Residents of Clonmel, Co Tipperary, will be only too familiar with the emotions experienced by their counterparts in Derry following yesterday's announcement of job losses at the town's Seagate plant.
Ten years ago, the same company announced that it was closing its disk manufacturing plant in Clonmel with the loss of some 1,400 jobs.
The move was greeted with widespread dismay at the time. Last night, the mayor of Clonmel, Cllr Phil Prendergast, recalled walking around the streets of the town and seeing people "looking like they had received a slap in the face".
In a further blow to the town, German clothes maker Schiesser ceased production at its Clonmel plant in 1999, leading to the loss of 135 jobs.
However, in a development that might offer some solace to the employees of Seagate's Limavady factory in Derry, the Seagate facility in Clonmel subsequently became home to US medical device manufacturer Guidant.
In 2004, the then minister for enterprise, trade and employment, Mary Harney, announced that Guidant was expanding its workforce by 1,000 people, adding to the 1,000 people already employed at its plant.
At the time, she said the decision of Guidant to locate the production of its new generation of stent medical devices in the town was a tribute to the local management team at the company.
According to Ms Prendergast, other companies such as Clonmel Healthcare are big employers in the town, something which she said was a direct result of the positive approach taken by the town following Seagate's decision to close. This included the setting up of a taskforce to examine how to market the town and its skilled workforce to prospective employers.
"No two towns are the same," she added. "But Clonmel is certainly a model others could look at."