Sugar factory talk drew a huge crowd

OVER 150 people gathered in the Seven Oaks Hotel in on 29 April to hear local historian John O’Donovan give a talk on the history of the Carlow Sugar Factory, 100 years after it was founded.

Paul Doogue, the mayor of Carlow town, who worked at the sugar factory before it closed in 2005, organised the event and invited John to talk and gave the introduction.

John began his presentation by speaking broadly about the history of sugar manufacturing in Ireland – how the first factory was opened in Mountmellick, with Carlow being the second. The Carlow factory was initially a private operation before falling on hard times and coming under government control in 1933 during a period when the government tried to make Ireland self-sufficient.

The talk then went on to follow the changes and innovations that the factory made to its manufacturing process, especially under the helm of Micheal Joe Costello. John ended by explaining how Ireland’s entry into the EU in 1971 paved the way for the factory’s closure as the Irish market was opened up as a competitive marketplace for the first time.

After the talk, there was a lively question-and-answer session.

John said that it was a night of many reunions as quite a few people had not seen each other since the factory’s closure.

“It was a beautiful evening, just lovely, and we had a little handout that we gave to everybody at the end of the night, which went off well. It included the presentation that I had given plus a bit more information and some photos of the site from when it first opened to when it closed,” John explained.