Today at 2:45pm the managers in Waterford Crystal called the staff into a meeting. It appears the agenda was pretty short, the factory was closing, anyone who had cars in the parking lot had until 3pm to get them out. Of course as you can imagine the 800 staff did not take this lying down and 100 are currently occupying the visitor center and campaigning for, well I suppose no one is quite sure what they are campaigning for seeing how the factory is closing down so their negotiating position is some what like a car negotiating with a moose on the Trans-Canada highway at 3am. No one is walking away from this incident with a happy story to tell.
Anyway you might wonder why I'm mentioning a piece of Irish industrial relations news on the Noseworthy blog. Waterford Crystal is one of those iconic Irish brands, a name famous around the world, or at least in the world of the Irish diaspora. In Ireland it seems anyone who got married since the 1950's was guaranteed to have two things in their new house, a sacred heart picture and a collection of Waterford Crystal. That collection would either be on display in glass cabinet safely out of reach of the kids or wrapped up and stored in the attic until it could be passed on to those kids as a new form of family heirloom.
With that history in mind when Lauren invited her Irish boyfriend (me, in case you are confused) over to Canada to accompany her to her baby sisters wedding there was only one question in my mind, "A Waterford Crystal bowl or a picture frame?". Seeing how Lauren and myself both love photography the picture frame won out. Lauren could worry about finding a suit I would be willing to wear, I would worry about getting the Waterford Crystal.
When Laurens best friend Carla got married another piece of Waterford Crystal was of course straight onto the shopping list. When I recently found out that Waterford Crystal did a range of Christmas decorations I thought they would make a nice gift for the Noseworthy household. A seasonal link to Ireland, the country that had laid claim to one of their daughters.
The idea that Waterford Crystal may soon cease to exist and certainly will cease production in Ireland is sad. Something distinctly and recognisably Irish will be lost. Perhaps we will have to pick up a couple of pieces to add to the Noseworthy collection before the shelves empty and the shops restock with crystal from other brands, counties and countries.
Anyway you might wonder why I'm mentioning a piece of Irish industrial relations news on the Noseworthy blog. Waterford Crystal is one of those iconic Irish brands, a name famous around the world, or at least in the world of the Irish diaspora. In Ireland it seems anyone who got married since the 1950's was guaranteed to have two things in their new house, a sacred heart picture and a collection of Waterford Crystal. That collection would either be on display in glass cabinet safely out of reach of the kids or wrapped up and stored in the attic until it could be passed on to those kids as a new form of family heirloom.
With that history in mind when Lauren invited her Irish boyfriend (me, in case you are confused) over to Canada to accompany her to her baby sisters wedding there was only one question in my mind, "A Waterford Crystal bowl or a picture frame?". Seeing how Lauren and myself both love photography the picture frame won out. Lauren could worry about finding a suit I would be willing to wear, I would worry about getting the Waterford Crystal.
When Laurens best friend Carla got married another piece of Waterford Crystal was of course straight onto the shopping list. When I recently found out that Waterford Crystal did a range of Christmas decorations I thought they would make a nice gift for the Noseworthy household. A seasonal link to Ireland, the country that had laid claim to one of their daughters.
The idea that Waterford Crystal may soon cease to exist and certainly will cease production in Ireland is sad. Something distinctly and recognisably Irish will be lost. Perhaps we will have to pick up a couple of pieces to add to the Noseworthy collection before the shelves empty and the shops restock with crystal from other brands, counties and countries.
Declan, thanks for posting this. This is really sad news. It is something so clearly identified with Ireland and to lose it would be such a shame. We've been having layoffs over here and bankruptcies and such, but no one cleaning house like this. I know Mom would be sad! She loves the gifts you and Lauren have given her over the years.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Sandi. I'll be sad to see it close as well, they made such beautiful products. Mom also wanted to add that she will be sad to see it closed. She said it's one of three things that people of Newfoundland-Irish descent of her age group were familiar with: the Irish sweepstakes, Waterford Crystal and the McNulty family! (She was correcting my grammar and punctuation as I was writing this!)
ReplyDeleteThis kind of thing is happening too often these days. I wouldn't describe myself as a socialist, but too much development and desire to make money and cut costs just ruins everything (I see it every day).
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