Bridget Desmond, Donegal-born Derry & NW entrepreneur - Our Space 14

Fifty years ago Desmond & Sons was Northern Ireland’s largest privately-owned company, with 3,500 workers in factories at Claudy, Drumahoe, Dungiven, Dungannon, Enniskillen, Irvinestown, Magherafelt, Newbuildings, Omagh, Springtown and Swatragh. Since the 1960s it supplied solely to Marks & Spencer.

But the 1974 Multi-Fibre Arrangement and the ensuing globalisation sounded the death knell for the our dozens of clothing factories. When customs barriers were removed against cheaper clothing imports, local businesses could not compete with the skilled but lower-waged workers overseas and our clothing industry moved to Sri Lanka, Morocco, BanglaDesh and other countries with less welfare, or no welfare at all. (Why does President Trump want tariffs?)

“For the wages of one worker in Derry, employers could engage eight women in Turkey, 36 in Sri Lanka, and no fewer than 63 in Bangladesh”! So the jobs were eagerly welcomed by people in those countries. But Derry’s factories closed. In a similar way China, has now been losing some jobs to lower-cost economies like Vietnam.

Bridget’s and her company’s story are told in a magnificent book with copious photographs, published in 2022 by the Ulster Historical Foundation: ‘DESMONDS: Fashioning the Future of Garment Manufacturing 1885-2004’, by Jonathan Hamill.