This is a very, very common thing amongst Irish people when describing a person, place or thing. Because sometimes we can't articulate how large or small an object is, or the skin tone of an individual or even the heat of a local curry dish - we use this a lot! We basically just say the word twice and the person who gets the info knows exactly what we mean by tone alone.
The Foundary was a factory in Waterford where everyone's grandfather used to work. It was located down by the kay river. They used to pronounce it in this way due to the peculiar gutteral r sound of the old Waterford accent.
