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Meet Our Guides

 All our tour guides at Arigna are ex-miners which gives our tours complete authenticity.

The Team

over 150 years of mining experience between them!

Living and working at the coal face allows each guide to recount their life stories of working underground, giving the visitor a totally unique experience.

Smiling man wearing a helmet and jacket with the Arigna Mining Experience logo, promoting the mining heritage of Ireland.

Tour Guide / Ex-Miner

Gerard Cullen

Worked underground from age 15; entered the mine via an air shaft ladder.

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A smiling man wearing a hard hat and Arigna Mining Experience jacket, representing the mining attraction in Ireland.

Tour Guide / Ex-Miner

Michael Early

Started at 15; nearly hit his boss with a runaway hutch his first week.

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Tour Guide / Ex-Miner

Vincent McLoughlin

Local miner from Arigna valley; began at 16 without any formal training or induction.

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Man wearing a hard hat and jacket with the Arigna Mining Experience logo, promoting guided underground mine tours.

Tour Guide / Ex-Miner

Jimmy Nugent

Started mining at 15 to save for London; bought a Honda 50 in weeks.

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Tour Guide / Ex-Miner

Maurice Cullen

Worked 18 years underground; did nearly every job before returning to carpentry and woodworking.

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current and former guides at Arigna

Left to Right: Peter McNiff, Maurice Cullen, Michael Flynn, Seamus Lehany, Leo Wynne (Deceased) and Jimmy Nugent

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Smiling man wearing a helmet and jacket with the Arigna Mining Experience logo, promoting the mining heritage of Ireland.

Gerard Cullen

Originally hailing from Geevagh, Co. Sligo, Gerry worked underground in Arigna’s mines for 10 years. He started during school breaks when he was about 15, first as a drawer and clipsman, and then a shoveller. On his first day on the job, Gerry got to Arigna on the back of a neighbour’s motorcycle. He entered the mines for the first time via an air shaft (a small opening in the ground that descended, via ladder, into the mines below). He admits he balked a bit the first time he looked down the shaft, thinking it was very narrow and very dark. As was the way of it, a fellow miner coming up the air shaft gave some solace: ‘Sonny, if I can fit, you can fit.’ Gerry says he looked at the size of the man and thought ‘Bejeesus that must true.’

A smiling man wearing a hard hat and Arigna Mining Experience jacket, representing the mining attraction in Ireland.

Michael Earley

Michael spent 9 years working in Arigna. He left underground work behind him when the mines closed in 1990. On his first day on the job he hitched a ride to Lynch’s Pit from his home in Grouse Lodge, Drumkeeran (Co. Leitrim) on the same pit lorry his father took to work. Michael spent his first summer filling diesel lines and then left school at 15 to work full time as a drawer. Michael recalls an incident that occurred during his first week on the job: ‘I nearly killed the boss. A hutch took off on me and I wasn’t strong enough to hold it back. The boss was at the bottom of the track and yelled out ‘Michael, ya nearly killed me! Why didn’t you put in a snivel?’ All I could think to myself was ‘sure, what’s a snivel?’ No one had shown me how to slow down a cart!’

Vincent McLoughlin

Vinnie is a true local. He was born and raised in the Arigna valley, just one mile from the colliery, and spent 10 years working in the mines. He was 16 when he started as a clipsman, hooking hutches of coal onto the hauling system, and also worked as a drawer. His father and all of his brothers worked underground as well. He remembers when he started work that it was nerve-wracking to walk into the mines without knowing what to expect. They did not have training days before they began–new workers would be paired with older, experienced workers and off they went.

Man wearing a hard hat and jacket with the Arigna Mining Experience logo, promoting guided underground mine tours.

Jimmy Nugent

Jimmy took a job in the mines because he wanted to save money to get to London. He was young when he started, only 15, and was the first and only miner in his family. He started off pushing the hutches across the yard before he worked as a drawer. He was able to buy a Honda 50 after working in Arigna for just three weeks—the pay was fairly good when he started in 1975.

Maurice Cullen

Maurice was born in Arigna but moved to Drumshanbo town, about 7 km away, when he was just 5 years old. He and his five brothers all spent time coal mining in Arigna. Maurice himself spent 18 years working underground. His older brother, John Joe, spent 38 years working in Arigna’s mines. Maurice spent time doing almost every job there was—odd jobs when he began, then drawing, shovelling, and brushing. It was heavy work, he notes. Some pits were easier to work in than others, due to the density of the rock and slate they had to remove to get at the coal. ‘Everyone was looking to get at the coal face because that’s where the money was.’ Maurice trained as a carpenter, and eventually left underground work to pursue wood work.