Rocker Lane Workshop is the result of a collaboration between a young (at the time) architect, Seán Fogarty, with a passion for sustainable design and a master craftsman, Michael Heffernan Snr. who brings with him over 55 years’ experience of working with timber.
Seán studied architecture in Dublin and Oslo where he specialised in the field of “Design and Sustainability”. He is now a director in DLA Architects, a conservation, housing and public realm practice based in Dublin.
Michael began working as a carpenter in 1966 when he was apprenticed to a local joinery firm to produce dove-tail jointed cabinets by hand. Since then he has used his skills on a variety of projects, which range in size from the scale of a table to that of a dwelling.
The aim of Rocker Lane Workshop is to produce contemporary design objects that are 100% sustainable. Our first exhibition of furniture, the Craft | Design | Time Collection for the RHA Gallery in Dublin, was made entirely from reclaimed timber floor boards.
Our rural workshop, where we produce all of our furniture by hand, is based in the townsland of Rocker, North Tipperary, Ireland.
The actual Rocker Lane is a small winding passageway that starts at the banks of the River Suir and terminates a short while later at the foot of a "fairy fort" (Iron Age settlement) which was situated on high ground overlooking the Devil's Bit Mountain. Rocker Lane was where our grandparents would walk to visit friends in houses that no longer exist, it's where we brought our dates as teenagers and it's where our kids and grandchildren slide down icy hills in winter. In short, it's our own slice of heaven and we saw fit to name our company after it.