In the early fifties, Sisk’s (led by foreman Jack Lillis ) built a factory ‘out the country’ on a two-and-a-half acres on Sandy Road. It was part of a 15-acre site and the state-of-the-art building would house an industry called Galway Textile Printers which would become known as ‘The Cotton Factory’ or even ‘The Cotton’. We already had a hat factory and a china factory in Galway, but this was industry on a new scale in here. They quickly became one of the biggest employers in the west of Ireland. A number of those who worked there were specialists who were brought in to help set up the factory, but most of the employees were local.
The establishment of this industry heralded in a new era for Galway as several other industries came to the city within a short time. In the case of this enterprise, it was interesting how many of the staff returned from England to work here. The factory produced mainly printed cotton with a smaller amount of linen and rayon. They also produced hand-printed silk as well as plain dyeing of linen, rayon and cotton. They gave a crease resisting finish to cotton and a finish to silk and furnishing cotton. Most of the fabrics were exclusively for export and were mainly used for making ladies' dresses, curtains etc.
The screen-printing tables on which they hand-printed silk were 100 yards long and this work was done by Dickie O’Connor, ‘Kruger’ Griffin, Mick Courtney, John Shaughnessy, ‘Mossy’ Power, Eamonn Naughton and John O’Gorman. The vast hallway workrooms and the actual printing processes were very impressive. The tremendous size and scope of the industry was somewhat of a novelty in Galway, and yet there was an informal atmosphere about the place.
All of the dyes and colours were mixed in “the colour kitchen” by Joe Lally, Mick Kelly and Paddy Concannon under the watchful eye of Pat Connolly from Castlegar. The factory had its own design team, headed by Patricia Murray with help from Hilary Martyn, Paddy McDonagh and man named Nepker. Jimmy O’Connell was in the colour department; Jimmy Barry and Paddy McDonagh were in dyeing; Eamonn Fay was in charge of stores; Johnny Harrison was at the sanforiser, the machine used to finish fabrics; Dennis Lally and Paddy O’Brien were in bleaching; the overseer in finishing was an American named Cooney, and you would also find Eugene O’Sullivan, Joe Canavan, Paddy Lenihan, Gay Walsh, Michael Naughton, Peter Griffin and Robert Garvey there; Theresa Darcy, Pauline Nolan, Kevin Crowley, Mattie Costelloe, Joesphine Carrick and Michael Quaine were in dispatch.
Among those in the office were Una Walsh, Anne Watson, Mary Farrell, Theresa Rabbitt, Bernie and Marie Phillips, Kay Kilgarriff, Carmel Casey, Jennifer Molloy, Michael Fox, Louis O’Grady, Brendan O’Beirne, Rose and Dermot Bray, Maura Browne, Mickey Walsh, Noel Gilmore, Bobby Molloy, Peter Burke and Peter Molloy. Dennis O’Brien was in charge of wages; Johnny Cox, Peter Keady, Joe Coffey and a man named Kulicki worked as carpenters; Joe Coffey, ‘Ginger’ Noone, Mickey Colbert, ‘Staff’ Higgins and Martin Welby were the maintenance department; Anne Lally and Brendan Hayes worked in the laboratory; and Des Kenny was in personnel and later became export manager. There were, of course, a great many others who were employed here, too numerous to mention.
In 1963, an American company called Cranston took over the plant at a time when the factory was operating on a one week on, one week off basis. The ‘Cotton’ closed down in the late seventies.
The company’s first annual dinner and social was held in the Warwick Hotel and our image of the organizing committee shows, back row, left to right: Joe Geoghegan, Joe Canavan, Tom Cox, John Rabbitte, Denis O’Brien and C Cooke. In front are Des Kenny, LB Jones, managing director, Marie Phillips and Mickey Walsh.
For a time, they had a good hurling team and also a good soccer team known as Silva United. Our photograph shows the Gaelic football team that played in the inter-firms competition in 1975. They are, back row: Tony Dilleen, Pake O’Connor, Bill Delaney, Colm O’Brien, Michael O’Connor, Bernard Concar, Gerry Lynskey, Michael Walsh, Michael Hackett. In front are John Clery, Mickey O’Sullivan, Jimmy O’Sullivan, Michael O’Connor, Paddy McDonagh, Henry O’Connor, Martin Cooney and Tom Glynn. As GTP did not have enough players to make up a team, this group included a few ‘imports’.
