Leeann | February 19, 2018
Edward Duggan of Castleiney, Templemore, Co. Tipperary operated a building contracting / joinery business from circa 1880. In 1923 his sons William and James (grandfather of the current MD’s David & Seamus) who had been working with their father decided to set-up their own business and started trading as Duggan Brothers Building Contractors.
They purchased lands and set-up in Templemore on the site of the current head office where they developed a joinery, sawmills and other ancillary facilities on the site to help service their building materials needs for projects that they undertook. They operated as general buildings contractors providing a full service to meet their client’s needs. Being self-sufficient and with a good skilled local workforce they quickly evolved from small projects into building schools, church and various religious institutions, commercial and civil works in the surrounding towns and counties.
Involvement in Local Authority housing schemes in particular and also schools throughout the 1930’s reflected the strategy of the fledgling state. During these years hundreds of houses in schemes of 20 to 150 units were built by Duggan Brothers throughout Tipperary and the midlands.
During the war years, 1939 to 1945, to make up for the reduction in building work Duggan Brothers expanded its saw milling business as part of a joint venture supplying native timber as a substitute for imported timber. The situation improved by the late 1940’s and as a snapshot in time in the early 1950’s Duggan Brothers were building the National Board & Paper Mills in Waterford, the Christian Brothers Primary School in Thurles and the Convent of Mercy Primary School in Templemore among other projects.
In the 1960’s and 1970’s the company continued to grow with repeat clients and a growing reputation for quality and reliability and from this it expanded out to other areas of the country. In 1973 Duggan Brothers commenced working in Dublin and shortly thereafter opened its regional office in Dublin. Since then Duggan Brothers have had a continuous presence in Dublin with approximately half of its annual turnover being in that region.
With the reduction of private and public building works in the mid-1980’s Duggan Brothers focused more on a wide range of industrial work including food and meat processing plants and built these throughout the country. This lead the way into a focus on high-end industrial and pharmaceutical plants from the 1990’s onward.
Duggan Brothers prides itself on its experience across all sectors of the industry that it has built throughout its history upon which it has earned the reputation for high standards and a professional, hardworking approach.