diff --git a/dockerfiles/remote-plugin-java11/Dockerfile b/dockerfiles/remote-plugin-java11/Dockerfile
index 7d7434985..8e2ce47c8 100644
--- a/dockerfiles/remote-plugin-java11/Dockerfile
+++ b/dockerfiles/remote-plugin-java11/Dockerfile
@@ -13,4 +13,5 @@ RUN apk --no-cache add openjdk11 --repository=http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpi
     && apk add procps nss \
     && chmod 777 /home/theia
 ENV JAVA_HOME /usr/lib/jvm/default-jvm/
+ADD etc/before-start.sh /before-start.sh
 WORKDIR /projects
diff --git a/dockerfiles/remote-plugin-java11/etc/before-start.sh b/dockerfiles/remote-plugin-java11/etc/before-start.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..d2f3b0ad4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dockerfiles/remote-plugin-java11/etc/before-start.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+#
+# Copyright (c) 2019 Red Hat, Inc.
+# This program and the accompanying materials are made
+# available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License 2.0
+# which is available at https://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-2.0/
+#
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: EPL-2.0
+#
+# Contributors:
+#   Red Hat, Inc. - initial API and implementation
+#
+
+set_maven_mirror() {
+    local m2="$HOME"/.m2
+    local settingsXML="$m2"/settings.xml
+
+    [ ! -d "$m2" ] && mkdir -p "$m2"
+
+    if [ ! -f "$settingsXML" ]; then
+        echo "<settings xmlns=\"http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0\"" >> "$settingsXML"
+        echo "  xmlns:xsi=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\"" >> "$settingsXML"
+        echo "  xsi:schemaLocation=\"http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0" >> "$settingsXML"
+        echo "                      https://maven.apache.org/xsd/settings-1.0.0.xsd\">" >> "$settingsXML"
+        echo "  <mirrors>" >> "$settingsXML"
+        echo "    <mirror>" >> "$settingsXML"
+        echo "      <url>\${env.MAVEN_MIRROR_URL}</url>" >> "$settingsXML"
+        echo "      <mirrorOf>external:*</mirrorOf>" >> "$settingsXML"
+        echo "    </mirror>" >> "$settingsXML"
+        echo "  </mirrors>" >> "$settingsXML"
+        echo "</settings>" >> "$settingsXML"
+    else
+        if ! grep -q "<url>\${env.MAVEN_MIRROR_URL}</url>" "$settingsXML"; then
+            if grep -q "<mirrors>" "$settingsXML"; then
+                sed -i 's/<mirrors>/<mirrors>\n    <mirror>\n      <url>${env.MAVEN_MIRROR_URL}<\/url>\n      <mirrorOf>external:\*<\/mirrorOf>\n    <\/mirror>/' "$settingsXML"
+            else
+                sed -i 's/<\/settings>/  <mirrors>\n    <mirror>\n      <url>${env.MAVEN_MIRROR_URL}<\/url>\n      <mirrorOf>external:*<\/mirrorOf>\n    <\/mirror>\n  <\/mirrors>\n<\/settings>/' "$settingsXML"
+            fi
+        fi
+    fi
+}
+
+[ ! -z "$MAVEN_MIRROR_URL" ] && set_maven_mirror
+return 0
diff --git a/dockerfiles/remote-plugin-java8/Dockerfile b/dockerfiles/remote-plugin-java8/Dockerfile
index 763488c2e..f64b61766 100644
--- a/dockerfiles/remote-plugin-java8/Dockerfile
+++ b/dockerfiles/remote-plugin-java8/Dockerfile
@@ -11,4 +11,5 @@
 FROM ${BUILD_ORGANIZATION}/${BUILD_PREFIX}-theia-endpoint-runtime:${BUILD_TAG}
 RUN apk --update --no-cache add openjdk8 procps nss
 ENV JAVA_HOME /usr/lib/jvm/default-jvm/
+ADD etc/before-start.sh /before-start.sh
 WORKDIR /projects
diff --git a/dockerfiles/remote-plugin-java8/etc/before-start.sh b/dockerfiles/remote-plugin-java8/etc/before-start.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..db000d8ea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dockerfiles/remote-plugin-java8/etc/before-start.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+#
+# Copyright (c) 2019 Red Hat, Inc.
+# This program and the accompanying materials are made
+# available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License 2.0
+# which is available at https://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-2.0/
+#
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: EPL-2.0
+#
+# Contributors:
+#   Red Hat, Inc. - initial API and implementation
+#
+set_maven_mirror() {
+    local m2="$HOME"/.m2
+    local settingsXML="$m2"/settings.xml
+
+    [ ! -d "$m2" ] && mkdir -p "$m2"
+
+    if [ ! -f "$settingsXML" ]; then
+        echo "<settings xmlns=\"http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0\"" >> "$settingsXML"
+        echo "  xmlns:xsi=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\"" >> "$settingsXML"
+        echo "  xsi:schemaLocation=\"http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0" >> "$settingsXML"
+        echo "                      https://maven.apache.org/xsd/settings-1.0.0.xsd\">" >> "$settingsXML"
+        echo "  <mirrors>" >> "$settingsXML"
+        echo "    <mirror>" >> "$settingsXML"
+        echo "      <url>\${env.MAVEN_MIRROR_URL}</url>" >> "$settingsXML"
+        echo "      <mirrorOf>external:*</mirrorOf>" >> "$settingsXML"
+        echo "    </mirror>" >> "$settingsXML"
+        echo "  </mirrors>" >> "$settingsXML"
+        echo "</settings>" >> "$settingsXML"
+    else
+        if ! grep -q "<url>\${env.MAVEN_MIRROR_URL}</url>" "$settingsXML"; then
+            if grep -q "<mirrors>" "$settingsXML"; then
+                sed -i 's/<mirrors>/<mirrors>\n    <mirror>\n      <url>${env.MAVEN_MIRROR_URL}<\/url>\n      <mirrorOf>external:\*<\/mirrorOf>\n    <\/mirror>/' "$settingsXML"
+            else
+                sed -i 's/<\/settings>/  <mirrors>\n    <mirror>\n      <url>${env.MAVEN_MIRROR_URL}<\/url>\n      <mirrorOf>external:*<\/mirrorOf>\n    <\/mirror>\n  <\/mirrors>\n<\/settings>/' "$settingsXML"
+            fi
+        fi
+    fi
+}
+
+[ ! -z "$MAVEN_MIRROR_URL" ] && set_maven_mirror
+return 0
diff --git a/dockerfiles/theia-endpoint-runtime/etc/entrypoint.sh b/dockerfiles/theia-endpoint-runtime/etc/entrypoint.sh
index 1f85f5768..525355a37 100755
--- a/dockerfiles/theia-endpoint-runtime/etc/entrypoint.sh
+++ b/dockerfiles/theia-endpoint-runtime/etc/entrypoint.sh
@@ -51,6 +51,8 @@ trap 'responsible_shutdown' SIGHUP SIGTERM SIGINT
 
 cd ${HOME}
 
+[ -f "/before-start.sh" ] && . "/before-start.sh"
+
 # run theia endpoint
 node /home/theia/lib/node/plugin-remote.js &