With its genesis dating back well over a century, to 1916, West Cavan based P. McGovern & Son Building Contractors is a traditional third-generation family business synonymous with the consistent delivery of exceptional public works and private projects. We touched base with hands-on managing director Patrick McGovern for an update.
Boasting a proud legacy that few others on the island can match, P. McGovern & Son Building Contractors in Bawnboy, County Cavan is one of Ireland’s longest-established and most-respected builders, having over the past 109 years and counting delivered a vast array of magnificent projects for public and private clients alike across Cavan and surrounding counties.
From specialist, highly-skilled heritage, restoration and conservation works to OPW / local authority projects to residential new builds, extensions and refurbishments, this industry-leading third-generation family business – today fronted by Patrick McGovern, a namesake of his grandfather, who set the company up from humble beginnings way back in the iconic year of 1916 – has a packed portfolio, consistently delivering outstanding workmanship on a comprehensive suite of structures and buildings, from bridges and roads to churches and schools, homes and offices, and much more besides.
If P. McGovern & Son Building Contractors has an incredible, unrivalled history, then the same can be said for their present and future, as the company continues to provide immaculate painstaking craftsmanship under the watchful and keen eye of the current proprietor, who took time out from his always-busy schedule to have a chat with Building Ireland:
“We’re very busy at the moment and we have a lot of work on for 2025, so we can’t complain,” the hardworking Cavan builder comments. “It varies year on year, but we cover a lot of different stuff – church restorations, local authority work, offices, home refurbs, public works – we’re very versatile.”
Church restorations is one of P. McGovern & Son Building Contractors’ niche areas and they are in big demand near and far for this highly specialist line of work. Known for the painstaking conservation and restoration of high-profile heritage buildings, the long-established Cavan contractor has delivered breath-taking workmanship on Manorhamilton Church of Ireland, Kiltyclogher Church of Ireland, Bundoran Church of Ireland, and Sligo Masonic Lodge to name just a few.
At the time of writing, Patrick and his team were onsite at the Sacred Heart Church in Arva re-leading the roof and upgrading the guttering. “We have vast experience in the church and chapel side of things,” he says. “It is fairly specialised work and nobody else wants to do it. We have done that many of these great buildings over the years that’d I’d know them all at this stage, all the way from Cavan back to Sligo. The Masonic Lodge in Sligo was one of the furthest away and we also did refurbishment work on the tower in Kinlough Church of Ireland in Leitrim.”
Underpinning to address and mitigate against subsidence is another specialist area of expertise and to this end Patrick recently underpinned a home on behalf of Cavan County Council and another for a neighbour.
As well as being a director and keeping a very close eye on each project as it develops onsite, Patrick also doubles up as in-house QS. Maintaining a proud family tradition that goes back to 1916 is one of the many driving factors behind P. McGovern & Son Building Contractors:
“My grandfather set up a long time ago and we are just carrying on from that. The first job he got was a bridge for Bawnboy Union prior to the formation of the State. Bawnboy Union preceded the local authority, and they were responsible for roads, bridges, and flood relief. That is what my grandfather did at first, then local authority housing and some work for the Land Commission. My father, James, took over next and he did a good mix of work, including a lot of schools.”
To say that building is in the McGovern DNA is probably an exercise in understatement… “It is alright – sure this is all we know; we were born into it. My brother Joe and myself took over in 2003 and ran the company for 19 years together. Joe retired three years ago, mainly due to the amount of paperwork needed these days. It just got the better of him in the end. You nearly need to be doing paperwork full time, and we didn’t expect that.”
Patrick describes himself as a traditional builder, with a major emphasis on traditional trades, techniques, and standards, delivering a hands-on service with a personal touch, always meeting if not exceeding client expectations. To maintain the highest standards of excellence at all times, he has surrounded himself with a great team of like-minded, skilled and experienced builders:
“Directly employed we have a team of seven full-time at the minute, plus two more lads who are with us part-time. These are men who retired a while back but decided to come back to do some work to keep themselves active and healthy. We also use a few sub-contractors and tend to stick with the same lads time and time again – a couple of electricians, a plasterer, plumber and our flooring contracts is done by Brennan’s in Clontibret. But we have a skilled crew ourselves and a large proportion of the work is done in-house.”
2025 is P. McGovern & Son Building Contractors’ 110th calendar year delivering vital construction solutions to communities across Cavan and beyond, and it promises to be another very busy one indeed. “We’ve a good bit ahead of us including work for the local authority, the OPW, the Rehab Group, St Vincent de Paul, church refurbishments and a few other jobs coming down the line later in the year, including a crèche refurbishment,” Patrick concludes. “We’re lucky to have a lot of great clients and we’ll keep looking after them all to the best of our ability.”
P. McGovern & Son Building Contractors,
Bawnboy,
County Cavan.
Tel: 049 952 3110
Mobile: 086 2536867
Email: [email protected]
Web: pmcgovernandson.ie
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, June 2025, Vol 11 No 6
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