Mooney Boats was founded in 1980 and now the firm is the largest ship building and restoration company in the North West of Ireland. You probably know at least one or two of the vessels they’ve worked on, including the Celtic Voyager and the Doolin and Rathlin Ferries.

Initially the company started with just four member of staff and now employs sixty people, which makes it a crucial part of its local community in Killybegs. Throughout it’s nearly 40 year history one of its stand-out points has been the company’s ability to diversity. In fact it also has an on-line store, which is unusual for a ship building company. Another words, this is a company that sees opportunity everywhere.

Kieran O’Leary from the company says “We are always on the lookout to add the latest skills to the company and our workforce, we recently embarked on InterTradeIreland’s FUSION project to integrate 3D CAD design and more management skills into the company. We also run apprenticeship programs in Metal Fabrication, Electrical and M.A.M.F (Mechanical Automation and Maintenance Fitting) where we have 10 apprentices onboard. Full time staff also complete various pieces of training throughout the year keeping their qualifications up to date.”

One particular turning point for the business was building the MFV Patrick C in 2014 – the first 24m fishing vessel that the company had completed in house. Taking on that challenge means that now, they have a new build of a similar size every year.

Mooney Boats is also not afraid to set strategic goals. Kieran says “It’s been one of our aims to gain more custom in the UK. It’s a very competitive market. We applied to InterTradeIreland’s Acumen programme and what that gave us, was time to focus on that market, as with Acumen’s support we hired a sales person. As a result we landed two large contracts and now have a footprint in that market.”

It's clear, that this is a company in ship-shape.

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