‘I’m here 22 years and I’m devastated’
Talk of an 11th-hour rescue package for the troubled company had washed hope around the area earlier this week, but the pale faces of employees as they trickled out of the factory yesterday evening reflected the news they had been dreading. “I’m here 22 years and I’m just devastated now,” said Nellie Dalton. “What else can you say, it’s just so sad.” Her son John and daughter-in-law Anna also work at Cappoquin Chickens, meaning a lot of worry now within the Dalton family. Nellie herself wasn’t confident about alternative employment: “At my age now, I don’t know.”
Danny Coughlan, who worked for the processing plant owned by the O’Connor family for almost 40 years, said he felt for the younger workers. “There’s a good, young workforce in there who were giving a lot of their time to the firm and I feel sorry for those. Young people with mortgages. It is a sad day for the whole area because there’s a big spin-off in the services industries as well.”
