During the 1840’s and 1850’s millions of Irish people left their homeland by ship to escape the wrath of the great famine and search for a better life abroad.  Many of these emigrants settled where the ships carrying them came to shore, usually along the East coast of Canada and the United States.

Around this time, a Canadian seafarer by the name of Thomas Pierce returned to Ireland aboard one of these ships. He was accompanying a quantity of timber that was being exported to Europe on a return journey. Thomas decided to stay in Ireland and eventually settled in Tinahely in Co. Wicklow. He established himself as a general merchant, operating a grocery business and trading in corn, fuel and wool.

Thomas’s son and grandsons continued in his tradition and operated similar businesses in Tinahely as well as nearby Hacketstown, Inch and Rathdrum. The Rathdrum business was founded by Laurence Pierce in the towns Market Square in 1943.  Today, this business still carries his name and has grown to become the largest merchant of wool in Ireland.