This article is from page 24 of the 2011-09-27 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 24 JPG
WHILE Malbay Manufacturing played a central role in life in Miltown Malbay and the wider west Clare community for more than half a century, there are young people in the town for whom the famous factory holds almost no relevance.
Indeed, as the town marked the quarter-century anniversary of its closure last week, one of the most common phrases to be heard around town was “I can’t believe it’s been that long”.
With a whole generation of teenagers and young adults born too late to remember the landmark facility, students at Youthreach Miltown Malbay, with the help of textiles texture Nicola Barner, have created a docu- mentary featuring interviews with employees from the facility and a host of old photographs.
“Most of us hadn’t realised that the factory had even existed so, when we came upon the idea, it seemed to us like a really good thing to do the documentary on. It took a lot of work but after a while we were able to find out more about the factory, the people who worked in it and the type of work that they did there,” said Rebecca Walker from Kilkee.
“We did a lot of work on the internet to find out about the factory and then we interviewed a lot of local people who would have worked in the factory going back down the years.”
Students from Youthreach took part in every stage of producing the documentary, from research and camera work, to interviewing and digital editing.
“It was very interesting to be part of making the documentary. We found out a lot about making documentaries and about using cameras and interviewing people,” said Grace Burke from Ennistymon.
“My job was to do some of the interviews, which was very interesting. Some of the other people who took part learned about using the cameras and more technical things like that. We get a FETAC Level Three certificate from doing the course in digital film-making and it is something that we would be interested in doing more of in the future.”
The work included a section of development education which tracked the changing global trends in textile manufactoring over a number of decades. This, according to Youthreach co-ordinator Josephine Dempsey, was a key part of the course for students.
“As part of the documentary, the students also did some work on development education and a lot of work on clothing and where a lot of the cloths that are coming into Ireland from Asia and other places are coming from. They also interview a lot of people around Miltown to check what they knew about where their own clothes were coming from, asking were the cloths produced in a sweat shop or in a more equitable environment” she said.
“That is the main reason why the factory closed. They just couldn’t compete any longer with imports coming in from the Third World. The factory here was very successful for a long time and produced a really good quality product. They used to supply a lot to the Italian market, to Macy’s in America as well as to Dunnes Stores, Marks and Spencers and Penneys.
“The impact that it had on the town was huge. There were all the people who worked there but it also had a big impact on the local shops and pubs. It also helped generate a lot of cottage industries around the area because women who had children and could no longer come into the factory were encouraged to work from home. It was the biggest employer in west Clare and, at one stage, there were three buses being shuttled in every day.”