Freedom of City of London granted to couple who founded Coffey Group
Image 1 of 3
The reception at the Guildhall in the City of London last Tuesday.Image 2 of 3
James and Teresa Coffey with Lord Mayor of the City of London, Nicholas Lyons.Image 3 of 3
James and Teresa Coffey with three of their children, Sinéad, Aishling and Jamie (their son Shane was away travelling on the day of the ceremony).A Whitehall native and his wife from Mullingar have been awarded the Freedom of the City of London. James Coffey, founder and chairman of the J Coffey Group, a construction firm based in London, and his wife Teresa, who grew up in Dominick Street, were honoured at a ceremony in the Guildhall last Tuesday.
James and Teresa left Ireland in 1988 due to the country’s depressed economy. He started the J Coffey Group in 1991, and it has grown into one of the top construction players in Greater London and the southeast of the UK, having won contracts for major works at Battersea Power Station, and in Ireland, the concrete, civil and groundworks package for Facebook’s data centre at Clonee.
Today, the firm employs around 1,200 people between Ireland and the UK.
In addition to their achievements in the world of construction, James and Teresa also do a lot of charity work.
Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner, James said that he and Teresa are delighted to be honoured by the Lord Mayor of the City of London, Nicholas Lyons.
“London has been good to us. We have spent most of our lives here and it’s home now.”
James and Teresa have four children – Sinéad, Jamie, Aisling and Shane – three of who work in the family business.
London is where the Coffeys call home, but the family still have a house in Ireland and have extensive business interests here, including the Castle Varagh Hotel in Castlepollard, which is celebrating its first anniversary this month.
The Freedom of the City of London isn’t the first honour bestowed to James in his adopted home city. Last November he was presented with a prestigious award by the British-Irish Trade Alliance (BITA) in the Mansion House.
The award, presented by the then Lord Mayor of London, Vincent Keaveney, a native of Dublin, and the director of the BITA, Vincent Dignam, was in recognition of Mr Coffey’s huge contribution to the construction industry in the London and southeast of England region in recent decades.