At a ceremony on Friday May 12th, John Green, Chairman of the Glasnevin Trust, was awarded France's highest honour by the French Ambassador, His Excellency Jean-Pierre Thébault. The award took place at the French Embassy in Dublin.
On May 12th, McKeon Stone was represented by James McKeon and Niall Kavanagh when Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, visited Glasnevin Cemetery as part of their four-day official visit to Ireland. At the cemetery, Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall visited the Cross of Sacrifice where they unveiled a new memorial to the four Irish soldiers who were awarded the Victoria Cross, Britain's highest award for gallantry, in 1917.
We were very pleased to see a strong showing from Irish firms at the recent Natural Stone Show, held at Excel in London's Docklands. This show takes place every two years, and is the only trade show which concentrates exclusively on natural stone, so it's an important event for our industry. Five of us from McKeon Stone spent a day at the show, where some of our Kilkenny Blue Limestone could be seen on the stand of our London distributor, the CED Stone Group. (That's our MD, Niall Kavanagh shaking hands with our machinery supplier Julio, of Benetti Machine, Carrara, Italy, on the CED stand.) One of our customers, McMonagle Stone from Donegal, had their own stand at the show.
McKeon Stone's Threecastles Quarry in Kilkenny was put to an unusual purpose recently when it became the backdrop for a fashion photo-shoot. The huge quarry, where Kilkenny Blue Limestone has been mined for over two hundred years, played host to photographers and models from Horseware Ireland, a company which produces fashionable outfits for riders as well as essential equipment for horses.
The outstanding quality of our Kilkenny Blue Limestone was acknowledged when it was chosen for an award-winning traditional chapel, recently built by architects Craig Hamilton in the south of England.
