Our history in Ireland
Our heritage in Ireland means, we’ve been protecting our customers for 190 years.
Over that time we've been supporting communities with essential financial services, like Life Cover, just like we do now. Because things might have changed through the years, but our values haven’t.
Caledonian to Royal London Ireland
With pride in our past and also in our present positive role in Irish society, we were delighted to commission a historian, Dr Grace O’Keeffe to look back over the years to produce this history of Royal London in Ireland. In a link to our more recent history, Grace worked for us in Caledonian Life in sales support and underwriting in the early 2000s, before going back to study for her PhD. In an additional association, Grace completed her doctorate in Trinity College Dublin, which is only a stone’s throw away from our first purpose built office on Dame Street in the 1860s.
Grace has uncovered all manners of items of interest, from the fascinating fact that at one stage Caledonian had their own fire engine and crew, to links to such historical figures as Queen Victoria and Daniel O’Connell, as well as detailing the changing socio-economic landscape of the times. As our country experienced all manners of challenges and change from the War of Independence, Civil War, two World Wars, economic ups and downs to more happier memories such as Italia 90, Riverdance, numerous Rugby Grand slams and our world-class literary, musical and cultural outputs (including life assurance featuring in James Joyce’s Ulysses!), our company through its various names and incarnations, have been there for our customers in their times of need.
Foundation and fire marks - Our new book celebrating 190 years
We are very proud of our history and legacy in Ireland, and the financial security and safety net we have been able to provide to hundreds of thousands of Irish people over those 190 years.
We've created a book which traces the 190 history of Royal London Ireland all the way back to our roots in 1834 as Caledonian Insurance Company.
Our mutual mindset
We’re a fully owned subsidiary of The Royal London Mutual Insurance Society Limited, the largest mutual life, pensions and investment company in the UK. Our parent company’s mutuality, meaning it is customer and member owned with no shareholders, allows us to adopt a mutual mindset. This means we take a longer-term view and focus on providing best customer outcomes.
Fire marks
Dr O' Keeffe's research showed that fire was a real risk in 18th century Dublin and because of this, a very active interest in extinguishing fires could however be found within the insurance companies offering life and fire insurance, along with the various breweries in the city. At a time when literacy wasn’t uniform, and the nineteenth-century tenement dwellers might have very little contact with the owner of their building, a very visual sign that a building was covered by fire insurance was the fire-mark.
Each company had their own distinctive design, the Caledonian fire mark (pictured here) had the thistle, the Sun Fire Office had a smiling sun.
Caledonian Fire mark