At 8.00 last night the night shift workers going into Seagate to receive the bad news passed their day-shift colleagues emerging with their sentences already pronounced. The condemned exchanged feelings of anger, confusion and bitterness with those about to be condemned.
Amid the clusters of men and women who discussed the abrupt termination of their livelihoods there was a mixture of mute shock and spontaneous outrage.
The axe had fallen so suddenly that many could hardly comprehend what had happened.
"It was on RTE news before we knew," said Ms Pamela Caulfield (19), a clean-room operator from Clonmel. "Only today we were given our two-year review and were told how much we were going to get each year for the next five years."
"Our Christmas party is to be tomorrow night," said Ms Caroline Smith (20), also from Clonmel. "You pay £5 and the company gives you an £8.50 voucher for drinks - you get your fiver back and the price of one drink."
She and her friends had already decided to face down adversity - "We're going anyway," she declared.
The day shift had been called to a mass meeting in the canteen at 6.30 p.m. where the managing director, Mr Ron Klaas, simply told them, they said, that the product could be produced far more cheaply in the Far East.
Ms Philomena Walsh was angry with herself that she had not pressed more questions.
"I was after hearing that 1,400 people were going, and I was thinking of all the wives and families. What I did say was that if they were going to close down the plant it would have to be done in a proper manner - with time allowed to look for alternatives."
Labour councillor Mr Joe Walsh, who is a supervisor, from Kilmacow in south Kilkenny, said: "We don't intend to lie down and let it close. We want to know why. We don't have a union here as such, but all the workers have to pull together in an organised way."
All were agreed that the impact on lifestyles will be enormous. "A lot of the employees, over the last two years, would have raised mortgages, bought new cars, and so on," said Ms Maria Dunne from Cashel.
"I'll be going back on the lone parent's allowance," agreed Ms Clare Casey, from Clonmel, who had just become a car-owner on the strength of her wages.
Wages at Seagate had ranged from £160 a week for a beginner to £190 gross after two years. The workers said they had been assured that they would get statutory redundancy - between 10 and 15 weeks' pay for those with two years' service.
The decimation of its labour force will take time to sink in with Clonmel's population of 15,000. And the collapse will have repercussions as far away as Tipperary, Thurles, Cashel and Carrick-on-Suir.
Clonmel councillor Mr Michael O'Brien said last night: "The whole town is stunned. We don't know what's going on.
"You must realise that this was a factory of very young workers, many of them preparing for marriage. We appeal to the lending societies to do everything in their power to make life easier for them. "This is the greatest blow Clonmel has had. When is our bad luck going to stop?"
The mayor, Cllr Tommy Norris, has called an emergency meeting of the borough council for this morning. As the Chamber of Commerce met Seagate management last night, much of Clonmel's population was celebrating Christmas at various functions, still unaware of the devastating blow that had fallen.