From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian
In December 1937, Sean Lemass, the then Minister for Industry and Commerce, paid a visit to the Cork Ford plant. During the visit he declared himself very impressed with the plant's level of activity and with the large amount of material of wholly Irish manufacture being used in the production of cars.
In fact, in the year 1937, Ford achieved record car sales in the Irish Free State taking nearly 70 per cent of all new car sales - a record which still stands today.
During 1937, Ford sold 5,893 new cars compared to the second placed marque, Morris, who achieved just 1,352, while third placed Austin sold just 811 units. The following year, 1938, the company reached yet another milestone when it produced its 25,000th vehicle since becoming an assembly plant in 1932. 1938 was also the 21st anniversary of the company's existence in Cork and this was celebrated by holding an Open House at the Cork plant.
The public was invited on guided tours of the factory and visitors arriving by road were able to compete for special cash prizes for the best-kept Ford car while a special prize was awarded to the driver of the vehicle "driven from the farthest point in Ireland".
During this Open House week, no less than 16,500 visitors took the opportunity to visit the Cork plant.
In many ways 1938 marked the high point of Ford's existence in Cork for the following year World War II broke out. Of course, Ireland remained neutral and at first there was little to bother the Cork plant. Permission was requested to manufacture aero-engine components for export but the government refused this. A large contingent of workers from the factory volunteered to go to England and worked at Dagenham or at the Ford 'shadow' aero-engine factory at Manchester.
Inevitably sales - and consequently production - wound down and it became increasingly hard to obtain spares.
Small shipments of Dearborn V-8 vehicles and components were brought in from America via Spain and many of these were given pick-up bodies and supplied to the Irish Army. By 1942 the situation was critical and the priority was to supply spare parts to keep existing vehicles going.
Welding and re-machining reclaimed gears which normally would have been scrapped, and parts thus reclaimed were usually prominently marked WEST - 'War Emergency Salvaged Parts'. Axle parts were made from old tram axles purchased from the Great Southern Railway and Ford employees scoured the country for the materials to keep the factory running.
Unable to build cars because of the shortages, the company looked for other ways to assist in relieving the national emergency. The results were often strange. Wooden clogs; wheeled carriages for Irish Army bren guns; screwdrivers made from old valve stems and, most bizarre of all, straightened nails! The nails were removed from packing cases and salvaged - together with the timber - by employees who were paid 9d an hour for this activity.
In addition, the company farmed the land on the factory estate together with a further 74 acres at Carrigtwohill, and also employed a large workforce in harvesting turf at a peat bog at Nad. This turf was stored and sold at the Marina plant.
It was not until February 1946 that the first post-war car to be assembled in Ireland - a 10hp Prefect - rolled off the production lines. Few car plants in the world can have existed through such a strange period and returned to car manufacture as Ford of Cork.