‘Of Wood & Wool’ tells the story of how Navan’s furniture and carpets industries helped sow the
seeds of innovation in Navan.

Published to mark 25 years of Meath Enterprise, the book delves back into the mists of time to
establish how and why Navan developed into a major centre of furniture craft and carpet-making
from the early 1900s up until the early years of this century.

For most of the 20 th Century, this town was synonymous with both furniture-making and the
manufacture of carpets. But how did a small provincial town carve out a niche for itself as home to
up to 50 different factories and workshops turning out thousands of pieces of furniture every year?
And why did a place with no tradition of carpetmaking end up becoming the location of Navan
Carpets, one of the top European floorcovering brands sought after by high-end hotels, casinos and
other iconic buildings on four continents?

‘Of Wood & Wool’ sets out to trace the evolution of these enterprises from the earliest days of
sawmilling in Navan which gave birth to dozens of furniture factories in the decades that followed,
along the way telling the story of the pioneering visionaries whose legacy continues to resonate
today.