.” If successful, this couldmean that the 2011 football UEFA Cup Final isplayed in a Sisk-built stadium in Dublin, whilethe 2012 football European Championship finalis played in a Sisk-built stadium in Warsaw.

“Wewereable to talk

toother familybusinessesonanequal footing andtheywerehappyto sell someoftheir family jewelstous, knowingthat theywouldbewell lookedafter


Buildingsand beyondDiversification and innovation have been crucial to thecontinued success of Sisk here and abroad

WORDSBY BARRYMcCALL

SISK AT 150 PORTFOLIO

1969UCDmoves to Belfield.Sisk wins contracts tobuild the Arts block andlibrary

1978Sisk builds the CentralBank in Dublin

1979Sisk erects the papalcross (right) andaltar in Dublin’sPhoenix Park

1984Sisk sets up buildingcompany in the UK

1989Sisk heads to Germanyas the BerlinWallcomes down; secures

contract toupgradeSchönefeldairport

1994Work begins on CrokePark for the GAA

2000Sisk consolidates itsproperty developmentdivision under thecompany name of Korine

2005Sisk finishes theDundrum shoppingcentre – its largestsingle project to date,valued at ¤420m

2006Sisk buysMED Surgicaland Cardiac Services toenter the healthcaremarket

2007Healthcare expands withthe purchase of TeknoSurgical, Beaver Medicaland SynapseMedical

2009Sisk (as part of aconsortium) isbuilding a 675mtunnel beneaththe Shannon;buildingcontinueson the Avivastadium atLansdowne Road; workcontinues (with TreasuryHoldings) on SpencerDock scheme of officesand apartments inDublin’s docklands

TIMELINE

Diversity through partnershipTHE STORY of the Sisk Group’s diversificationis nowhere better exemplified than its Origoelectrical and electronic goods distributioncompany. It started life in 1954 as the LMCCompany and its core activity for some yearswas importing and distributing constructionequipment, together with ancillary activities.“Not long after the end of the second World

War,” says group chief executive Liam Nagle,“John G Sisk was looking to bring in powertools from Germany and visited a trade fair inCologne. He struck up a relationship withBosch and began buying their tools. A fewyears later he was offered the distributorshipof Bosch power tools for the Republic . . . Thisgave rise to the LMC Company.”The company became known as Beaver

Distribution in the late 1960s, by which timethe Bosch power-tools business had grownsubstantially. During the 1970s, further Bosch

products were added to the Beaver portfolio,including domestic appliances, automotiveproducts and the Bosch-owned Blaupunktbrand of car audio systems.With the continued growth of the business,

the company moved in 1974 to a newdistribution and service centre on theGreenhills Road in Tallaght, Dublin. Thisallowed it to exploit the growing market for itsBosch products.Additional brands such as Skil, Qualcast,

Dremel, Stihl and Viking were added to thecompany’s portfolio, along with the Toshibain-home entertainment range.In 2003 the company moved again, this time

to a purpose-built distribution facility in theMagna Business Park in City West, Dublin.On January 1st, 2006, the company was

re-branded Origo. The new name issynonymous with the company’s ambitious

plans for growth. “The name, which derivesfrom the Latin word for ‘source’, was carefullychosen to strike a positive chord with thecompany’s large customer base. Origo is agreat example of our relationship-basedbusiness model,” says Nagle.“Back in 2006 we celebrated 50 years of

doing business with Bosch and we have onlyhad written contracts with that company for 15years.“This shows the quality and strength of the

relationship that exists there. Bosch is anotherfamily-owned company and althoughimmensely larger than Sisk, the relationship isone of equals. We very much punch above ourweight because of our family-owned status.We can pick up the phone here and speakdirectly to some of the top people in Bosch. Wewould not have that level of access were we adifferent type of company.”


SISK 150

WORDSBY EMMACULLINAN


SISK AT 150 PORTRAIT

THE FOUNDER of Sisk & Son wasborn to Patrick and Mary Sisk onSeptember 30th, 1837. Tragedycame to him early in

life when his father died during thefamine. At the age of 11 he wasapprenticed to a Quaker plasterer,Richard Martin, and Quaker traits werebrought to bear on the building companyhe established in 1859, just before hemarried Kate Burke.

John Sisk had a social conscience (hecared for the less fortunate throughvarious societies) and he was anti-alcoholand anti-smoking.

Employees who smoked were quick tohide their pipes when the bossapproached, although one of them was abit slow off the mark and, as Sisk cameclose, he quickly put the pipe on to a brickcourse and mortared over it.

John and Kate had six boys: Nicholas in1860; Maurice, 1863; Richard, 1865; JohnValentine, 1868; William 1869; andThomas Francis, 1871.

Sadly, just as Sisk had lost his fatherwhen he was young, the boys were to losetheir mother Kate early; she died in 1885.

Four of the sons went into the buildingtrade, while Maurice studied medicine andThomas died young.

Nicholas worked as a plasterer and tilerin the family firm and then rose toforeman on a salary of six shillings andsixpence a day.

William was a carpenter with Sisk and atalented woodcarver. Richard began hiscareer with the firm as a plasterer’sapprentice on four shillings a day and laterbecame a foreman.

He then set up his own building

company but returned to Sisk in 1911.John Valentine also began his career

as an apprentice carpenter and set upon his own, in 1900.

However, six years later, when hisfather became ill and theoriginal business was in trouble, he

returned to the family firm and it washe who became the son in the name,John Sisk & Son.

The founder of the business, John Sisk,died at the age of 84, in October 1921. Inhis will, he left money to his family and thefirm to John V.

FamilyFocusJohn Sisk

FAR FROM just bricks and mortar,architectural landscapes canreveal a country’s history, map-ping the path of politics and theeconomy, reflecting the personali-ty of a nation. Because of the com-pany’s longevity and geographicalspread, Sisk buildings reflect the

various chapters in modern Irish history.Many of its early buildings in Cork were

churches. Although Ireland was a relatively poorcountry, the Catholic Church was able to providethe finance for substantial buildings made fromhand-crafted materials. Construction of church-es continued well into the 20th century and Siskhas the distinction of building three cathedrals:one in Africa and two in Ireland (Cavan in 1938and Galway in 1966).

Galway and Cavan were some of the last levia-than church buildings commissioned by thechurch in Ireland and the bishops of both build-ings were aware they were reaching the end ofan era. It is believed the then Bishop of KilmorePatrick Finegan accelerated the Cavan cathedralproject in the knowledge that war was comingand funds for the build would be difficult to getafterwards. He was responsible for much of thefundraising and his successor Bishop Patrick Ly-ons, who took on the role in 1937, dedicated him-self to the project. As a later bishop wrote in a let-ter: “I frequently thank God, because if he hadnot built then we could never have done itsince.” The choir sang a hymn of thanksgiving asthe large bronze cross was hoisted through200ft of steel scaffolding to the top of the spire.

The Bishop of Galway instigated a campaignto build his cathedral in 1922, years before itsconstruction. He went as far afield as the US andAustralia to seek finances, returning from Bos-ton with £30,000 and from Melbourne with£8,860. Work began in 1958.

An earlier church built by Sisk linked religionwith the country’s move towards independence:the Honan Chapel at University College Cork.The building’s Hiberno-Romanesque stylelooked back to traditional Celtic churches.

In Cork, Sisk continued its involvement in

structures that marked Ireland’s move awayfrom Britain with the new City Hall. (The previ-ous City Hall was burned down during the Warof Independence.) The company then went on toconstruct the first building for the new independ-ent government, the Department of Industry andCommerce. Such buildings marked a change ofemphasis from the church to the State as asource of building finance.

In the 1940s TB spread across Europe and dev-astated Ireland, instigating a large government-led building programme. “I am faced in Irelandtoday with a problem of gigantic proportions,”said then minister for health Noel Browne inMay 1948. “I am faced with a waiting list of over1,000 persons who are awaiting admission fortreatment to sanatoria.”

While the Irish government addressed theissue, it could not raise all of the finances neededand controversially opted for sweepstakes to helppay for the building of sanatoria. Sisk constructed

many of them, such as the Blanchardstown sana-torium and the Southern Regional sanatorium.When the cure for TB was found, these buildingswere converted to standard hospitals.

Bespoke hospitals were also constructed, in-cluding Mount Carmel in Dublin, St Luke’s inClonmel, Cork Regional, St James’s in Dublinand the new St Vincent’s Hospital in Merrion,which replaced that in the centre of Dublin.

Schools and colleges also moved out of the citycentre, including University College Dublin,which transferred to the Belfield campus in thelate 1950s. Sisk built a number of the early struc-tures there including the Arts Block and thelibrary by architect Andrzej Wejchert. “Siskmaintained a consistent moral profile and relia-bility right through the project. They embracedthe project with great gusto. They were mastersbecause, in addition to precast technology, theyalso had in situ concrete and the quality of thewhite concrete by Sisk was astonishingly beauti-


Clockwise from above:The Administration Buildingat UCD, Belfield; the layingof the foundation stone atthe Honan Chapel, UCC onMay 18th, 1915, by DrO’Callaghan, Bishop of Cork;Dundrum Shopping Centrein Dublin, Photograph: MattKavanagh; Noel Browne(right) signing the contractfor the Galway TBSanatorium in 1948, withJohn G Sisk. It was the first£1million contract in theRepublic

Whether ecclesiastical,symbols of independence,or temples of industryand trade, Sisk’s buildingstell the story of 150 yearsin Ireland

Buildingsociety


SISK AT 150 HISTORY & SOCIETY

ful,” says Polish-born WejchertAs modern Ireland emerged, and education

and industry became the drivers of growth, Siskwas behind many of the key buildings thatsprung up through the 1960s and 1970s, includ-ing St Patrick’s teacher training college in Drum-condra, Dublin; St Flannan’s School in Ennis,Co Clare; St Andrew’s College, Booterstown,Dublin; Alexandra College, Milltown, Dublin;and, in a sign of the times, a spate of comprehen-sive schools in 1970 in Cork (Mayfield and Mill-street) and Kerry (Tarbert).

While many early-20th-century Irish churchbuildings clung to the past in their design, thesenew hospitals, schools and colleges brought a newstyle of architecture into the Irish mainstream.

In the 1980s recession, construction practicallyhalted and Sisk essentially stopped building schoolsbetween 1979 and 1996. This trend was reflectedacross the board, with hotel building almost stop-ping between 1977 (Imperial Hotel, South Mall,

Cork) and 1990 (Waterville Lake Hotel refurbish-ment, Kerry). It was a similar story with offices andbanks. Sisk got around the problem by buildingoverseas, and in time it also benefited from a policythat encouraged foreign investment here.

The Lemass government’s policy for economicdevelopment included attracting funds fromabroad. “When the country attracted overseasbusinesses to establish offices and factories inIreland, Sisk was well-placed to help buildthem,” says Padraic White, formerly of the IDA(Industrial Development Authority), the Stateagency responsible for seeking foreign invest-ment. “Ireland managed to encourage suchinvestment by delivering on its promises and oneof those was to have buildings completed on thedate agreed. Sisk, with its track record, pickedup a number of these contracts.”

The buildings were a long way from the earlyhand-crafted stone and timber buildings createdby Sisk. These structures, for the likes of compu-

ter and pharmaceutical companies, were farsimpler in profile and more complex in terms of in-ternal spaces, with their dust-free clean-room en-vironments. Since the 1960s, Sisk has built morethan 250 industrial buildings across the State.

When construction picked up again during the1990s the Celtic Tiger years were marked by theexplosion in shopping centres; Sisk’s concentra-tion on religious buildings had, over 100 years,transferred to the new religion of shopping.

The boom years were also characterised bythe emergence of talented architectural practic-es and a new – if minority – interest in good

design. Certain local authorities and governmentdepartments played a huge role in commission-ing good architects and Sisk built many architec-turally significant buildings, such as LimerickCounty Hall by Bucholz McEvoy; Athlone CivicOffices by Keith Williams Architects; and boththe Marine Institute and Civic Museum in Gal-way by OPW architects. Commercial projectsincluded Hanover Quay by O’Mahony Pike Archi-tects, and Croke Park stadium by HOK, Lobband Gilroy McMahon Architects.

Other modern landmark buildings Sisk wasinvolved in include Busáras by Michael Scott andthe quirky Met Offices in Glasnevin by LiamMcCormick. Added to this was Ireland’s tallesttower at Liberty Hall; Sisk was later to builddown river from it at George’s Dock in 1996.

Over the years Sisk’s buildings have mappedthe economic growth of Ireland, and today manyof these structures form core parts of our builtenvironment. The landscape of the two citieswhere Sisk has its main offices – Cork and Dublin– is defined by Sisk buildings. Along the Liffey,there is Busáras, Liberty Hall, the new Guinnessvisitors’ centre and, further back, the CentralBank. The company also carried out conserva-tion work on the Royal Hospital Kilmainham andthe Custom House.

In Cork, Sisk buildings are weaved throughoutthe city and have a large presence on the riverwith City Hall, by Jones and Kelly, and the newSchool of Music, by Murray O’Laoire architects.

There are few people in Ireland who have notat some point stood in a Sisk-constructed build-ing, be it a school or third-level institution, ahospital, a church, or – perhaps more in keepingwith recent trends – a shopping centre.


“TheCeltic Tiger yearsweremarkedby the

explosion in shopping centres;Sisk’s concentrationon religiousbuildingshad transferred to thenewreligion of shopping

PUBLIC-PRIVATE Partnership(PPP) transactions have been usedas a means of funding public infra-structure for a number of years.Roads and education have beenthe mainstays of PPP activity todate. PPPs are not a particularly

new concept. At their most simple, they involvethe private sector funding a particular piece of in-frastructure that would normally be funded bythe State.

The private-sector partner will usually design,build and operate the piece of infrastructure fora set period of years – usually 30 or more – untilit is handed back to the State.

The payback for the private partner comes inthe form of tolls on roads or annual fees paid bythe State or public body for the road or buildingconcerned. They have been likened to off-bal-ance-sheet borrowing, where a company canraise funds without declaring it as borrowing.With a PPP, the State gains access to fundingfrom the private sector for a specific projectwithout having to account for it as borrowing.

Another gain for the State is the fixed-price na-

ture of the contract. There should be no hiddencosts or price variations to be faced during thelifetime of the contract. The private-sector part-ner takes on all of those risks. In fact, the penal-ties for poor maintenance or performance canbe quite onerous on the operator, meaning thatthe State is very much in a winning position.

Up until recently the key driver for PPPs inIreland was the need to accelerate the pace ofinfrastructure development. However, this isnow changing to the urgent need to sourceprivate finance.

While the attractions for a cash-strappedgovernment of such finance are fairly obvious,there is another very compelling economic rea-son why PPPs are now at the top of the agenda,according to John Sisk & Son managing directorTom Costello. “The potential job losses in theconstruction sector have been greatly understat-ed up until now,” he says. “The ConstructionIndustry Council (CIC) estimates that the joblosses could be a multiple of the 55,000 figurerecently quoted by the Construction IndustryFederation.”

The CIC is an umbrella body for the sector

that includes representatives from the variousprofessional bodies, such as Engineers Irelandand the Institute of Chartered Surveyors, as wellas leading construction companies, such as Sisk.

“We estimate that the construction and direct-ly related industries at their peak were runningat ¤38 billion turnover annually and that this willfall to ¤14 billion in 2010,” Costello explains.“Peak employment was about 380,000 to400,000 and the fall in activity will translateinto at least 200,000 job losses. We have to man-age this decline in construction by defining an op-timum level of activity for both the industry andthe economy generally and smoothing out thecurve as we approach that target.”

A key part of the CIC recipe for managing thisdecline is for the Government to maintain capitalspending on projects for which there is a clearlyidentified need. “Where there is a need forschools, hospitals, roads, water schemes and soon, these should continue,” Costello argues. “Butthe Government shouldn’t fund anything that isn’tneeded. That wouldn’t make economic sense.”


The Cork School of Music isone of the Sisk Group’smany PPP projects.Photograph: AnewMcKnight/Murray Ó LaoireArchitects

“Wehave tomanage

this decline inconstructionbydefininganoptimumlevel ofactivity


Public-private partnerships could play a major role in addressing the construction downturn

Part of thesolution

WORDSBY BARRYMcCALL

SISK AT 150 PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS


The CIC is realistic about the parlous state of thepublic coffers and is offering some alternativesto direct State spending.

The first of these would be for the State to es-tablish a specific infrastructure fund, whichwould be invested in by pension funds and oth-ers.

The second mechanism that could be used tobridge the funding gap is the pure PPP solution.“Roads PPPs have worked very well in Ireland,”says Costello. “As, indeed, have many other PPPprojects, such as schools and so on. However, thefundamental starting point for these things is val-ue for money. We need a more streamlined andstandardised bidding process for PPPs whichwould eliminate much of the pre-constructioncost from the contracts.”

Sisk has already been involved in a number ofsuccessful road PPPs, including the recently com-pleted Cashel Bypass and the new Limerick Shan-non Tunnel, which is currently under construc-tion (see panel, below).

The firm is also involved as one of the partners

in the MetroExpress consortium, which is bid-ding for the contract to construct, operate andmaintain the controversial new Metro Northline, which is planned to run from St Stephen’sGreen via Dublin Airport to the north of Swords.

At an estimated total cost of more than ¤3 bil-lion, the project is the largest PPP currently outto tender in Europe and easily the largest suchproject to date in Ireland. Due for completion in2013, an estimated 35 million passengers a yearare expected to travel on the service, with trainsevery four minutes, increasing to every two min-utes as demand builds.

The journey time from St Stephen’s Green toDublin Airport will be about 20 minutes. Thejourney time from Swords to St Stephen’s Greenwill be approximately 30 minutes.

The MetroExpress consortium comprises awide range of partners, including: John Sisk &Son; the Macquarie Group, a global expert ininvesting in and managing infrastructureprojects; Bombardier Transportation, a special-ist in rail-equipment manufacturing, systemsand services; Transdev RATP, a key operator ofpublic-transport systems; Alpine, an internation-

al tunnel construction firm; FCC, a Spanish con-struction firm; Mercury Engineering and AIB.

The consortium recently submitted its bid tothe Rail Procurement Agency (RPA), which isnow assessing it and other competing bids. Thenext stage in the process will see the RPA select apreferred bidder and then enter into discussionsand negotiations with that consortium in orderto finalise a contract.

This could take several months and it will besome time before the start date for the project isknown. Costello says that Ireland could lose a lotmore than jobs if the project doesn’t go ahead.

“Ireland is now a model for Europe in terms ofhow we build our roads,” he says. “We are 10 to20 per cent cheaper for road building than theUK, which has been acknowledged as the mostcompetitive market in Europe . . . We haveachieved this position because of the skills andthe capability the industry has developed andbuilt up over the past number of years.

“We cannot afford to lose these skills and goback to where we were in the 1980s and early1990s. This is why it is absolutely vital that invest-ment in infrastructure be maintained.”

THE ¤350 million LimerickShannon Tunnel is very mucha marvel of modernengineering technology, with

the elements of the 675m tunnelsection constructed on site andfloated out onto the river and sunk intoplace.The Direct Route consortium – John

Sisk & Son (Holdings), Strabag AG,Lagan Holdings and Roadbridge – wasselected as the successful PPPconsortium for the construction of theLimerick Southern Ring Road Phase IIproject in 2006 and work started inAugust of that year.

The project incorporates a 675mtunnel crossing of the River Shannon.It also involves the construction of9.75km of dual carriageway, alongwith associated link roads and sideroads, linking the N7 LimerickSouthern Ring Road Phase 1 and N20Cork Road with the N18 Ennis Road. Itis envisaged that the new link willremove around 40,000 vehicles perday from Limerick city centre.The river crossing uses an

immersed tube tunnel. This type oftunnel construction is carried out in anumber of phases. Firstly, theelements are manufactured in acasting basin on site. They are thenfloated out and sunk in the riverchannel.After that, the portals or entrances

to the tunnel are built at either end.Each tunnel element is approximatelythe length of a football pitch (100m),as high as a two-storey house (8.5m),wide enough to accommodate twolanes of traffic in each direction (25m)and weighs in at 20,000 tonnes, givinga combined weight of 100,000 tonnes.The tunnel elements had to be

floated out onto the River Shannon, asno crane is capable of lifting 20,000tonnes.“This is a very complex project,”

says John Sisk & Son managingdirector Tom Costello.“Strabag has the technology for

immersed-tube-tunnel construction . .. they had done it before in othercountries and this was very important.This is an example of how PPPconsortiums can deliver real value tothe State. By combining internationalexpertise with local capability we canbe fully aware of all of the risks whenbidding for contracts and developrealistic proposals for them.”The good news for long-suffering

motorists in Clare and Limerick is thatthe project is on schedule and due forcompletion next year.

Right: The N8Fermoy-Rathcormac road,completed nine monthsahead of schedule inOctober 2006: Sisk, as partof the Directrouteconsortium, constructed17.5 km of tolled motorway.

“Bycombininginternational

expertisewith localcapabilitywecanbe fullyawareof all the riskswhenbidding

“Thefundamen-

tal startingpoint isvalue formoney. . .Weneedamorestreamlinedbiddingprocesswhichwouldeliminatemuchofthepre-constructioncost

Amiracle of engineering


SISK AT 150 PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS

AS GENERAL manager on the LimerickShannon Tunnel Project, Tom King(pictured, on left) is relishing a newset of responsibilities.“There is a lot of interest in this

project, so part of my job is to liaisewith the public,” he explains. “This is anew dimension to my job; I’m reallyenjoying it. We’ve been publishingnewsletters packed with informationand updates, which are distributedaround Limerick city and county. Wealso host tours of the project forgroups.”The Limerick Tunnel is a

collaboration between fourcontractors, including Sisk, whocollectively form a Public-PrivatePartnership Company (PPP-Co). Theproject has a ¤360 million capital costand consists of 10km of dual-lane dualcarriageway and 2.3km of single-lanedual carriageway. It passes under theRiver Shannon, connecting Rosbyrneand Cratloe.King, a qualified civil engineer with

an honours degree from UniversityCollege Dublin, has worked in the UK,the West Indies, Canada and Ireland.However, the Limerick ShannonTunnel presents new challenges forSisk.With regard to financing, one of

King’s roles is to liaise with lendersand technical advisors to maintain agood credit rating for the project.Capital was raised through the issuingof bonds. In 2006, the project won aFinancial Services Award forinnovative financing. Meanwhile,health and safety concerns require thecreation of complex transportmanagement and engineeringsystems.“I like that there are a number of

dimensions to this project; I manageall these disparate elements and drawthem together,” says King.The Limerick Tunnel is scheduled

for completion in September 2010.For more information,

see limericktunnel.ie.

ONSITE SISK


Commuters on the Dart haveenjoyed a unique sight for thepast 15 months: the rapid re-construction and rebirth ofLansdowne Road Stadium.

The ground, which was fa-mously the oldest rugby stadi-um in the world, was demol-

ished in 2007 and work began at the end of thatyear on its replacement, the newly titled AvivaStadium, which is due to open next year.

For Sisk, this presented an original challenge.Not only was it dealing with a piece of Irish sport-ing history, but the task ahead would presentmany logistical issues. The stadium is on a com-pact site, with natural and man-made obstaclesto overcome. Timing was also an issue, meaningdelays were not an option.

Given the nature of the stadium’s two primarytenants, the Irish rugby and soccer teams, it was afitting challenge – one that put Sisk under pres-sure, but that the firm met head on.

The construction firm brought in staff with awide range of backgrounds in order to managethe project. “We had worked on all differentkinds of projects, such as apartments, hotels,shopping centres, and a couple of guys were in-volved in Croke Park,” says Maurice Flynn, assist-ant contracts manager with Sisk.

“We had two months before we came on-site – from October to December 2007 – to planand sequence and schedule the project as a

team,” he says. “There were a lot of challenges,logistics was one of them. We developed planson a weekly basis and try to manage each sub-contractor as efficiently and safely as possible.”

Room for manoeuvre at Lansdowne Road was,and remains, substantially limited. On one sidelies the River Dodder, on another is the Dart line,while the ground is located in a heavily residen-tial area.

Working around these geographical obstaclesrequired precise planning. “The site is so smalland compact that we don’t have the storageroom that you would have on a lot of otherprojects,” says Padraic Egan, site agent.

“We’re so near the road that the planning ofall the deliveries and logistics is very impor-tant,” he says. “Each contractor is allocated dif-ferent times and places within the site. Thereare areas where they take ownership for theweek ahead.”

With the Dart line running right along theback of the West stand and through part of theentrance area to the ground, Sisk’s team had totake particular care in handling this challenge.

“Most of the work in close proximity to theDart line was carried out at night. We put con-trol measures in place to deal with any safety haz-ards,” says Flynn. These included erecting a podi-um to protect the Dart from any works being car-ried out in the stadium. The logistical manage-ment has proven successful, as the new groundhas sprouted up at a rapid rate.

The Aviva Stadium atLansdowne Road in Dublinas it will look on completionSuper

bowl


The reconstruction ofthe world’soldest rugby stadiumhas created aformidable challengeand a fascinatingproject for the Siskteam

“From October 2007 until now we’ve beenworking on the concrete frame of the bowl.We’ve started on the roof on time, everything isgoing well so far,” says Robert Young, projectplanner of the Aviva Stadium development. “Allthe milestones that we set at the start have beenmet and we are still on target for our April 2010completion date.”

When complete, this will be more than just aground for sporting events. Conference facilitieswill be built in. The stadium’s role as a concertvenue will be improved with the North stand’sstructuring specifically designed to cater for theerection of a stage.

“It’s going to be a meeting point, similar towhat Croke Park is,” says Flynn.

The scale of the project can’t be underestimat-

ed. There are more than 600 people currentlyworking on site and this will peak at 700 beforethe stadium is completed. Despite these largenumbers, the site has passed the one-million-hour mark without a single reportable accident.

“With this job, all the sub-contractors were onboard from the beginning regarding safety is-sues. It was very much a group effort,” saysAmanda Cullen, safety officer on the site.

In addition to a large workforce, there’s alsosome hefty material being moved around. A lot isrequired in order to complete the four-tier50,000 seater stadium, which will include10,000 premium seats.

This includes 35,000 cubic metres of con-crete, 2,500 columns – of which 250 are individu-ally designed – 3,000 tonnes of roof steel andfour mobile cranes. One of the cranes being usedis among the biggest in Europe.

The historic importance of a task this size isn’tlost on the staff working on the site. “We’re veryconscious of the size of the job. It’s almost a one-off for the Irish economy. We mightn’t get towork on a job of this scale again,” says RichardMcRedmond, a senior engineer on the project.

There’s a personal side to this project formany of those involved, some of whom alsoworked on Croke Park.

“It’s nice to be able to go back to Croke Park to

a match knowing that you were involved in that,it will be nice to do that here too,” says Frank Fal-lon, foreman on the site.

On top of the memory, the project gives theteam a chance to work on facets not typicallyfound in most buildings.

“There are a few interesting systems that weget to put in that we might not see again forsome time, such as outside broadcast systems,”says David Bradley, building services engineer.

To complete this kind of undertaking, Sisk hassought out international assistance to ensure theright result when the project is completed.

“Although it’s a stadium based in Dublin, it’s aglobal enterprise,” says Colm Walsh, a senior en-gineer on the project. “Some of the design teamwork from America and England, some of thesub-contractors come from Italy and we havesupplies coming in from China and Australia.”

For the stakeholders in this project, the newstadium will create opportunities for the future.

“There’ll be a massive economic benefit to thecity. We’ll attract more high-prestige events,”says Martin Murphy, stadium manager of the Avi-va Stadium. “The IRFU [Irish Rugby FootballUnion] and FAI [Football Association of Ireland]will have an investment that will present revenuestreams that they can plug back into the grass-roots of the game.”

If Murphy is proven right, then completion ofconstruction, for the Aviva Stadium, will only bethe beginning.

THE REDEVELOPMENT of theLansdowne Road Stadium is amilestone for Ireland. For those at thecoalface of the project, it’s an excitingtime. Robert Collins, director ofoperations at Williaam Cox, anarchitectural glazing, daylight andventilation specialist, is delighted to beplaying a part in this transformation ofIrish sport.Collins has worked with Williaam

Cox for four years. He initially joined asplant manager, with responsibility forthe distribution side of the business.“Lansdowne is currently our largest

contract,” he says. “It’s a beautifulbuilding with complex geometry. We’reon site at the moment, installinginternal architectural glazing forcorporate and VIP boxes, and are dueto be finished by May 30th. From April20th, we will begin creating the facadeand roof of the stadium.”Work on the stadium began in 2007

and is due for completion in early2010. There are currently 34 workerson site, but this will rise to 146 whenthe project is at its peak.There are, Collins explains, three

distinct aspects to the company:architectural facades; Coxdome™roof-light and smoke and ventilationproducts; and the distribution ofplastic sheeting, cladding and signagematerials.In addition to the Lansdowne

Stadium, Williaam Cox – which ishalf-owned by Sisk – has plenty ofother work to keep it occupied. It isinvolved in a number of commercialprojects, including Douglas VillageShopping Centre just outside Cork city,Block G in Sandyford in Dublin and theMontevetro Building in Barrow Streetin Dublin.

Tom Costello (left),managing director,of the Sisk Group,presenting a smallmemento to FAI chiefexecutive John Delaney(centre) and IRFU chiefexecutive Philip Browne tomark onemillionaccident-free hours workedon the Lansdowne Road site

ONSITEWILLIAAMCOX

“It’s nice tobeable togoback toCrokePark to a

matchknowing that youwereinvolved in that – itwill benice todo that here too

SISK AT 150 LANSDOWNE ROADWORDS BY EMMET RYAN


WHILE SISK Groupmarks 150 years in busi-ness, the story of its UKbranch is also cause forcelebration. This yearSisk UK celebrates itssilver jubilee, and a peri-od for the business that

represents another success story for the family-run company.

Paul Wilson, managing director of the UKoperation since November, has watched it growover most of the past 25 years. Unusually for anEnglishman in the late 1970s, he had experienceof working in Ireland, for a Cork-based contrac-tor, between 1978 and 1983. He joined the fledg-ling Sisk UK operation in London in 1985, just afew months after it had been set up.

Twenty-five years later and the operation hasachieved a £250 million annual turnover and hasmore than 400 employees. Its headquarters arenow in St Albans but it also has offices inBirmingham, Manchester, and, most recently,Bristol, as well as having Major Projects and Raildivisions.

It has been associated with prestigiousprojects such as the Wembley Arena refurbish-ment, the Living History Museum in Basingstokeand the American Air Museum at Duxford inCambridgeshire. The museum won the RoyalInstitute of British Architects Stirling Prize forits innovative design, which includes the largestunsupported concrete arch in Europe.

According to Wilson, the project involvedfitting together thousands of pre-cast concreteslabs, each weighing a couple of tonnes, to formthe roof.

Sisk UK has also made a name for itself in thebooming hotel construction sector in recentyears where meeting building deadlines is para-mount. It has built 50 hotels in the London area,becoming one of the first users of concretecellular construction methods when it built a168-bedroom hotel in Croydon for the HiltonGroup in two months in 1992.

The project involved the use of tunnel-formconcrete construction, enabling the building offour bedrooms a day. Pre-finished bathroompods were introduced on the same ¤10 millionproject.

The use of innovative methods in the earlyprojects helped to build Sisk’s reputation as amajor player in the UK hotel construction indus-try. Other notable hotel projects include theFour Seasons Hotel near Canary Wharf, theRoyal Garden Hotel in Kensington and the Gros-venor House Hotel in Park Lane. It has also beeninvolved in major refurbishments at Kensing-ton’s Copthorne Tara Hotel and Hyde Park’sRoyal Lancaster and it had the contract for con-verting the iconic County Hall, the home of theformer Greater London Council, into two hotels,for Marriot and Travel Inn.

“We have always found a really good match

“Theuse of innovativemethods in theearly

projectshelped tobuildSisk’sreputationas amajor player intheUKhotel constructionindustry

As Sisk Group looks back on a century and a half of success, its UK armis celebrating 25 years in the business

Great in Britain26 | THE IRISH TIMES Sisk at 150 | March 13, 2009

WORDSBY ÉIBHIR MULQUEEN

SISK AT 150 LONDON

ONSITE SISK UKEXPERIENCE BREEDS newexperience. At Sisk, an open,innovative workplace cultureencourages long-servingstaff to help neweremployees find their feet.This, as Suzanne Hussey

(right) of Sisk UK attests,makes Sisk a great place towork. Hussey studiedengineering in Trinity CollegeDublin and, after a yearworking in Dublin withanother contractor, shedecided it was time to moveon. She has been with SiskUK for more than threeyears.

Hussey has worked on astring of projects with SiskUK, including the WembleyArena and major residentialdevelopments W01 and W04.She outlines a typical day

at work: “Normally, I get onto the site and I have a list ofthings to do from the daybefore. I’d review progresswith the sub-contractor, dealwith problems in the morningand take on various rolesduring the day, such ashealth and safetymanagement.“There are great strengths

and a great culture within

Sisk; this comes from theircommitment to nurturingpeople and realising their

potential.“It has a diverse workforce,

with employees from all over

the world, as well asmentors who we can go tofor help if we have anyproblems.” According toHussey, the use of moreexperienced managers asmentors is a very worthwhileinitiative.“There’s so much interest

and investment put intoquantity surveyors,engineers and managers.There’s an open-doorapproach, where thedirectors know the rest of thestaff by name. How manyother big companies can saythe same?”

between the Sisk values and performance ethosand any client with a time-related incomestream,” says Wilson.

These modular techniques are now wide-spread and Sisk is introducing them to the resi-dential sector, making, according to Wilson, forcheaper, better insulated, fire-proofed andsound-proofed homes.

Sisk UK has also been strong in the industrialand commercial sectors. Wilson points out thatbusiness ebbs and flows between the three areasfrom year to year. Big transport projects the com-pany has been involved in include the NorthGreenwich Interchange Station – alongside theMillennium Dome – and the transport inter-change for buses, trams and cars at ManchesterAirport. Among other innovative projects com-

pleted in recent years are village schemes suchas the Dickens Heath Village, in Solihull, and aholiday village at Penrith comprising 700 timber-framed chalets.

A former commercial director for thecompany, Wilson points to a number of factorscontributing to its success. He finds the informal-ity and openness of the Sisk model, which is com-bined with a hard business edge, to be a winningformula.

“A big part of the culture is you do not standand look and tut about a problem. You embraceit and try to solve it.

“Sisk is about performance. If you can per-form and deliver and it is done in a safe manner,with the end result one of high quality, then youwill constantly get repeat business.” In fact,

repeat business is a hallmark of the firm’s suc-cess. “Probably 70 per cent of our work is withrepeat clients. We look to a client with a view toa long-term relationship,” Wilson says.

The structure of the overall company is anenabling factor for repeat business. Because Siskis family owned, it can take a long-term view,resisting the temptation of making a quick buckon the first contract and, instead, focusing onbuilding the relationship.

“In fact, your own costs go down when you aredealing with someone on a second- or third- orfourth-time basis,” he adds.

Supply-chain management is also a majorpart of the business and the geographic spreadof the operation helps manage this by buildingrelationships with local suppliers.

With the vast majority of the business indesign and build, risk management is now a keypart of project management, ensuring the proc-esses are in place to anticipate problems. It is allpart of being a major player and Wilson is confi-dent that, with a healthy balance sheet, thecompany will be able to weather the currentrecession. “In the past we have gone throughtwo recessions in the UK and actually grewthrough them rather than shrunk throughthem.”

Sisk UK is now targeting larger contracts,learning from the expertise of the Irish opera-tion in how to handle them, and is developingthe civil engineering and process engineering as-pects of the business, again gaining synergiesfrom the parent company. A joint-venture opera-tion is also being considered with a modular ho-tel room company. The net effect of these newtechniques is to increase off-site constructionand decrease on-site time while maintaining thequality of the product.

Currently Sisk UK is examining three £70 mil-lion plus projects – two of which are residential –with a view to tendering for them. “The pipelineis as strong in those major projects as it is any-where else but I think there are less contractorsthat work at that scale.

“We are sitting outside the top 30 contractorsin the UK and I would say we are ready to pushthrough the door.”

Clockwise from above:the UKMariott County Hall;the Telstar buildingadjacent to Paddingtonstation, built on the site ofthe former LondonUnderground building whichwas damaged by fire;the award-winningAmerican Air Museum inCambridgeshireOpposite page: the15-storey Chancery Placebuilding in Manchester


SISK FACES one of the most chal-lenging trading environmentsin its 150-year history due to theunprecedented slowdown in theIrish construction sector.

According to Tom Costello,Sisk managing director, thecompany now faces a very differ-

ent operating environment, having reached arecord turnover of ¤1.3 billion in 2007. He ac-knowledges the industry is moving into a very dif-ficult period.

Sisk has been involved in some of the morehigh-profile developments in the capital over thelast five years. But in terms of scale, the series ofdevelopments in the docklands in Dublin rankamong the company’s largest, with the com-bined value of projects on four sites reaching

over ¤1 billion.When Sisk joined Park Develop-ments to bid for the first of these projects – toconstruct 300 apartments, an office block and re-tail units at Hanover Quay – it had no masterplan to concentrate on projects in the Docklandsregion, he says. “It is hard to believe now but atthe time we started down in Hanover Quay[2003] there were no buildings from the Ferry-man pub [on John Rogerson’s Quay] to thedocks,” Costello says.

“We are pretty happy with Hanover Quay. It isa fantastic location. It has an aspect onto the riv-er Liffey and the Grand Canal Basin on to thesouthside. That building was awarded Buildingof the Year in the property awards and it also gotan RIAI [Royal Institute of the Architects ofIreland] award in 2007.”

While work on Hanover Quay was ongoing,

Sisk started construction on a second docklandsproject at Spencer Dock on a combined projectof 500,000 sq ft of office space, 600 apartmentsand the National Convention Centre, due forcompletion in mid-2010.

The construction company CMP (Construc-tion Management Partnership) is a joint-venturewith Treasury Holdings.

Sisk has also built the 120,000 sq ft headquar-ters for legal firm McCann Fitzgerald on the cor-ner of Sir John Rogerson’s Quay and MackenStreet. “It is a splendid building, beautifully de-signed by Scott Tallon Walker. Whenever we aretrying to impress clients we are always very gladto bring them to see it.”

The fourth docklands project for Sisk is a500,000 sq ft office building on Macken Streetand Grand Canal Square for Chartered Land,the company owned by Joe O’Reilly, who builtDundrum Shopping Centre.

This development includes the Grand CanalTheatre, designed by architect renowned DanielLiebeskind. “It is a typical Liebeskind building –there are no straight lines on the design,” saysCostello. While this element of the projectmakes construction of the 2,000-seat theatremore complicated, Costello is very proud of it.

Sisk’s flagship projects in the Dublin Docklands areamong its most prestigious. Now, with a surplus of skillsand a competitive market for buyers, Ireland Inc needs tocapitalise

The Dublin Docklands withthe Riverside One building inthe centre. Photograph:Dara Mac Dónaill

“Theskillswehave

built up in thecountrymatchanything in theworld. These skillsarea fantasticresource


Under theboardwalk

WORDSBY DAVID LABANYI

SISK AT 150 DUBLIN DOCKLANDS

“It is quite a complex structure but it will be avery worthy addition to the built environment inDublin. When people look back and say youwere involved in the best 10 years ever in con-struction and say, ‘What’s the legacy?’ it is niceto have that.”

Costello believes one reason Sisk has been suc-cessful in its bids for some of the more complexprojects is its approach – particularly its contri-bution to pre-construction and design develop-ment. “The current environment is moving a lit-tle bit away from relationships to lowest cost,but I still think relationships are very much fun-damental to business,” Costello says. “In thelonger term, the relationship model will provemore valuable to the client.”

While he is used to the cyclical nature of thesector, Costello believes this downturn is differ-ent. “Certainly the cycle we got into over the last15 years was unprecedented. At our peak we gotvery close to ¤1.3 billion in turnover, which isjust extraordinary. In the longer term, the reali-ty for the next five-plus years is very different.”

For the wider industry, Costello believes whatis at risk are skills built up over the last 15 years.

“What we have done at Lansdowne Road inthe past 15 months couldn’t have been done a

decade ago. The skills we have built up in thecountry match anything in the world. Theseskills are a fantastic resource.”

Costello is involved in a construction industrycouncil that includes the Construction Industry Fed-eration, the Society of Chartered Surveyors and theRoyal Institute of Architects of Ireland, among oth-ers, which is compiling a report on the future forthe industry. It indicates that the industry, whichpeaked with an output of ¤38 billion in 2007, is like-ly to contract to under ¤14 billion by 2011.

“If you were to apply European norms we

should be around 12 per cent of GDP – whichwould suggest an industry output of ¤18 billionper annum is sustainable.” Costello is not naiveenough to suggest the construction industry iswithout fault: “Things had gone a bit crazy; weover-developed on the residential side.”

But he believes the Government could achievesignificant value for money in provision of badlyneeded infrastructure by taking advantage ofthe excess construction capacity.

“Construction prices are now 20 per cent lessthan they were two years ago. Land prices arecheaper: we estimate you can build 5km of roadfor the price of what you would have paid for3km just three years ago. It is very rare that youhave the combination and abundance of highlyproductive skilled resources and a very competi-tive bidding environment,” he says.

“However we remain positive about the futureand some of the initiatives being undertaken inthe company. For instance we have relaunchedour special projects division to manage projectsup to ¤5 million. This division will apply suitablemanagement structures and procedures toprojects in this range, thereby giving clients thebenefit of Sisk experience and market knowl-edge at costs appropriate to the project size.”

Sisk projects in the Docklands

Sisk developments in theDublin docklands includeGrand Canal Square (topright) and the NationalConference Centre (bottomright) at Spencer Dock.Photograph: Eric Luke

HANOVER QUAYClient: Dublin City Council,Dublin Docklands,295 apartments, 4500 sq m officespace, 500 sq m retail spaceValue: ¤100 million

GRAND CANAL SQUAREClient: Chartered Land,two office blocks,Daniel Liebeskind-designed theatreValue: ¤195 million

SPENCER DOCKClient: Treasury Holdings,42,000 sq m office block,620 apartments,National Conference Centre (due forcompletion 2010)Value: ¤700 million

RIVERSIDE ONEClient:McCann Fitzgerald,office blockValue: ¤42 million



JOHN V’S school career was cutshort at 13 when the PresentationBrothers in Cobh asked that he notreturn to their school after the

Christmas break of 1880, and it was withregret but necessity that his father tookhim on as an apprentice.

But John V was to prove a good builderand businessman and, by the time he was aforeman at the company, he haddeveloped interesting ways of gettingemployees to speed up their work – on theClonakilty Industrial School project, he gotthe country builders to construct onecourse of bricks and the city builders toconstruct another course at the same timein a race.

After he became a partner in John Sisk& Son, the company grew rapidly. He hada tenacity and knack for business andhelped secure the Munster and LeinsterBank contract in Cork, even though thecompany was not at the top of thetender list. The architect apparentlythought that John Sisk was too old for thejob, but described John V as “a prettyclever young fellow”.

John V’s penchant for detail can be seenin the plasterwork of the Munster andLeinster building.

The specification called for plaster thatwas similar to that on the Morning Postoffices in Aldwych, London (the Post was

later bought by the Daily Telegraph). JohnV was given a sample of the plaster butfound it difficult to copy (it did not rub offonto dark fabric, whereas local samplesdid) and so he went to London to find outthe secret.

One of his grandsons, Hal, remembershim as “a small man with big hands.

“He was a fiery individual who lovedpoetry and – standing there in hiscollarless grandfather shirt – used to recite

it for hours. He loved sport and playingcards but would not go to the pub.”

This was a trait running through thefirst three John Sisks, says Hal. They wereall “respectable, upright, Victoriangentlemen”, a characteristic instilled byQuaker principles learned by young Johnfrom the age of 11.

Such characteristics, says Hal, havebeen key to the success and survival of thebusiness for more than 150 years.

FamilyFocusJohnValentineSisk

SISK AT 150 PORTRAITWORDSBY EMMACULLINAN

THERE IS no more iconic state-ment or legacy of the nowlamented Celtic Tiger than theredeveloped Croke Park.

It was first mooted in 1988 bythen president of the GAA, PeterQuinn, during a severe recessionwhen few believed it was possi-

ble; its ultimate construction coincided with atime when everything seemed possible in Ireland.

Nothing on this scale had ever been attemptedin Ireland before and there were few templatesinternationally for the project. Only the redevel-opment of Blackburn Rovers’ Ewood Parkground at the time was in any way similar – andthat was on a much smaller scale.

The last time Croke Park had been developedwas in the 1950s, when the Nally Stand was built.

Crowd trouble, which nearly led to disaster dur-ing the All-Ireland football final of 1983 betweenDublin and Galway, resulted in a drastic fall in ca-pacity and, when the Hillsborough Stadium disas-ter happened in the UK in 1989, theredevelopment of the stadium became a priority.

Following an international competition, theGAA appointed former Tyrone footballer DesMcMahon of Gilroy McMahon as the architect in1989 and the finished plans were delivered in1991. Sisk was chosen as the main contractor toredevelop the stadium and the bulldozers movedon site after the All-Ireland football final of 1993.

“I was probably the first person there,” says

Sisk regional director Ken Aherne who was thesenior engineer on the construction side of theCusack Stand and then the contracts manager onthe Canal End and the Hogan Stand side. He re-mained with the project until it was finally com-pleted in 2002.

“It was hugely difficult trying to understandthe drawings and what you were trying toachieve. The scale and quality of the buildingwas unknown in those times,” he says.

“It looks fantastic now, but can you imaginewhat it was like back in 1991 when we first sawthe drawings? It was unbelievable, but therewere huge architectural and huge engineeringissues to be dealt with.”

The challenges were manifold. There weresevere restrictions on site as the pitch remainedsacrosanct throughout the construction and itwas both a building site and a working stadium,necessitating a complicated handover everyweekend. The most difficult part of the engineer-ing project was putting on the 40-metre canti-levered roof structure that surrounds the threeends of the ground.

Croke Park’s location near Dublin Bay posedmore problems, as the sea air can corrode thesteel girders used to uphold the massiveconcrete structures and Sisk had to meet thehighest-quality standards in relation to thefinished concrete product.



Field ofdreamsThe redevelopment of CrokePark, an icon of Ireland’s boomyears, and the prestige of theproject – more than themonetary gain – boosted Sisk’sposition at the fore of theconstruction industry

SISK AT 150 CROKE PARKWORDSBY RONANMcGREEVY


The old Cusack Stand was the first to be demol-ished, a process which took around three monthsand proved more difficult than envisaged. “TheCusack Stand was in ropy condition, but it washard enough to knock at the same time,” recallsSisk director Jim Touhy, who worked on theearly part of the project.

“There were asbestos sheets on the roof andthere were issues with dust control and noisecontrol and the residents were watching us tomake sure that we kept to the stated hours,which were between 8am and 6pm.

“Those restrictions are on many sites, but theresidents were fighting with the GAA at the timeand they hadn’t them on side, so we had to workwith them the best we could.”

Workers on the Cusack Stand had the advan-tage of having the old Belvedere grounds to usefor site management, something that was notavailable on the other parts of the stadium thatwere redeveloped.

But there were many challenges with match-day handovers and the co-ordination of services,such as light and drainage, took longer than ex-pected.

The new Cusack Stand was finally opened intime for the National Football League final be-tween Derry and Donegal in 1995 at a cost ofIR£70 million. It was 180m long, 35m wide andseated 25,000 people.

The next phase of the development, at theCanal End, proved the most difficult of all.

Unlike the Cusack Stand, where there wasample access on site, the Canal End washemmed in by the canal and the railway line thatstraddles it. Access could only be attained fromthe rear as there was no access from the pitcharea.

In order to build the new Canal End, Siskbrought in what was the biggest crane in Irelandat the time. It had a 70m-long jib and a liftingcapacity of more than 20 tonnes. The length ofthe crane was necessary to move materials to thefront of the stand.

The Canal End, now known as the DavinStand – after the first president of the GAAMaurice Davin – was finally completed in timefor the All-Ireland finals in 2000.

The Hogan Stand was taken down in October1999. By that time, Sisk was a veteran of the proc-ess and the stand’s construction proved straight-forward, despite the fact that it was the biggestsection, thanks to its extended media facilities,restaurants and VIP area.

However, it was not without its difficulties.The Hogan Stand was built at the height of theboom and the demand for construction workerswas at a premium at a time when there were feweastern European workers in Ireland to fill theskills gaps.

At one stage, when Sisk was building theheavy concrete frame, the company was down100 workers on the complement it needed.

There were also severe shortages of plywood,which had to be pre-ordered from Canada.

“There was a massive shortage of skilledlabour in regards to the heavy construction work-ers. It was a different world we lived in backthen,” recalls regional director Ken Aherne.

“The Celtic Tiger started, in my mind, the yearafter Croke Park but in general we benefitedhugely from it.”

The new horseshoe structure was finally com-pleted in 2002, with the relatively straightfor-ward redevelopment of the Hill 16 area. In total,the stadium cost ¤260 million, has a capacity of82,300, and is now the third-biggest sportingvenue in Europe, after Barcelona’s Nou Campand Wembley Stadium in London. It is also oneof the State’s biggest conference centres and amajor concert venue.

Not only is Sisk the main contractor on theLansdowne Road redevelopment, with many ofthe same personnel involved in it, but the compa-ny is also pricing a job to redevelop a new nation-al stadium in Warsaw, to be built in time for theEuropean Championships in 2012.

“We have developed a reputation for beingable to deliver on new stadia,” Aherne says.

Of all the billions of euro worth of develop-ment carried out during the Celtic Tiger years,no one project is as well-known or as admired asCroke Park.

“It is the most difficult project I’ve ever done.It would rank as one of the most difficult thatSisk has done in 150 years, yet it is probably theone we are most recognised for,” says Aherne.

“It was beyond state-of-the-art for the time.The major benefit for the company is the pres-tige in having it built. That goodwill catapultedthe firm forward in the Celtic Tiger years. Whenyou have nights like the opening of the Special Ol-ympics and the 125th anniversary celebrationsfor the GAA, you can’t help but be proud of whatwas achieved.”

ABOVE: Croke Park beforeits redevelopment began in1993. Back then thestadium had a capacity ofaround 70,000; today it canhold 82,300 people

PREVIOUS PAGE: CrokePark during last month’sfireworks and laser lightdisplay to mark the GAA’s125th anniversarycelebrationsPhotograph: Matt Kavanagh

“Wehavedevelopedareputation for beingable

todeliver onnewstadia. It is themostdifficult project I’ve everdone. Itwould rankasoneof themostdifficult that Siskhasdonein 150years, yet it is probably theonewearemost recognised for


SISK AT 150 CROKE PARK

THE STORY of Cork’s evolvinglandscape from the 19th to 21stcenturies is intrinsically linkedwith the story of the Sisk familyduring the same period.

While the family name origi-nates in either Holland orGermany, the first mention of a

Sisk in Ireland appeared on the lease of a Corkhouse, signed by one Thomas Shisk in 1687.

By the time John Sisk was born in 1837, thefamily was well rooted in the area. John foundedthe business in Cork city in 1859 and the secondJohn Sisk – the “son” in Sisk & Son – worked tobuild on the foundations laid by his father.

The company became a well-known generalcontractor, operating throughout Munster. Johnexpanded the company significantly with one ofthe company’s earliest projects in Cork, whichincluded the first building of the Cork DistilleryCompany on Morrison’s Island in 1868.

Later work included convents, churches, hous-es, hospitals, as well as the offices of the thenCork Examiner. In the early years, the companyworked on many significant banks and churches,and by the late 1800s had increased its activitiesin conservation and additions to existing church-es – including the spire of Holy Trinity church in1890 and the rebuilding of St Luke’s in 1892.

The third John Sisk also significantly grew thecompany on a national and international scale.After graduating as a civil engineer, he joined hisfather on the building of Cork City Hall in 1930.

The building, designed by Dublin architectsJones & Kelly, was traditional in style, with muchof the stone façade quarried in nearby LittleIsland. From there, it was delivered via an elec-tric crane. Despite its classical front, the buildinghad modern touches, including comprehensivefire-resistant measures. Given that the previousCity Hall was burned down during the War of In-dependence, the Sisks were not taking any risks.

Later, John G Sisk (grandson of the company’sfounder) and his son George would both study en-gineering at University College Cork, beginninga long tradition of graduates employed by thefamily business.

The Honan Chapel on the grounds of that col-lege is one of Sisk’s most important architecturallegacies to the city. Paid for by a Honan family be-quest, the building was started in 1914 in theHiberno-Romanesque style. The aestheticgrounding is a particular 12th-century Irish one,while borrowing heavily from the Romanesquemovement. The building also carries its own min-iature Irish round tower at one end.

John Sisk & Son also created some of the furni-ture in the chapel, including oak work, carvingsand a Celtic cross. The company built the pewsand an oak lectern.

In recent times, as well as continuing conserva-tion efforts, Sisk has been involved with somemore progressive and modern additions to Corkcity. Liam Walsh, Sisk regional director for the

“Thecompanyhas a longhistorywith the region,

fromtheHonanChapel to theIndustrial School inClonakilty –withevery projectwe takeon,we’re awareof that heritage

Rebel, rebelFrom the origins of the Sisk family in Cork to themost recent additions tothe city’s built landscape, Sisk and the Rebel County go back a longway36 | THE IRISH TIMES Sisk at 150 | March 13, 2009

WORDSBY BRIAN O’CONNELL

SISK AT 150 CORK CONNECTION

southern region, started as a site engineer withthe company in Cork in 1969. He has witnessed,first-hand, the evolution of city and company.

“From a construction point of view, in the late1960s, the city and the surrounding area werevastly different to what they look like now,” saysWalsh. “The suburbs weren’t as well developedand the large industrial areas like Ringaskiddyand Little Island were in their infancy. To mymind, the first big job of that era would havebeen the Regional Hospital, now known as CorkUniversity Hospital. The company has such along history with the region, from the HonanChapel to the Industrial School in Clonakilty,that with every project we take on, we’re awareof that built heritage.”

Craftsmanship has also been at the fore of thecompany’s approach. “Well before 1969, therewas a great tradition of work in churches, with aparticular emphasis on stone work,” says Walsh.“The Sisk family had a great interest in the use ofnatural stone. It’s no coincidence that the greatCork sculptor Seamus Murphy worked for Siskin Cork at one point.”

A recent project that required a high degree ofcraftsmanship was the now iconic Cork School ofMusic, built to a Murray Ó Laoire Architects de-sign. The challenge was to create an acousticallysound and architecturally striking building in theheart of the city with a world-class performancespace. The building has gained wide recognitionfor both its high-spec interior and quality build.

In recent decades, the growth of the pharma-ceutical industry in Cork has provided Sisk withthe opportunity to work with international com-panies such as Pfizer, Novartis and GlaxoSmithK-line to build and develop some of the region’smost important industrial infrastructure.

Says Liam Walsh: “From a management andsafety point of view, working with the pharma-ceutical industry over several decades reallybrought up the standards and quality in all sec-tors of our operation. But we are continuing toevolve. At most times we would have a prestig-ious building in progress, or one of great local in-terest, which is a mark of our commitment notjust to the region, but to continuing our proudtradition for quality building.”

ONSITE ORIGOJOHN EGAN, senior businessdevelopment manager atOrigo has worked at thecompany for 14 years. Origois the distributor of the Boschbrand in Ireland and employsaround 85 people here.Egan’s job entails liaising

with electrical retailers, bigand small, throughout thecountry. “My role haschanged and developed overthe years,” says Egan.“Traditionally, we were aniche brand, but now we arefocused on growing along-term sustainablepartnership with customers.

“This is going to be adifficult year, but we willemphasise the quality,reliability and energyefficiency of Bosch products.In addition, we have areputation for supporting ourclients, and they will beasking themselves if otherbrands and suppliers canmatch that.“It's hugely important to

keep focus on the direction ofthe business – this is how wesee the businessdeveloping.”Egan enjoys the diversity

of his job: “It varies all thetime and I’m always dealingwith different people at

different levels. One day itcould be the managing

director of Power City; thenext it could be the owner ofan independent retailer suchas Knowles Electrical inDún Laoghaire. We could becarrying out in-storedemonstrations, focusing onhelping customers to growand add value to theirbusiness, or organising a newproduct launch – we’ll haveone of these in a few weekstime.“All in all, you don’t stay

somewhere for 14 yearsunless you are happy withwhat you are doing,” heconcludes.

Clockwise from above left:theHoly Trinity Church inCork, Honan’s Chapel in Cork,Cork CountyHall andCentocor in Ringaskiddy, aflagship project for Sisk thatwas completed in 2007 onemonth of ahead of schedulefor¤159millionLeft:Cork School ofMusic


John Egan (left) with Wally Knowles of Knowles Electrical


JOHN V’S son was born in Cork in1911, and went to school inClongowes Wood College, CoKildare, before studying

engineering at University College Cork(UCC). He joined the family firm at 20 asan apprentice engineer.

When the economy hit hard times in the1930s, he decided to open an office inDublin and move to the capital with MaryMagdalen, whom he married at the age of26. They had four children: Hope, George,Hal and John. The couple visited Corkoften though, and John G would often callinto the Cork office and chat with TommyO’Connell, an estimator based there, whosays: “He was a very shrewd man whoknew how to pick a good team and hewould then look after them.”

John G would often be quoted praisinghis staff. Of one Herbert Dennis he said:“It was due to his untiring efforts that theKildare Street job was a completesuccess.” His sense of decency extended tocharitable works and he instigated theChristmas toy-making tradition at thecompany’s timber workshop, in which theworkers would stop work and make toysfor various charities – something thatcontinues today.

Yet he was a canny businessman and anoptimist who, like his father, would pitchfor jobs that were considered unlikelyprospects, such as Cavan Cathedral in1938. “We had priced the job as a forlornhope. My father had had a row with RalphByrne, the architect, over a job in Mallow,and Byrne told him he would never givehim a job.” So he was surprised when thearchitect called him to his office and said:”I told your father your firm would neverwork for me but I am told you know yourjob, and I am prepared to trust you.”

John G’s canniness extended to makingjobs run smoothly – he once paid a stationworker to shunt a train carrying marblecolumns for Cavan Cathedral over theBorder from Northern Ireland on the daybefore Italy joined the war (after which themarble would have been seized). Later,during the war, when coal was scarce,John G devised a method of mixing coalduff (tiny pieces of coal) and pitch (solidpetroleum) briquettes to fuel CIE trains.

He took the business into new areas,such as establishing the dealership forBosch products in Ireland.

John G paid close attention to hisprojects. At Cavan, he said: “I visited thejob twice a week and left the house [inDublin] at 6am, visited the job and was

back in the Phoenix Park at 1pm eating mysandwiches and then on to the office toestimate until 6pm.”

John G died in 2001 at the age of 90.While he had retained a close interest inthe company in his latter years, he handedit over to the next generation in 1974.

What was remarkable about John G wasthat he built up the business despite beinga shy man, says his son, Hal. “My fatherwas the least clubbable man you couldimagine. He dreaded and hated standingat a bar buying rounds. He was alwayshome in the evening, listening to the radioand sketching. For a man like that toestablish one of the largest companies inIreland was astonishing. It shows how youcan turn a weakness into a strength.”

FamilyFocusJohn G Sisk



stroke

THE SISK group – along with oth-ers in the construction industry– benefited from and capitalisedon the property boom. But toavoid focusing too much on onearea, Sisk expanded and diversi-fied the company interests.

“The family would have recog-nised in 2004, and even before that, that whilethe construction sector in Ireland was very suc-cessful, it was disproportionate in terms of the lev-el of GDP [gross domestic product] it was contrib-uting to the economy,” says Liam Nagle, chief ex-ecutive of the Sisk Group. “The family decided touse the good times to diversify and expand.”

It immediately looked to the rapidly growing ar-ea of healthcare. “We chose healthcare becauseit’s a growth sector. It’s a very dynamic area butequally, as we are getting more successful, thereis a desire for better care and we felt it was a goodsector for us to participate in,” says Nagle.

In less than 18 months, Sisk acquired five medi-cal-device companies, launching Sisk Healthcare.The first acquisition was M.E.D. Surgical inMarch 2006. Cardiac Services came next, fol-lowed by Tekno Surgical in January 2007.

Beaver Medical was acquired shortly after-wards and subsequently integrated into CardiacServices. The fifth and most recent acquisitionwas Synapse Medical in July 2007.

The family ethos of the Sisk Group was an ad-vantage when it came to making the acquisitions,says Nagle. “We have a strong sense of being afamily business and that made the acquisitionseasier – for them as well as for us.”

In addition, and in marked contrast to theircompetitors, Sisk Group has continued to retainthe companies’ original brands.

“We took a soft approach to the integration,with each company continuing to exist and re-tain its name and identity. We believe this is fair-ly unique,” says Nagle.

Since joining Sisk, Cardiac Services has beenable to grow its business “significantly”, saysPaul Hannigan, managing director.

“Beaver Medical was acquired, effectively dou-bling the size of our UK business and our key sup-pliers, such as Philips Healthcare, Laerdal andKeymed Olympus, which has given us access toadditional product lines,” he says. The compa-ny’s top products now include defibrillators, en-doscopes, and obstetric equipment and supplies.

“We are also very excited about the increased

focus on clinical information systems in the hos-pital sector. We expect this to be a major growtharea given the focus on stopping the ‘paperchase’ within hospitals,” explains Hannigan.

M.E.D.Surgical works with well-known namessuch as Boston Scientific, Rusch and Kimberly-Clark, dealing in laparoscopic and urological sur-gical equipment. Colin Dolan, managing directorof M.E.D. Surgical, says the company has devel-oped a “bigger and better” profile since becom-ing part of Sisk Healthcare.

“Sisk is a well-known family company – to beaffiliated with it, that has to be good,” he says.

John Osborne, joint managing director of Te-kno Surgical, explains there are “natural syner-gies” between Tekno Surgical and the SiskGroup. “The fact that we are part of a biggergroup now gives us more scope for developingfurther as a total healthcare-solution provider –the sum of the whole is greater than the constitu-ent parts.”

Tekno Surgical focuses on three key areas, ofwhich orthopaedics is the largest. It also has sig-nificant interests in the areas of aesthetic andgeneral surgery, explains Osborne. One of its cur-rent projects has staff working on the provision

A Stryker IntegratedTheatre Suite, which isprovided by Tekno Surgical,within the Sisk Group

“Wetookasoft approachto the integration,with

eachcompanycontinuing toexist and retain its nameandidentity. . .Webelieve that this isfairly unique

WORDSBY DANIELLE BARRON

SISK AT 150 HEALTHCARE

Sisk Healthcare marks anew departure for thegroup but one that isdelivering many benefits


Healthmatters

ONSITE TEKNO SURGICAL

of a new technique known as balloon sinuplasty,a non-invasive procedure for the treatment of si-nus disease.

“That is a very exciting area and we see it de-veloping into quite a significant business, withtremendous patient benefits,” says Osborne.

Managing director of Synapse Medical, WillieCostello says that, while there were several at-tractive features of the offer made by Sisk, theywere convinced by the similarities in core valuesbetween the two companies.

“Their proposition was very attractive because

it allowed us to maintain ourselves as a familybusiness, but with the Sisk powerhouse behindus,” says Costello, adding that Synapse now rep-resents 15 different healthcare principals, includ-ing pharmaceutical giant Abbott.

Costello adds that, in negotiations, Synapsewas assured it would be allowed continue in itsentrepreneurial fashion. “They didn’t come inwith a ‘rank and file’ attitude,” he says.

According to Hannigan, the companies sharethe common objective of maximising growth intheir respective areas of expertise.

“We are all aiming to identify and operate ingrowth markets, to maximise our existing suppli-er base and ultimately deliver excellent solutionsfor our customers. As a result the interaction be-tween the companies is very stimulating and re-warding,” he says. “We have a great working rela-tionship with the three other companies and wewould have known each other in the business formany years. Now we work incredibly well togeth-

er.” Dolan says the four companies “comple-ment” each other. “We are not in competition –we are part of a team. Learning about their busi-nesses helps us.”

Despite the economic downturn, the securityof being part of a large, successful group such asSisk means that the four companies all remainoptimistic about their future. “We are very confi-dent that the rapid growth of the company willcontinue and flourish under the Sisk umbrella,”says Hannigan.

According to Nagle, the foray into healthcarehappened at just the right time for the SiskGroup. “Our construction company is very suc-cessful and even in these strange times it contin-ues to be. But, from an overall group point ofview, we are more balanced.”

SISK IS well known as aconstruction company, butthe company’s diversity andstrength lies in a range ofareas, including healthcare.In 2007, it expanded toacquire Tekno Surgical,which distributes specialistmedical products.Now, Sisk has been

contracted to build the newMater Hospital in Dublin.According to BrendanMurray, marketing directorof orthopaedics at TeknoSurgical (pictured right),this is a terrific opportunityfor Sisk.

Murray has worked withTekno for three years. Hetrained as a general andpsychiatric nurse, joining thecommercial side in 1991 andworking with a number ofmedical companies.As marketing director,

Murray’s role is wide andvaried. “I focus on businessdevelopment and newopportunities,” he explains.“I communicate withcustomers, staff and theagencies we represent inIreland. I have educationalresponsibilities for bothcustomers and staff. A

portion of my time is spent inthe office, but spending timein the theatres with ourcustomers is much moreimportant, and it’s what Ienjoy most.”Tekno Surgical has a

number of projects in thepipeline. “We are indiscussions with a number ofhospitals regarding offeringcomplete theatre suites, inother words a ‘turn key’solution for completeoperating theatres, whilemaintaining competitivenessand high standards in theday-to-day orthopaedic

implant business is anongoing project.”Murray is confident that

being part of the SiskHealthcare group will help

the firm through the currentdifficult economic situation.“The future is certainly a

challenge for us, but one thatwe relish.”

Sisk has stepped beyond itstraditional business andnow owns companies thathave a long history in thehealthcare industry: anante-natal foetal monitoringdevice (above right)

“Weareall aiming toidentify andoperate in

growthmarkets, tomaximiseour existing supplier baseandultimately deliver excellentsolutions for our customers




GEORGE SISK was one of fourchildren born to John G andMolly Sisk. He began hisschooling in Dublin and

completed his education at UniversityCollege Cork, where he studiedengineering as his father had donebefore him

“I was told that I would become anengineer by my father and I had noobjection to that,” says George. “Civilengineering is one of the better waysinto the building trade as it is a directprofessional training for construction.”Not only does it help you in knowinghow buildings are put together but also“in how you think methodically”.

He has known the building trade froman early age: “My father didn’t stopworking and at the weekends he wouldtake us out to visit projects such asBlanchardstown Hospital, which was avery big job when I was a boy.”

From that time he was destined tojoin John Sisk & Son: “I always wantedto go into the family business. It was ano-brainer, it is in the genes.”

His early career at Sisk was spent inAfrica, after which he worked in theCork office, moving to the city with hisnew wife Anne. He rose to the positionof managing director and then, shortlyafter the birth of his children he movedto the Dublin office.

His father handed control of thecompany to his three sons in 1974and George was to become chairman ofthe Sisk Group. He talks of changingtack from “building buildings to buildinga business”.

George inherited his father’s nous forbusiness, being comfortable with

decisions to diversify into new countries(such as the UK, Germany and Africa)or into new business areas (such ashealthcare) when the need arose.

“When a company gets to a certainsize, market share becomes a limitingfactor and so you have to seek newmarkets.

“We spent time building in Europeand building with our closest neighbour,which we still do.”

Having spent more than 40 years inthe business, he can see clearly how

government policy has an effect on thebuilding trade.

“At different times we hadgovernments that led very well and wecould follow the lead of thosegovernments – whether that be on thedevelopment infrastructure, hospitalbuildings and following through to theIDA’s [Industrial Development Agency]foreign investment thrust.”

Colleagues describe George as a deepthinker whose management style putsthe group and company first but in away that is consistent with a familybusiness and the Sisk family ethos. Hemanaged the business with his brothersin a partnership model, always trying toachieve consensus but, if needed, wasnot afraid to make the right decision, asthe leader of his generation of thefamily.

His vision for the business has alwaysbeen focused on growing anddeveloping capabilities but in aconservative and controlled way.

He is described as a competitive man,whether in business or personalactivities (he loves rugby and sailing),and yet in his dealings with people(clients, employees and otherstakeholders) he is always fair, fullof integrity and strives to have atrusting relationship, just as hisforebears did. His stills plays an activerole and says the decades have flown by.“It doesn’t seem that long. I’ve enjoyedit – oh yes, I’ve enjoyed it and I continueto wake in the morning with ambitions.

“We have got this far and want to go ahell of a lot further,” he says, displayinga tenacity that was passed on by hisforebears.


FamilyFocusGeorge Sisk

FEW PEOPLE get to work on cas-tles one day and cathedrals thenext. For Alan McGrath, whoheads up Conservation and Resto-ration at Sisk, the variety onlyadds to what is already a labour oflove.

Conservation and Restorationis the recognised trading name under whichStone Developments, a part of the Sisk Group,helps restore old buildings to their former glory.“Generally we do facade restoration – focusingon the outside of buildings – and roof work onany period or listed building, from castles to ca-thedrals and everything in between,” says Mc-Grath, a quantity surveyor by training who hasworked around the world with the Sisk Group.

He is currently working on the restoration ofthe Church of the Assumption in Callan, Co Kil-kenny. “The support structures beneath thespire were found to be unstable. We had to takethe spire down, stone by stone, mark them,provide a new underpinning and build it up,again stone by stone,” says McGrath.

His most high-profile job was the refurbish-ment of the 14th-century Minot Tower and spireof St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, using whatwas, at 250 feet, the highest scaffold in the citylast year. McGrath had to repair previous workthat was carried out badly.

“Throughout the 1960s and 1970s repointingof stone buildings was routinely done using sandand cement,” says McGrath. “Cement wasthought to be good for old buildings but whatthey didn’t realise is that it actually damages thestone, not allowing it to breathe, and over timeeroding it.”

For St Patrick’s, this meant replacing sandand cement mortar with a breathable lime-basedmortar. “By doing that you stop the stonedeteriorating further, particularly Caen stone, abeige stone commonly found in old buildings

For Alan McGrath, the man behind Sisk’srestoration projects, every day is different,and every job unique

Stonemad

“Peoplenow

realisewehaveabuilt heritage thatweneed toprotect, and therearea lot ofheritagegrantsand fundingavailable as aresult


WORDSBY SANDRAO’CONNELL

SISK AT 150 RESTORATION

which is quite soft,” he says.The firm also recently rebuilt the Browne Clay-

ton Memorial, a 94-foot Corinthian column inWexford. “It is a beautiful and unique granitecolumn built to honour a local man who was anofficer in the British army and who fought andwas killed in battle in Egypt,” said McGrath.

“In his lifetime he had been very good to thelocals and so they built him this memorial. But itwas struck by lightning and a large section of itwas knocked out some years ago. We werebrought in for the rebuilding phase, whichmeant carving all the old features on the stone tomatch what was there.”

There is an enormous craft element to what thefirm does. “Much of our work is matching whatwas originally used,” says McGrath. “To achievethat we have our own stone masons in Stone De-velopment, as well as specialists we can hire infrom abroad, who work on the often incredibly de-tailed and intricate carvings involved.”

A personal favourite of his is the recent resto-ration of the original facade of the Ulster Bankon O’Connell Street in Dublin. “On that job wegot rid of a mid-1970s facade and got it back tothe way it was built in the 1920s. It’s right besidethe bridge and well worth seeing because it looksfantastic,” he says.

Stone has also become a more commonmaterial in new builds, he says. “Improvedtransport and logistics means we are now able to

source stone from around the worldeconomically. It is a much more viable option forclients than it was in the recent past and thequality of buildings built in Ireland has improvedin the past 20 years,” says McGrath. “I believethey will stand the test of time alongside thebuildings we in Conservation and Restorationwork on.”

In the meantime, he says conservation hasbecome an important issue in Ireland, albeit onlyrecently. “People now realise we have a built

heritage that we need to protect, and there are alot of heritage grants and funding available as aresult,” he says.

Every local authority in the country now has aconservation officer, a good indicator of theimportance placed on the subject, he says.“Some of what happened to buildings in the1970s – in terms of demolition or newfacades – simply wouldn’t be allowed now andthat’s a good thing.”

Ireland still lags behind other countries interms of the importance we place on our oldbuildings. “There are many more heritage build-ings in the UK, for example, because its NationalTrust has placed such a huge emphasis on pro-tecting its built heritage for so long. And ofcourse as a nation they have a greater stock ofbuildings and more money for preserving them,”he says.

The lack of value Ireland placed on its heritagefor so long may have been a post-colonial hang-over. “Possibly we didn’t think of such buildingsas ours, but somebody else’s. As a nation, wewere immature in that respect.”

Others were lost simply through negligence,and a significant number remain at risk, he says.“I know of old military barracks, for example,that are being left to disintegrate. If not add-ressed they will go beyond the point of repair.”


Rescuing great buildingsJohn Cotter, who began working inthe stone business in 1955, workedon a number of conservation andrestoration projects with StoneDevelopments over the years.Now aged 72 and still offering his

services to the firm as a consultant,he cites Carton House, just west ofDublin, as his particular favourite.“I always feel I’ve been extremely

lucky to have worked on so manybuildings connected with history andCarton House is a very importantbuilding,” says Cotter.“It’s a source of great pride to me

to think that there’s a little bit of meleft in it.”

Despite his love of history, the factthat stately homes such as CartonHouse have been reincarnated ashotels rather than kept as museumpieces is something of which heapproves.“The purists say stately houses

should be left in mothballs, and thatgolf-course developments and thelike shouldn’t happen, but I don’tagree. Too many great buildingswere left derelict. It took people withmoney to put life back into them.“In 20 years the golf course may

be gone, but the house will havesurvived where perhaps it wouldn’thave otherwise.”

ABOVE: at work on therestoration of St Patrick’sCathedral (also left) inDublin. Photographs:Warner Photography


ONSITE STONE DEVELOPMENTSIN 1986, Tommy Roe joinedStone Developments forwork experience. He hasn’tlooked back, moving swiftlyfrom design technician todesign manager, generalmanager, and nowestimating manager.“When I started, Stone

Developments was workingon the restoration of theCustoms House,” he says.“Today, a separate wing ofthe company carries out thisconservation and restoration.Alongside that, we have hadcontracts such as theornamental façade on

Leinster House, around nineyears ago. This was anornate façade with classicalcolumns.”Roe’s position involves

producing estimates,tendering for projects andnegotiating contracts. Anin-house design office workswith the architects anddevelops the designs a stepfurther. The team hasspecialisation and expertisein stone-work.From 1993 to 1998, Roe

lived and worked inZimbabwe, overseeing majoroperations there, with design

and contracts among hisresponsibilities. StoneDevelopments is currentlyinvolved in the developmentof cladding at Heuston SouthQuarter, a mixed-usedevelopment.The company is not

immune to the recession.But, as Roe points out, it hasweathered many economicstorms since its inception inthe 1950s. Last year, therewere about 220 people onsite. Now, there are abouthalf that amount. “We’ve agood ethos in this companyand it’s helped us through

tough times before; there isnever a need to compromiseon quality or anything else,

and the job must be donecorrectly. On a good deal,everybody wins.”


On a more positive note, the firm is currentlyworking for a private individual restoring a cas-tle in Westmeath that had only parts of its exteri-or walls standing. Now one half of it at least ishabitable. In that job, the key for McGrath isworking as closely as possible to the methodsoriginally used. “We go out of our way to usestone that matches that which was there original-ly. Very often the actual quarry used has beenclosed down but we have staff who can tell justfrom looking at a stone where it was quarriedand where a similar stone is most likely to besourced now.”

He is a connoisseur of stone, his favourite be-ing the Portland stone so prevalent in Dublin.“Very many Dublin buildings, such as City Hall,are made of Portland stone. It comes from theUK and was originally used as ships’ ballast andwas just left sitting on the docksides until peoplecame up with a better use for it,” says McGrath.

A significant part of his work is cleaning upsuch buildings as they become sullied by pollu-tion. “Carbon deposits from car fumes eat intostone. Cleaning always destroys the stone a littlebut it looks better and stops further erosion,” heexplains. “The introduction of smokeless coalhelped buildings enormously in this respect.”

In the meantime, there’s plenty of other resto-ration work to be getting on with. But for Mc-Grath, few projects will match his time spent atthe top of St Patrick’s Cathedral spire. “Every jobis different and unique, and that’s what makes itsuch great work generally,” says McGrath. “Butthe view from up there was simply spectacular.”


Conservation and Restoration is atrading name of the restorationdivision of Stone Developments, aSisk Group firm. The company, runby managing director Phil Meaney,has its own quarries and suppliesIrish blue limestone to the domesticand overseas markets. It also runs acontracting side, supplying Irishbuilders with Irish and importedmaterials. The company is currentlylooking to open up markets in the USand Middle East.

Conservation and restorationwork is the third-largest element ofits business, but one in whichMeaney takes great pride. “We haveworked on some of the landmarkbuildings of Irish life, such as StPatrick’s Cathedral,” he says. “Asmuch of this work depends on theavailability of State aid and funding,the immediate future will present achallenge, but our plan is to growthe restoration side of the businesssignificantly over the coming years.”

The recently rebuilt BrowneClayton Memorial inWexford (right) and the94-foot Corinthian columnas it was before restoration(left). Photographs: DonalMurphy Photography

SISK AT 150 RESTORATION

Company profile

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150 Year SISK - The Irish Times Special Report