Former employees meet up to reminisce old times 33 years after Cork's Ford plant shut

It was a tradition that started among Ford employees all of 48 years ago.

In 1969, a group in the factory went on a religious retreat run by the Dominicans. It became an annual fixture in the company’s calendar, even after the Marina plant closed 15 years later — and, remarkably, it is still going strong nearly half a century on.

Each year, just before Christmas, the group spends two days at Ennismore Retreat Centre just across the River Lee from their old factory, in Montenotte, in Cork city. Here, they take time out from daily life to to reflect and reminisce.