2017 Yearbook

The O’Donovan Way
Our history
Denis Joseph O’Donovan, fondly known as
Generous Joe, arrived in London in the 1950s
after moving from a rural village in West Cork. In
a dance hall in London Joe met his wife Kathleen,
who also came from West Cork, they married in
1958, settling in Kilburn. They had four children:
Michael, Caroline, Anthony and Jacqueline.
Joe’s ambition and determination to succeed in
business was
paramount – like a
lot of young men
who had made
the journey over
the pond. Having
previously worked
on the railways
and construction
sites, Joe used
this experience
and in 1959
he bought a
Caterpillar 951
tracked shovel
and secured his
first demolition job. He went on to purchase a
tipper and eventually moved into skip lorries,
establishing a depot in Kings Cross (which is now
the site of the British Library) where
his new business thrived and began
to expand.
Sadly however Joe
passed away suddenly
in 1985 at the age
of 51, leaving an
extremely successful
business which needed
continuing. His four
children were thrust
into the running of the family business and at this
stage none of them had many years’ experience
under their belts. This didn’t stop the family
however and they took over the running of the
business.
Nothing has changed in the intervening years,
O’Donovan is still entirely family-owned and is run
by the four siblings with Michael the CEO, Caroline
and Anthony the Operations Directors
and Jacqueline, Managing Director. All of them
are fiercely proud of the family-values and Irish
heritage which have helped make O’Donovan a
continued success.
After working out of numerous locations in North
London, the business finally settled in Tottenham
and currently has four sites within the area, along
with an additional site in West London.
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