Five thousand workers, cordite for the Western Front, and a night that shook the town
The Kynoch factory and the 1917 explosion
In 1895 a British munitions company called Kynoch established an explosives works on the north edge of Arklow to manufacture cordite, a propellant that had recently replaced gunpowder in military ammunition. By the First World War the factory employed up to 5,000 people, men and women working in separate areas divided by explosive hazard. Women were paid four shillings a week to the men's twelve. On the night of 22 September 1917, four huts containing workers mixing nitro-glycerine and guncotton exploded. The blast threw people from their beds across the town and was heard twelve miles away. Twenty-seven men died; three of the huts vanished completely, leaving only craters. The factory closed in 1918 when the war ended. The women who worked the cordite lines are still referred to locally as the Arklow gunpowder girls.
From Seán Lemass to Noritake to the auction house: 64 years of bone china
Arklow Pottery
Arklow Pottery opened in 1934 on South Quay, formally launched by Seán Lemass - then Minister for Industry and Commerce - on 29 July 1935. For sixty years it was one of the town's biggest employers, producing earthenware and fine bone china that was exported across the world. Noritake, the Japanese tableware company, took it over in 1977. In April 1998, after losses of £7.5 million over twenty years, Noritake closed the factory with 140 redundancies, citing competition from Asian manufacturers. Arklow Pottery pieces are collector's items now. The Pottery Restaurant at the Arklow Bay Hotel was named in the factory's memory. A community archive project is still preserving the records.
A family, a quay, and over a century of boats
Tyrrell and the first motorised fishing boat in Ireland
The Tyrrell family has been building boats on North Quay since the 19th century. In 1908 they designed and built the OVOCA, the first motorised fishing boat in Ireland or Britain. By the turn of the 20th century Arklow was Ireland's largest fishing port, running a fleet of 80 schooners, brigs and brigantines. The fourth generation of Tyrrells is still building on North Quay today, under the name Arklow Marine Services Ltd, on roughly the same ground where the early 19th-century fleet was fitted out. The Arklow Heritage Museum holds models, logbooks, and photographs from across the full span of this history.
How ore six miles upriver built a harbour
Copper, the Avoca mines, and the port
The discovery of copper at Avoca in the 18th century changed the town's economic geography. The mines produced ore that came down the river and out through Arklow's port in sufficient volume to justify major investment in harbour infrastructure in the 1830s. The mines also left a significant pollution legacy: the Avoca River ran orange for generations from acid mine drainage. The mines closed in 1963. The river has been slowly recovering since, and the mine site is now managed as a heritage area.