John Cahill

The construction industry is recognised for many things, its creativity, innovation, and depending on the weather, often carried out in a challenging environment and conditions. With so many moving parts, it can be a frustrating industry in which to work. Still, it can be incredibly rewarding as you watch projects come out of the ground and grow into fully functional buildings.

It’s also recognised for its characters and attracts people from all walks of life and educational backgrounds. As a principal contractor, we employ a team of builders. Still, like so many similar companies, we also choose to use sub-contractors for some aspects of the build. Recently, we’ve had the pleasure of working with John Cahill, a bricklayer tasked with the construction of a Design and Build project we were appointed to build. John can most definitely be described as a character. A bricklayer for 47 years, John has now reached the grand young age of 63, though you wouldn’t know it as he still has that cheeky teenager sparkle in his eye and the cheeky humour that goes with it. 

Completing his bricklaying apprenticeship at Brooklyn Technical College Perry Barr in 1972, he’s remained in brickwork all of his working life, though he did do a four-year stint in the Navy. 

Enjoying the challenge that a Design and Build project throws up, John has worked on a variety of projects in his lifetime. Covering most sectors, he has experienced working in education, large commercial, and community projects. However, as a sector, housing has been by far the biggest employer of John’s skills and its where he has spent the majority of his working life. 

Outside of work, John is married and has three grown-up children. On the weekend he loves doing a bit of DIY and having the time to build decorative brickwork projects in the garden. But outside of his family, the thing he loves more than anything else (and you will know this if you ever get a chance to meet him) is Northern Soul dancing. It’s fair to say that John is passionate with a capital “P” about his Northern Soul dancing. Traveling up and down the country you will regularly find him in Sheffield, Kidderminster, Prestatyn, West Yorkshire, in fact, all over the UK, strutting his stuff on the dance floor. Often pulling all-nighters, dancing from 9 pm to 5 am isn’t unusual for John. More recently he took place in the “World Northern Soul dance championships” at Blackpool where he finished in the top 10. When interviewed for this article, it’s all we could do to keep him still, and on his feet with handstands, spins, mid-air splits and backdrops being the norm in Northern Soul; you really can’t keep a good man down.