Award-winning, cutting-edge Munster Drone Services putting Cork on the map

13:52, 05 Nov 2025Updated 14:05, 05 Nov 2025

Munster Drone Services winning Best Large Established Business of the Year last week(Image: Munster Drone Services)

We often think of drone photography as a fun pastime or a nice touch for a wedding album – but one Cork man has turned the hobby into an award-winning, country-hopping business venture.

Shane O’Leary was just 20 when his dad bought a DJI Phantom 2 drone in 2016. The drone sat on the shelf for months – with Shane’s father fearing that he’d only crash it – until Shane borrowed the controls and realised the potential of the nifty flying machine.

Fast-forward nine years and Shane is managing director at Munster Drone Services, with a growing team and contracts across Ireland, the UK, Austria, Germany, Spain and Lithuania. The company carries out up to 5,000 jobs every year, inspecting everything from cargo holds on ships to the interiors of giant wind turbines. In January, Munster Drone Services were out with ESB crews after Storm Eowyn, monitoring storm damage to assist with urgent repairs.

And last week the company picked up a top award at the IRD Duhallow Business Awards, scooping Best Large Established Business of the Year. Shane told CorkBeo that, despite building a small drone empire – with six or seven teams constantly on the go – he’s not much of a hobbyist drone flyer himself: “For me, it’s about selling drones because we understand drones. My first interest was how to make a business from it.”

Munster Drone Services HQ at Millstreet(Image: Munster Drone Services)

Shane was studying Engineering at Munster Technological University when he first got his hands on his dad’s Phantom drone. He was on course to become a teacher – but quickly pivoted into the world of business. In 2021, Shane took the plunge and relocated from his home office to the Old Creamery site in Millstreet, north-west County Cork.

As the business has grown, it has moved away from providing photoshoots and wedding coverage – and is now focusing on more industrial jobs: “We’ve had contracts with the Defence Forces, the Coast Guard and Gardaí. Drones are perfect for investigating culverts, small spaces with toxic chemicals, inside wind turbines, cargo holds in ships, derelict buildings – any space where it would be dangerous for a human to go. We don’t do weddings or media stuff anymore.”

Staying firmly on the cutting edge, Munster Drone Services is embracing the latest in AI: “We use it as as much as we can. Not for the operation of drones, but for post-processing once we’ve collected good quality data.”

With the business getting bigger all the time, racking up new certifications and on the lookout for new staff, the sky really is the limit for the Cork drone business drawing eyes from all over the continent.