Devastated workers struggle to accept job losses

TEARS welled in the eyes of workers as the owner of the Cork textiles plant destroyed by fire told them it was not going to rise from the ashes.

More than 100 workers, some with over 30 years service, clung to a thread of hope at a meeting with the owners of the Refond plant in Blackpool yesterday, in a hotel just yards from the burnt-out shell of the factory.

Martin Buckley, who ran the plant for the last eight years, shook hands with dozens of emotional workers as they left the meeting.