His childhood was a time of severe crisis for Ireland including the national disaster of the Great Famine during which, by death and emigration, the population declined by two million.
In 1859 John Sisk married Kate Burke, and in the same year, he also established his own business as an independent contractor.
However, the records do not show, for example, that while building the spire of the Catholic Church and school building in Clonakilty in the mid-1880s, he also built Donovan's Hotel on the main street, which, like the Sisk business, remains today in the same family ownership.
To complete this job, John found and reopened a local stone quarry, recruited tradesmen from all over Munster and manufactured all the timber features on site, or in his own joinery shop in Cork.
“In Donamon Castle in Co Roscommon (Divine Word Missionaries Novitiate), the first project I was on, there was still a legacy of travelling tradesmen.”