Donegal Pens brothers Ronan and Conor Mc Garvey have broken into the European market with their handmade wooden pens following the screening of a documentary on the boys on the French-German ARTE TV network last night.
Filming for the documentary took place at their workshop in Loughanure last year and was part of a series of programmes on Ireland entitled ‘Ireland’s Coasts’. The boys featured in the section called ‘The Stormy Northwest’.
Within a short time of the programme airing in France and Germany orders and enquiries were pouring in via their www.donegalpens.com website with more than 50 orders confirmed within an hour.
The brothers have been keeping very busy in recent times particularly with the tourist season now in full swing and the school holidays are now allowing them more time in the workshop at the craft they love.
“The documentary was filmed nearly a year ago and we were still in the old workshop at that stage. The response has been huge and it opens up a new market for us. We were getting the occasional order from France and Germany but this has now really opened it up for us,” said Ronan.
Earlier this year the boys moved into a new workshop at Loughanure that was sponsored by the Expert Hardware company after they were refused any funding from Údarás na Gaeltachta and the Donegal Enterprise Board because they are both under 18 years.
“We’re keeping busy at the minute and trying a few new pen styles and hope to add some other products like letter openers, keyrings and stylus for ipads,” added Ronan.
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