A blue car crawled up the steep main street in Banbridge, County Down, and through the small bridge, known locally as “the Cut”. In years gone by, horses laden with heavy loads of flax and Irish linen would faint before reaching the top of the hill.

The town, which was once the principal linen-producing district in Ireland, has changed a lot since then. Cheaper labour and materials from China decimated the place in the 1960-70s, leaving just a handful of skilled linen weavers.

But Ireland’s dormant linen industry is stirring. Banbridge brother and sister Lorcan and Sarah Quinn aim to breathe new life into the sector with their fabric firm, Enrich and Endure. They want to carve out a niche at the top end of the market by eschewing the traditional, starched textiles of rivals and wooing a younger generation with snazzy designs and colourful fabrics.

“I was looking for something to do with Sarah as I had taken a career break from my property development business,” said Lorcan, 27.

He didn’t need to look very far. Banbridge made its name by spinning and weaving some of the finest linen in the world. By 1772, the town had a total of 26 bleach greens, along the Bann river, where the material was washed and bleached. By 1820 the town was the centre of the “Linen Homelands”, a broad geographical area in Northern Ireland famed for its production.

Belfast, an hour north of Banbridge, was the biggest linen producing area in the world until the first world war, earning the nickname Linenopolis.

“The linen industry was on our doorstep and I kept looking at what these guys were doing and it was pretty terrible,” Lorcan said.

Despite the old-fashioned products being churned out, the young entrepreneur could see that the quality was fantastic. “The style hadn’t changed for decades. There was no colour, or pattern, just a lot of plain white tablecloths and napkins.”

So, with a head full of ideas, he jetted off to New Zealand to tell Sarah, 24. His sister had studied art at Manchester University and then worked with interior designers in England and New Zealand. She loved the idea of resurrecting a traditional, local craft and putting a modern stamp on it.

“People here didn’t realise what an opportunity they had. They didn’t move with the times or market themselves very well,” Lorcan said.

“The production in general is white, starched linen tablecloths and there is a market for that. But we wanted to make stuff with a more summery feel to it because that relates more to people our age.

“We wanted to make linen that fits in with how we live today. Pieces that you can bring out everyday and have it on show rather than just at Christmas, or on special occasions. Get it out. Show it off and if something spills on it, wash it.”

When the Quinns returned to Banbridge, they set about working on their dream. Lorcan, with some help from their father, Patrick, a former management consultant, convinced a local Banbridge firm to produce Enrich and Endure’s colourful throws, blankets and napkins.

Thomas Ferguson, founded in 1854, is one of the few weavers that remain in Ireland and has supplied linen to Europe’s royalty. “They are doing well at what they do so we are not competing with them,” Lorcan said. “We were very clear from the start that we wanted to do something completely different to them. It’s the same quality of product, it’s just the way it’s presented is different.

“Our products are more colourful and minimal and plain. L ess fussy and starched – more ruffled, so you don’t have to worry about ironing the piece.”

They launched the business online in April this year and the Quinns’ new spin on an old formula is gaining traction. “We are now selling to 10 countries and have a lot of repeat custom. So the future is looking bright,” he said.

Enrich and Endure’s products range in price from £45 for napkins to £365 for a merino wool and linen blend blanket. “We are still able to achieve premium prices because there is still an understanding of the quality of Irish linen,” he said.

As well as cashing in on the cachet of Banbridge linen, pride in rejuvenating a historic local craft is even more important to the Quinns. “That’s extremely important. We could be buying our linen a lot cheaper in China or Portugal, but we thought if we can do it locally it’s better and the quality is better,” he said.

“We want to keep all the work here. We are trying to do as much as we can in the island of Ireland.”

Lorcan reckons the key to success is to learn from history: don’t chase the big contracts for bulk orders, make stuff that people want to use every day and will last.

“That’s genuinely close to our hearts. Our parents’ house in France has linen that has been there since before they owned the house and it is absolutely stunning,” he said.

Is that going to be enough to preserve his town’s rich industrial heritage for a new generation?

“There was a time, not long ago, when people thought the Irish linen industry was going to die,” Lorcan said. “Part of the answer to the globalisation threat is to offer something different.

“If you try to compete head-on on price, you can’t do it. So you have to deliver better quality.”