Westmeath couple receive Freedom of the City of London
A Whitehall native and his wife from Mullingar have been awarded the Freedom of the City of London this afternoon.
James Coffey, founder and chairman of the J Coffey Group, a major construction firm based in London, and his wife Teresa, who grew up in Dominick Street, were honoured at a special ceremony in the Guildhall this afternoon.
James and Teresa left Ireland in 1988 due to to country's depressed economy. He started the J Coffey Group in 1991, and it has since grown into one of the top construction players in Greater London and the southeast of the UK, winning contracts for major works at Battersea Power Station, and in Ireland, the concrete, civil and groundworks package for Facebook’s futuristic data centre at Clonee, County Meath. Today, the firm employs around 1,200 people between the UK and Ireland.
In addition to his 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 may be 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 Greater London area and the southeast of England in recent decades.