Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 20 February 2014
“Technical Memories (Part 72) – Markets of Ferocity”
The first speaker at the opening ceremony of Whitegate on 22 September 1959 was the Chairman of the Irish Refining Company Mr D A C Dewdney, who was introduced by Dr R R Lawton, general manager of the company (continued from last week). Mr Dewdney spoke from a rostrum erected at the end of the Mechanical Services Hall and behind him was the triptych which was involved in the formal opening by the Taoiseach Seán Lemass. Surmounting the triptych was a painting by Soirle MacCana’s of the complete refinery.
In the course of his speech, and detailed in the Cork Examiner Mr Dewdney recalled that it while William Norton TD was Minister for Industry and Commerce that the real seeds of the refinery were sown and it was through Mr Norton’s persistence and persuasion that the three oil companies concerned – Caltex, Shell-Mex BP, and Esso – came to accept the Irish Government’s proposal that the refinery should be built. He voiced the debt of gratitude the Irish Refining Company gave to the Chairman of the Industrial Development Authority, Dr Beddy. From the moment, the Refinery Company had decided to expend £12million on the refinery, they had co-operation from all concerned – government departments, Cork County Council, the Cork Harbour Board, and the Electricity Supply Board. Mr Dewney continued; “How satisfactory, then, is it for me to be able to place on record the fact that we were able to have the refinery built exclusively with Irish labour, running at times into over 2,000 men, and this, in spite of the complexity and technical demands of such an operation”.
Mr Dewdney noted that the problem of recruitment of staff for operating the refinery had not been an issue. People with the requisite skills or potential ability became available in the area in large numbers. Irish materials were also used. The Lumus Company were the contractors. All the administration buildings were designed by Irish architect, Mr James Rupert Boyd Barrett and built by the Cork firm of builders, Messrs Hegarty and Sons. Boyd Barrett had nearly half a century of practice under his belt and had designed many major buildings throughout Ireland, including the Department of Industry and Commerce in Dublin, four new churches in Cork and ten new churches in the Diocese of Kerry. Dewdney remarked; “This was an Irish refinery in conception and in fact. It started a new industry for Ireland and would make a significant contribution towards the steady progress of the Irish economy. It would give added impetus to the drive towards greater industrialisation”. Dewdney also spoke of a greatly increased movement of shipping into the Port of Cork. At that time, the refinery was operating at an annual throughput of about one and half million tons. Taking crude oil in and products out represented a very considerable volume of shipping he detailed; “I do not believe there is any industry in the world where competition for markets is fiercer or more sustained than it is in the oil industry”.
In his speech, Minister for Industry and Commerce Jack Lynch praised the Refinery Company’s confidence in the developing economy of Ireland. This he alerted to was further illustrated in that the capacity of output of the finished product was about 50 per cent in excess of the contemporary Irish market of one million tons per annum. This was to provide for an expected continuing expansion in demand due to increased use of petroleum products in railways, shipping, jet aircraft and commercial and private motor vehicles, as well as in industry where industrial fuel oil was expected to be used more and more as an alternative to coal.
According to Jack Lynch, Whitegate Oil Refinery would give permanent employment to over 400 workers. These were to be drawn from many parts of the country and it would provide opportunities for Irish workers to acquire training and to obtain employment as skilled craftsmen and in scientific and technical work. He described that higher technical, technological and professional training programmes were to be provided in the local vocational schools, in technical institutes like that in Cork City and in University College Cork. He argued that as new forms of training would be required every effort would be made to construct proper facilities. On this point, he highlighted the fact that many of the technicians amongst the refinery employees were products of technical schools and more than 50 were graduates of Irish universities. Indeed, about this time, and as a side remark the committee of the Crawford Municipal Technical Institute through the leadership of William Ellis TD began to call for a new technology college, of which it was to take another decade or so before it came to fruition (Cork VEC Minutes).
Jack Lynch also noted of Cork Harbour as one of the world’s finest harbours. He referred to the new Verolme dockyard in the course of construction, the construction of Cork Airport, Irish Steel Holdings in the middle of the harbour were planning major expansion, and a new fertiliser factory was planned. These are also worthwhile to have a quick look at in terms of the enormous technical expertise needed to carry them out.
To be continued….
Caption:
729a. Cork Harbour, c.1900, from Queenstown/ later Cobh (source: Cork City Museum)