Renley staff reunion planned

A reunion of former staff members of Renley Engineering is being organised for June 14, in The Spout bar, writes Brian Byrne.

Things are planned to kick off from 6pm on the evening, and according to organiser Podge Byrne, there could be up to 60 people involved.

"It's open to anyone who worked at Renley for any length of time," he says. "I was only there in the later years, but there are people around who were there from the beginning."

Apart from swapping memories, there will be music and food on the night, and Podge is anxious that anyone who worked there and he doesn't have details for should contact him, care of The Spout.

Renley was set up by the late Gay Warren, who left his engineering job in Unidare Ltd in Finglas in 1970 to set up his own business.

With the help of Kilcullen Development Association, who supplied the building behind what is now the King Koil factory, Gay set up Renley Engineering with a start-up local workforce of 10 men. This was great news for Kilcullen, as at that time Renley was the one of the first industries in the town to employ men.

Renley Engineering Works manufactured lamp standards, transformer boxes, switch gear and other electrical items to supply under contract to the ESB. At one stage, Renley employed over 60 people.

Gay Warren died in November 2007. He had retired in 1993 at the early age of 55.

Renley's main operations base has been for many years in Walkinstown, Dublin. During the 90s the company tried to close the Kilcullen operation on the basis that there wasn't space for expansion. This caused local business interests to persuade Kildare County Council to buy land at Knockbounce for a new Business Park, which opened some years ago. Ironically, Renley decided subsequently not to move into the park.

(This article was first published on the Kilcullen page of the Kildare Nationalist.)