Lord Mayor of Cork was an unsung hero when Ford production began in 1919

Many people played a role in Henry Ford setting up the plant in his ancestral home in Cork, and one of the unsung heroes may well have been the Lord Mayor of Cork when the factory began production in 1919, William F. O’Connor.

His daughter, Rose Mary O’Connor O’Regan O’Brien, says her father was an acquaintance of the motor magnate and explains: “He went to America and that’s how he got involved with the Fords. He was friendly with Henry.”

A photograph in her possession shows her father sitting atop the first Fordson tractor produced on the Marina on July 4, 1919 — American Independence Day.