Paddy Thomas pictured with his handcrafted county plaques.

Mayo business Touching Home offers a unique experience for our diaspora

By Tom Gillespie

BEING unemployed during the Covid lockdown inspired a Ballyheane, Castlebar, carpenter to frame a business aimed at the Irish diaspora worldwide.

Paddy Thomas creates unique handmade wooden plaques cut out in the shape of every county in Ireland, with some soil from that county encased in a sterilised and sealed air-tight container, and decorated with a county crest.

The business is called Touching Home and Paddy explained how it all came about: “I am a builder/carpenter and during the Covid lockdown we were all laid off. I was around the house trying to think of something to do and I was looking online at carpentry sites. I saw where a fellow made a cut-out of a state in America and I thought that would be lovely for the Irish 32 counties. Likewise, I was on the epoxy resin art sites and wondered how the soil would fit in the frames.

“I spent a week looking on the internet if anyone had done anything similar and I could not find anyone that did it.

“I had loads of failed attempts but finally I came up with a prototype and showed it to family and friends. It was my wife who came up with the name Touching Home - it does exactly what it says on the tin.”

Paddy continued: “I had a lot of hurdles to cross as I really did not know anything about business. But after a lot of experimentation and trying to get it right it fell into place, but it took a long time.”

Paddy went to Councillor Michael Kilcoyne who sent him to the Local Enterprise Office (LEO) and they in turn sent him to a few mentors, who were of great help. One advised him to cut out the counties with a laser.

“However, over the space of a year I figured out the way to do it and got the shape and the size right.

“I went about getting the materials, the glues, the epoxy resins, the frames, crests and the stickers and I had to register and design protect the business name.

“However, the most important thing of all was to get the soil as it had to be one 100 per cent authentic. I had to figure out how to do that. I had to go to every county where I got the soil and stopped at the ‘welcome to the county’ sign and took a video of the soil and sign.”

He went on: “I meticulously mapped out six routes encompassing six counties each time and through Google Earth I pinpointed where the various welcome signs were located.

“Inside each carefully crafted plaque we place some authentic soil from that county, which we gathered on our 1,500 mile journey around the 32 counties.

“I stopped in each county and recorded a video displaying the soil in front of the county sign to show its authenticity, which can be viewed on a video QR code that can be found on the back of each framed plaque.

“Our soil is completely sterilised and encased in an air tight manner to ensure no contaminate issues, which can be sent anywhere in the world. It gives our diaspora an opportunity to get a little closer to home which I say is just one touch away.

“Now I am three months in business and I have sold all over the world - America, UK, Australia, New Zealand.

“Purchasers can discover our crafted wood style plaques with the authentic soil of each of the 32 counties displayed in our unique design clear epoxy resin finish in black or white frames.”

Further details can be obtained by logging on to Touching Home.ie (https://45e8dc-2.myshopify.com/).