It’s a privilege, say local duo who put new year on Dublin’s St James’s Gate

Dublin carpenters Robbie Minto and Eoghan Kelly install a board with the new year to the right side of the city’s famous St James’s Gate every New Year’s Eve (Niall Carson/PA)

While most people are out at a packed bar or rowdy house party to ring in the new year, two carpenters spend the last minutes of December 31 on top of a cherry picker changing a sign – and say it is a privilege.

Every year, Robbie Minto and Eoghan Kelly install a board with the new year to the right side of Dublin’s famous St James’s Gate, at what was the entrance to the city during the Middle Ages.