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AT COUNTY WICKLOW company Copperfish, founder Eoin Shanley designs and makes lamps, lights and furniture out of salvaged and storm-fallen timber sourced from ancient churches, disused railway sleepers and even the Belfast and Dublin docks. Here Eoin speaks to Ruth O’Connor about creating one of a kind pieces that combine history and heritage with modern tastes.
What inspired you to start your business? Tell us more about yourself.
Myself and my wife restored a 200 year old thatch cottage in Leitrim. We kept as much to tradition as we could. We laid mud floors, cob walls and a modern timber frame extension made with cedar cladding and hemp insulation. We tried to re use as much as possible from the site itself.
I started making lighting from the old copper pipes and roof beams. Friends asked me to make one for them, Kilkenny Design started to stock them and the business began from there. It has been a very organic growth, we now ship worldwide, but we still insist on keeping those sustainable principles and traditional skills in everything we make.
What have you learned so far in business?
One foot in front of the other and always trust your creative instinct.
What has been the most challenging time for you in business?
As a small business that falls between art and traditional handmade craft, I was always used to working alone. Copperfish has expanded to 2 full time and 3 part time staff, which is fantastic but takes a little adjustment. I’m rapidly becoming a grown up with vat returns, pay slips, workshop rates etc, but wouldn’t change a thing.
What sets your products apart from other home/ interiors items in the Irish market?
We don’t really pay a lot of attention to what others are doing, we tend to do our own thing. I suspect we’re the only people mad enough to work with some of the ancient timbers we work with, it can be extremely challenging, but always worth it, you can’t fake history.
We also design our own lightbulbs and our furniture is a bit different due to the timber’s age and our traditional way of making. I haven’t seen much like it out there.
How has the Irish consumer responded to what you do?
The Irish consumer has been very kind to Copperfish, they get what we do and love the stories and the history. We make lighting and furniture that should last generations, I think people appreciate that, particularly in these disposable times.
Where do you look for inspiration?
I go fishing in the wilds of Donegal with Lou Reed, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen and Radiohead in the headphones. That’s all I need, I come back full of ideas.
Describe your workspace.
To the untrained eye the downstairs looks like a right mess, but we know where everything is. It’s awash with huge timbers and the centuries old machinery we need to cut it. We have a showroom upstairs where people come to buy or design their lighting and furniture. That’s much more presentable.
Describe a typical working day.
I drop the kids to school and go straight to the workshop. Pete and I generally know what needs to be done in advance, so we generally just start making. We’re a good team and luckily work very well together. He’s also extremely skilled with his hands, and can make anything.
We hand make everything to order, slowly. Copperfish is a true craft business. We make contemporary lighting and furniture by hand in a very traditional way.
There’s generally emails to reply to and people dropping out to the showroom. I also spend time calling to clients to design on site. Generally no two days are ever the same.
How important is collaboration to what you do?
I would like to do more, I keep meaning to, but something always seems to get in the way or we get too busy.
If you weren’t doing this what would you be doing?
I trained as an actor and was a musician for many years, so would probably end up back there somewhere. Hopefully it won’t come to that, I’m way too old to be travelling through the night in the back of a van!
What has been your proudest moment/ favourite project so far?
I’m proud of everything we have produced, we do it because we love making. We did a project recently for Copper’s Cross buildings in Dublin’s docklands. We made a range of lighting as well as a 6m x 3m planter from Dublin Port bollards timbers, salvaged from within walking distance of the building itself. They were the greenheart timbers laid in the river Liffey for ships to dock against in the 18th and 9th Century. This project represents a whole new level of circularity and one we are very proud of.
What’s next for you and your work in 2025?
We are making more and more furniture and bespoke lighting all the time and I expect that will continue. We just need to keep finding beautiful old timber with a story.
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Follow Copperfish on social media on Instagram.
Website: copperfish.ie
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