|
Moville's Fingal shirt factory
Chances are, the clothes you're wearing as you read this were manufactured
in China or India, or the Far East. But for more than 100 years,
Inishowen and Derry was at the centre of a great textile boom and
clothing manufactured here was exported all around the world.
Mary Theresa McDonald (third from left in the back row in picture)
recalled the boon the Fingal Clothing Factory provided to postwar
Moville. "There was no work in Moville, especially not for
girls," she said. "There was no money and things were
very tough. If it hadn't been for the factory, me and everyone belonging
to me would have had to go to England or America. That factory was
a blessing to Moville."
Joe McIvor opened the Fingal Clothing Factory back in 1948. "He
had a wee business going up near The Rock Bar and then opened the
factory here", Mary Theresa recalled. "My husband worked
on the Swilly Railway and he was one of the men that brought the
machinery from The Rock down to this factory."
Mary Theresa has fond memories of working there. "It was a
great place to work. If it hadn't have been for Joe McIvor we would
be off in America and probably wouldn't be here at all." She
was there on the day the factory opened. "I could use the sewing
machine before I started in the factory," Mary Theresa recalled.
"My mother used to make all our clothes when we were young
and she had taught me how to use it." Knowing how to use the
machine was a very useful skill, and not all the girls who joined
the factory would have known how to use them. But while I knew how
to use the machine, I didn't know anything about shirts," she
laughed. The shirt was cut and then delivered to the girls for making
it up. "There was the front of the shirt, the back, the yoke,
the collar, the cuffs, the sleeves, and everything was rolled up
like you can see in the picture [see the large rolls of material
that sit in front of the women] and given to us. We were on an assembly
line, and you did your part of it - say the cuffs - and handed it
to the next person who would do the next part."
The factory made shirts at first, but then started to make pyjamas.
They couldn't be bought locally and most of the produce was exported,
although some items were sold in Dublin. Initially the girls in
the factory were on a flat wage, but after a year or 18 moths when
they were fully trained, pay was based on piecework where the girls
earned a set amount per dozen shirts.
Back
|
