From the archives: Workers got preliminary tuition in hat making

By Tom Gillespie

PART THREE

EIGHTY-four years ago this month - June 1939 - a group of 21 workers employed at Castlebar Hat Factory embarked on a trip to Belgium to learn the craft of hat making.

In a special article in The Connaught Telegraph they wrote: Along we go through Belgium until we reach our destination, where we arrived at about eight o’clock in the evening. Mr. Claessens and his son were there to greet us and had several cars waiting to take the party to their new quarters for the next few months.

We arrived at Convent Hostel, to be welcomed by several nuns, who were all excited over the ‘dear Irish girls’, and where a magnificent laid-out dining table to accommodate 15 seemed to have all sorts of fruit everywhere.

Next morning all were allowed a long sleep after the long but ever-interesting journey, but most were early afoot to look around the town of Verviers, which had a population of about 40,000 people.

There are 20,000 workers employed in industry, which includes hats, hoops, tweeds, etc., and there is a general movement of traffic going to and fro to the very fine shops of lavish design.

Antiquated trams rattle along, more often as not holding up the traffic; buses galore, with very large American cars in the ascendancy.

At three o’clock the boys and girls were shown over the factory and got a two hours’ preliminary tuition of the work that are to undertake.

It was all very thrilling, as they were getting their first expert training and in a short time to bring that technical experience home with them to Castlebar to impart the knowledge to fellow Irish men and women at home.

And all for the benefit of a big and grand industry, which should have have been as natural to the Ireland of the past as our great woollen and knitting industries, as most or all of the raw material is wool.

After the staff had a few days to settle down at work, and when the tinge of novelty would have worn off, I again visited them, and to me it was the grandest thrill in my life when I saw each one of them at their machines, smiling and happy, and settling into the work with an air of old-timers. It was surprising how fast they were picking up the rhythm of the process.

When I asked each one of them how they liked their work they said it was grand. Then I asked them about their food and it was agreeing with them, and they told me they were treated very well indeed; but they had only one complaint - that they were anxious to meet an English-speaking priest.

Arrangements to this end were made at once, a Jesuit fluent in several languages being available.

And so the story comes to a close until the next party are sent away; and then all will be looking forward to coming home again for the Christmas with a training and a trade to help in the opening of Castlebar to a new industrial life.

As a last word, I would like to extend my thanks to Mr. Claessens for all the trouble and thought he gave to making our boys and girls comfortable and happy, and praise for his factory workers, who took so kindly to our people ands are so helpful in instructing them.

Jump forward a year to September 1940, when The Connaught Telegraph reported that the hat factory - Western Hats Limited - would be in full production within a few months after the trainees had returned, fully trained, from Belgium.

The new factory building covered a nine-acre site and stands on the main road leading to Newport.

It was some two years since a number of business and public men in the county conceived the idea of bringing to Castlebar some such industry as would enable the town keep apace with national developments and accordingly help to solve the question of unemployment and migration.

With a number of worthy ends in view they set about getting the government interested in the project, and shortly the aid of Belgian and other foreign technical experts was successfully enlisted.

Much local financial support was also secured and soon work on the elaborate building was commenced.

About the same time a large body of boys and girls from around Castlebar were sent to Verviers, in Belgium, in order to receive technical training in the management of various machines which are used in the process of hood-making and hat-shaping.

During their stay abroad work on the new factory in Castlebar was proceeding, but with the outbreak of war many of the plans of the directors were upset and really formidable obstacles were placed in their way because a great deal of the materials and machinery necessary had to be imported from Belgium and other lands.

Constant communications with interests in the latter-mentioned country had to be maintained, and consequently great handicaps arose when Belgium was invaded.

Nevertheless, the directors of the company worked energetically with a view to keeping the good work in progress, and though harried by upsets and drawbacks, they managed to smooth over all of these difficulties.

The opening of the factory had been due in the main to the active cooperation of the workers and technicians and the directorate, which includes Senator John Eddie McEllin, M. Schmolka, Senator Claessens of Belgium and the secretary, Mr. O’Dwyer, with others.

The Connaught Telegraph stated in 1940: “Today the factory stands as a tribute to all concerned and it is a striking testimony to Irish industry, skill and workmanship.”

Concluded.