TradeNames A Dublin jewellery firm - begun in the middle of the second World War - has come a long way from its origins on the back streets of the capital, writes Rose Doyle

The middle of the second World War years might not, on the face of it, seem like the best of times to go about setting up a business. To some.

But brothers Christopher and Thomas Lee saw opportunities in their particular line of business and seized the years. The rest is the history of a thriving family business run today by their nephew, John Lee, son of Patrick, the third Lee brother to join the fledgling company in 1943.

Lee Brothers, based in Santry Hall Industrial Estate, Santry, Dublin 9, are specialists in precious metals, a jewellery firm which grew with its craft and changed with the times and these days makes medals and medallions for winners and achievers nationwide. They make badges and insignia too, are the presidential choice when gifts of distinction are needed and, a definite first, have had a medal of theirs shot into space.

John Lee, laconic of style and humorous, tells how such came to pass. He's a great man for the telling detail.

"There were six Lee brothers, and four sisters, and they all worked in the business at some stage. The family originated in the James' Street area, my grandfather used make crates for shipping furniture. Thomas worked in the jewellery business in the UK and Christopher worked for The Jewel and Metal Manufacturing Co of Ireland which was owned by the Jewish Segal family, a business which really took off when they got all the orders for the Eucharistic Congress in 1932."

He grins at the irony of it. "Imports were greatly affected by 1943," he goes on, "and supplies to the county's more prestigious jewellers - Weirs, Wests, Mortons - were cut off.

"The brothers made contact with Thomas O'Connor of Harolds Cross, who was in pawnbroking at the time but eventually became a large family jewellers. He supplied Christy and Tom with old gold pieces from which they were able to make wedding and signet rings and cufflinks, all in short supply. They traded as Lee Brothers from premises in Pearse Street but the 'sponsor's mark' on their work was TL. I still have some pieces, cufflinks and a couple of weddings rings, with the mark on them."

Lee Brothers moved to Eustace Street in 1948, moved on to 16 Moore Lane in 1966 and, in 1994, to their 372sq m (4,000sq ft) of space in Santry.

John Lee's father, Patrick, the youngest of the Lee brood, was born in 1922. He was 21 when he joined his brothers in the company in 1943. It would be 60 years before he retired, in 2003. A sister, Maureen, kept the company books in those early years.

"Tom died too young," John Lee says, "when he was 38. He smoked a lot. Christy died not long after. Another brother, Charles, who had worked as a manager, had moved in when Tommy died and was the one who really put together and ran the company from then on.

"Michael, who'd been in the army, and Willie who was a waiter, worked with the company too, when they retired from their respective jobs. Willie had great connections, like with Brendan O'Regan at Shannon, and got the company's Claddagh rings into Shannon Airport. A sister, Frances, worked for the company at one time too. By the end of the 1940s they had nine employees."

Lee Brothers wages' bill for the week ending December 18th, 1943 was 3. 15s. Od. M. Tyndall earned 1O/- of this, Maureen Lee 1.5s.Od and Patrick Lee 2. Os. Od.

By 1948, with wages up and an increase in staff numbers, the bill had reached 33. 17s. 3d. Patrick Lee now earned 5. 15s. Od.; insurance costs were 19/9d.

"When they moved to Moore Lane things were set up on a much bigger basis," John Lee explains. "They paid £1,600 in 1968 for a giant machine made in Germany for rolling metal. It was a huge investment and made the process more flexible. At that point, in Moore Lane in the 1970s when I became aware of the company, they'd as many as 36 people working for them; metal workers, polishers, enamellers, clerical, packers, jewellers."

Patrick Lee had married Marie Lawlor in 1959. Their children, David, John and Helen, worked holidays in the business but John was the one in whom interest grew and abided. He remembers everything of those working holidays, recalling hand engraver Eugene Farrell as, "a real artist. I can still spot his work on a chain of office or some such when we get them in for additions. He did such unique embellishments!"

Things flew along nicely in Moore Lane. The medal making side of the business was expanded and jewellery retailers still supplied with wedding, signet and Claddagh rings, St Christopher medals and Celtic crosses too.

Then fashions changed.

The turning point came when John Lee arrived into the business in 1980.

"I wasn't the reason! Basically the Russians invaded Afghanistan and gold hit $800 per ounce overnight - going up from $300 per ounce. Charlie and Paddy were getting a bit older by then and didn't really respond to what was happening. People wanted things a bit lighter and we didn't have the machinery needed.

"We made wide rings and between the early and late 1980s rings became really narrow - so did ties and lapels. Prosperity is at the root of fashion trends."

Enthusiastic and dynamic, though the latter isn't a word he'd use himself, John Lee "felt the company wasn't going anywhere. I married Catherine in 1986 and my first daughter Alison was born in 1988 so obviously I needed to get things moving. The company was run in a gentlemanly way and staff had been on short-time for the best part of a decade. The market was changing all around but we weren't; Charles wouldn't make anything others were making, wouldn't encroach on their business. But the reality was they were doing it to him."

So he put a proposal to his uncle, bought him out and took over the company in 1992. Charles Lee was 76 at the time. He died in 1998.

John Lee "took over the reins with all sorts of ideas. Paddy was still involved in the production end of things. I rationalised. I'd about 12 people working. I let half of them go and started from there."

Without the capital investment or skills to compete in a fashion driven jewellery business John Lee withdrew slowly from this side of things and "geared things towards the bespoke medal market, where we were, and are, doing well. It's a good time to be producing bespoke goods. People really want customised things, their own crest or badge or whatever. We even get orders from Japan."

He's modestly low-key about their medal in space, taken there by James Halsell, commander of the April 1998 mission of the Space Shuttle Columbia. Halsell wanted the link made between the shuttle's voyage and that on the famine ship Jeanie Johnson so Lee Brothers cast the mission crest on the obverse of the medal, the Jeanie Johnson on the reverse. There's a replica medal on the keel of the Jeanie Johnson.

The working spaces in the Santry building are open and high and have a 19th century air about them. The equipment is heavy metal, so are the dice and tools. There are tanks for water, acid, detergent and nickel plating. And there are medals, everywhere. The Olympic Council get their medals here.

Lee Brothers employs seven people, including its managing director. He's not sure where the company will go in the future, doesn't think daughters Alison or Rachel will move in.

"This is the kind of business that could be passed on to anyone. But I'd be fussy about who I'd pass it on to. I'd have to know they'd keep up the standards, care about our customers."