The indomitable spirit of Charleville: How a single company's closure birthed an engineering hub

That remarkable story of how adversity was turned into opportunity is told in a new book, Engineering in the Golden Vale, written by Michael McGrath. Picture Denis Minihane.

The enduring legacy of an engineering company founded by a farmers’ co-op in Charleville in 1956 continues to impact communities along the Cork-Limerick border.

Up to 1,500 jobs were created in over 20 individual businesses set up by former workers of Golden Vale Engineering (GVE) after it was closed in 1983 with the loss of 167 jobs.

That remarkable story of how adversity was turned into opportunity is told in a new book, Engineering in the Golden Vale, written by Michael McGrath.

He worked in collaboration with John McMahon, a founder member of BCD Engineering, who first mooted the idea of the book, and Tim Murphy, director, Flow Technology, two of the businesses that evolved out of GVE.

The trio’s introduction to the 319-page illustrated publication notes that the vibrant legacy of the world class engineering companies that flowed directly and indirectly from GVE, has created a highly competent skill-base of experience in design, fabrication, construction and maintenance.

“This often-overlooked indigenous engineering cluster continues to provide good employment, career and economic opportunities in a rural area, and have made a significant contribution to local communities over the past 70 years, with a promising outlook for this to continue to thrive into the future.

“Yet, this is also a story of individuals – a collection of individual stories – which we sought to collate and capture in order to tell the origin of a remarkable engineering cluster in our region,” they explain.

The book, published by Liam Hayes, was first mooted by John McMahon, a Miltown Malbay, Co Clare man, who joined GVE in 1977 and later became one of the founders of BCD Engineering, now employing 380 people across three sites in Charleville, Milan and Pennsylvania.

GVE was the brainchild of a visionary dairy scientist, Dave O’Loughlin, who identified a commercial opportunity 70 years ago, arising from a Department of Agriculture move to rid the country of bovine tuberculosis.

All future skim milk delivered to creameries had to be pasteurised, creating an urgent need for the supply and installation of equipment to carry out the process.

At the time O’Loughlin, a creamery manager’s son from Tobernea, Kilmallock, Co Limerick, and a former Irish rugby international, was sales manager at Golden Vale Food Products and later became general manager of the overall co-op.

One of his great strengths was an ability to recruit people with innovative minds and a determination to set and achieve goals with a commitment to world class quality.

He appointed an innovative UCC graduate, Denis Murphy, a native of Kenmare, Co. Kerry, to head up what became known as Golden Vale Engineering.

It grew from the use of second-hand Nissan huts as workshops to a modern state of the art complex employing 320 jobs at peak and winning valuable contracts at home and abroad.

These included milk processing plants including one in Wales for the British Milk Marketing Board, which Queen Elizabeth 11 officially opened in 1976, and the installation of sixteen fermentation vessels for Guinness Brewery in Nigeria.

Dave O’Loughlin died unexpectedly in 1971, but GVE under Murphy’s astute leadership continued to play a crucial role in the local economy and in the stainless-steel industry.

Despite a downturn in the stainless-steel market, the division achieved a significant profit in 1975, but a year later there was speculation that the business was up for sale.

Denis Murphy put in a bid but it was rejected by the co-op’s board of management. He resigned in 1978 and went on to start his own stainless-steel business, Flotek, still flourishing in Charleville, as Flow Technology.

The eventual closure of GVE in 1983 was a devastating bow blow for the workers and the local community. Skilled personnel became redundant but many of them faced up to the challenges and started their own enterprises.

Professor Shane Kilcommins, Acting President, University of Limerick, notes in a foreword to Engineering in the Golden Vale, that the number of engineering companies that have sprung up in the Golden Vale region is a fitting legacy of the strong foundation provided by GVE.

While the original application for most of these companies was engineering services related to dairy produce processing, they expanded their expertise to support critical industry sectors for the Irish economy, such as oil, gas and refinery, power generation, pharmaceutical and biopharma.

But the book, he added, is also about people, community spirit, hope, ambition, belief, resilience and pride.