As Denis O’Neill Electrical Services Ltd continues to go from strength to strength, so too does its sister company Beltane Fire Safety Systems which has enjoyed a very successful first four years in business.
Since its inception in 1998, Denis O’Neill Electrical Services has set the standard in electrical contracting, successfully delivering a vast array of projects across a wide range of sectors – including education, healthcare, sport and recreation, pharmaceutical and retail – throughout Cork.
With a crew of 40 experienced, qualified, motivated specialists on site alongside five administration staff who are based at the company’s Northpoint Business Park headquarters, Denis O’Neill Electrical Services is as busy and sought-after today as ever it’s been, providing a range of electrical services such as the installation of floodlighting, MPLV systems, ICT infrastructure, fire alarms, PAT testing, planned preventative maintenance and facilities management.
In 2021, Cork’s premier commercial and industrial electrical contractor added another string to its bow with the formation of Beltane Fire Safety Systems. Specialising in the design, supply, installation, commissioning and maintenance of active fire detection systems, Beltane has grown rapidly by providing the highest level of service and support to its customers.
“Beltane has really taken off,” managing director Frank Nodwell enthuses.
“It complements our electrical contracting and maintenance operations, going hand-in-hand with Denis O’Neill Electrical Services to provide a one-stop shop. Beltane was set up in response to constant enquiries to our electrical maintenance department for fire extinguishers, fire alarm systems and so on. Our clients were disgruntled with their existing fire safety providers, so we decided to give them what they wanted.
“We had a ready-made customer-base who we provide a wide range of fire safety services to. As a smaller, leaner company, we offer a personal service that you just don’t get from bigger providers. When you contact us, you get either our senior service engineer John Hurley, our office manager Martina Linehan or me on the phone. We provide a reliable, friendly and value-for-money service, and guarantee that you won’t get bogged down in bureaucracy.”
Frank adds: “Both companies are going well and the aim is to keep growing them and giving the best possible service to our valued customers. We have an amazing team who are key to our growth and success. We want to add to that by recruiting the right people – we’re always on the lookout for highly-skilled technicians.”
On the back of providing prompt and professional solutions to long-standing clients, Denis O’Neill Electrical Services has been able to grow steadily and organically through regular repeat work.
“We get a lot of repeat business from MTU, UCC, JCD (John Cleary Developments), Abbeyside Office Interiors, GE Healthcare, Kiernan Electrical, Telus Digital and SR Technics to name but a few. For our regular clients, we carry out installations and also provide maintenance packages, so there’s a lot of project-based work as well as regular maintenance,” Frank explains.
“Our current electrical projects include MTU Crawford College of Art & Design, which is being renovated, and a couple of large warehousing projects for JCD. We’re also carrying out a full electrical and fire safety fitout to workwear provider CWS’s new state-of-the-art laundry in Blarney Business Park.”
Having previously garnered 25 years’ experience in the electrical field – from working with the ESB for a decade from 1970 until 1980 and overseas in the Middle East from 1980 until 1984, acting in a managerial capacity on a number of large construction projects throughout Ireland and Europe – Denis O’Neill established Denis O’Neill Electrical Services Ltd. He retired in 2018 when Frank Nodwell, who joined the company in 2001 and had worked closely with the eponymous founder for many years, took the reins.
The company started out on a fairly small scale, with just three employees, but as its reputation for performance, reliability and efficiency grew, operations began to expand. Denis O’Neill Electrical Services has offices, workshop and storage facilities on the north side of Cork city and contracts all over Co. Cork and further afield.
For over a quarter of a century, Denis O’Neill Electrical Services has strived to become a competitive player in industrial and commercial installation. Another factor which contributes to the success of the company is their vast experience: during the time they have been active at the forefront of the electrical contracting industry, they have assembled a team that is both experienced and knowledgeable within their chosen field of expertise, which consequently enables Frank and his team to offer customers a dependable and highly-competitive service.
“We invariably provide a service that clients know they can depend on,” Frank says.
“We have knowledgeable staff who can turn a project around very quickly. We are always at the other end of the phone and once they contact us, we can mobilise quickly and get to them at short notice.
“A lot of projects are priced and awarded in advance and, for those, we are onto our suppliers straight away to make all the necessary preparations and arrangements, but there will also be projects that need to be completed at short notice and we provide that service to our customers. With office fit outs, for example, they expect a very high level of finish but at the same time they also want the work done quickly.”
Being structured and organised is critical. To guarantee this, excellent staff is a prerequisite.
“We have five foremen, all of whom have been with us for more than 10 years. They are vastly experienced working in these environments, be it a university or a commercial fit out, and each of them is also used to communicating with and liaising with our clients.”
Denis O’Neill Electrical Services’ level of expertise can be gauged through the large number of projects they have delivered over the years. Cognisant of the importance of remaining abreast of innovation in the electrical industry, Denis O’Neill Electrical Services completed a number of projects for the ESB at their generating stations at Aghada, Inniscarra and Marina (until its decommissioning in 2019). They also carry out planned preventative maintenance for companies such as Itron, RDJ, Qualcomm, KPMG, Forcepoint, Investec, Ardmore Shipping, PWC and Eventbrite.
Fully-accredited members of Safe Electric, AECI and Safe-T-Cert, Denis O’Neill Electrical Services’ goal is to undertake all projects in a professional and constructive manner, with the keenest attention to detail and the highest commitment to quality, workmanship and design.
“Our name has grown through reliability first and foremost and that is something we are not prepared to compromise on,” concludes the affable managing director, who would like to take this opportunity to thank his clients and suppliers for their continued support as well as his hard-working team for their loyalty, dedication, professionalism and expertise.
Denis O’Neill Electrical Services Ltd
Unit 34,
Northpoint Business Park,
Mallow Road,
Cork.
Telephone: 021 4308500
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.donelec.ie
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, February 2026, Vol 12 No 2
Denis O’Neill Electrical Services, featured
