Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 7 August 2014
“Technical Memories (Part 85) –Plans for Modernisation”
In 1934, the Irish Dunlop Company commenced manufacture in Ireland at its factory at Centre Park Road, held under a lease from Henry Ford & Son. Under a State manufacture licence, the company was to provide at least eighty per cent in quantity of the country’s requirements of pneumatic rubber tyres.
In a Dáil Éireann debate in mid June 1935, Seán Lemass moved the adoption of a quota order, which prohibited the importation of motor tyres and tubes except under licence. During a debate he noted that the Dunlop Co had been informed that it would be the policy of the Government to refuse a licence to any other external company to manufacture in the country any class of goods, which were being produced by that firm in their factory in Cork. Dunlops would have to produce in sufficient quantities of satisfactory quality and at reasonable prices.
Snippets of social history from this time include the foundation for its famous social club or at this time its Athletic Club set up at the works in late 1936. In December of that year, at the Novices’ Cross-Country Championship at Bandon, the club was represented by eight competitors. W A Nestor, a county and Munster sprint champion had joined the workforce in 1936 as well as prominent athlete, Florrie O’Mahony from Ballydehob. Florrie’s brother was Danno who won the NWA World title from Jim Londos in Boston on 30 June 1935, and was known as the “Irish Whip” in celebration of his famous throwing technique. He was also a champion hammer-thrower and a statue of Danno today exists in the heart of Ballydehob.
At the outbreak of World War II, the Dunlop company was producing virtually all types of pneumatic tyres, a complete range of rubber footwear, rubber soles and heels, rubber hot water bottles, golf balls, tennis balls and sundry other articles manufactured with rubber – the output was deemed at a level sufficient to meet the requirements of the home market. However War created a shortage of raw materials and forced the company to concentrate on the production of tyres to the virtual exclusion of other goods. In the Irish Press on 21 November 1941 (p2) the journalist wrote that the Irish Dunlop Company Ltd was appointed official agents by the government for disposal of all grades of salvage rubber. It was illegal to dispose of salvage rubber otherwise than to the government’s authorised agents. Cash payments were to made on the spot who had rubber.
By April 1947, the company entered into a contract to purchase from Messrs Henry Ford & Son Ltd for £260,000 its factory at Marina Cork. It was initially held under a lease, which was due to expire. The then factory was deemed a modern building, containing nearly 200,000 square feet of floor space, fronting upon a deep water berth on the River Lee (Irish Independent, 17 April 1947, p.7). To meet the purchase price and to provide for the cost of extensions onto adjoining ground, and new equipment, a sum of approximately £450,000 was required. The sum of £330,700 was raised through an increase in the company’s issues share capital of 100,000 ordinary shares. Preference shares to existing shareholders and first mortgage debenture stock were to provide the rest of the funding required.
Fast forward to the 1960s and many Irish households and Irish industrial and commercial projects were dependent on Dunlop to a large or minor extent. An article in the Irish Press by journalist Liam Flynn on 23 April 1962 (p.9) reminded readers that the company produced 35,000 golf balls a year and tennis balls were coming onto the market from Cork at the rate of 6,000 dozen a year. Footwear had leaped from 730,000 pairs in 1936 to 1,500,000 pairs in 1961. Although Dunlop supplied the entire country, the output far exceeded the demands and consequently there was a solid export market engineered through their worldwide organisation. Many countries in the world used some Cork products including large markets in Britain and Germany and further afield in South Africa, Pakistan and the US. Despite the Cork work’s connection with the massive worldwide organisation, the Irish section of 2,500 employees was manned almost exclusively by Irish personnel. In an interview by Mr Flynn with Mr E J Power, general manager of the company in Ireland, Mr Power noted of the forecast that the car population of the country was to grow at a faster rates. Mr Power noted: “we are carrying out plans for modernisation, to meet the growing volume of the Irish market”.
Mr Power’s plans were revealed as costing £2million when unveiled in November 1965. The expansion programme included moving the Dunlop head office from Dublin to Cork’s Marina to a specially constructed six-storey block. A new sales head-quarters was to be erected in Dublin. The company had found that the factory and headquarters were best sited together, giving close liaison between management and production departments. The new office block at Cork was designed so that a computer centre could occupy the whole of one floor. The nucleus of the research staff, recruited from Irish universities, then begun in Dunlop’s central research and development division, located near Fort Dunlop, Birmingham.
To be continued…
Captions:
754a. Advertisement for Dunlop’s Tyres, 1960s (Source: Cork City Library)