Sir,—I found Bernard Share’s article, ‘In our own image: the branding of industrial Ireland’ (HI Winter 1998), particularly interesting, having only recently retired from nearly fifty years in Irish retailing. The first thing I did with my new freedom was to write and publish Retailing in Wexford 1930-1990, which covered similar ground.
I believe he is too critical of those who set up new industries in the newly-established Irish Free State. Without those tariff walls the vast majority of the hundreds of new factories would not have survived, even if ever established. The Irish public were brain-washed into believing that ‘English was best’. I say this from personal experience. In the ‘40s and ‘50s, few asked for Irish manufacture; many sought ‘Made in England’ goods.
Regarding the branding of goods, my recollection is of a large number of brand names. Boot polish—Nugget and Cherry Blossom; shoelaces—ElJay; men’s boots—Farmers Friend, Bone Dry and Dri-phit; ladies’ shoes—Hanover, Queen Maeve and Diminuette; boys’/girls’footwear—Little Duke, Little Earl, Little Duchess and Jumping-Jacks; men’s/boys’ suits—Talkraft, Dubtex, Danus and Polikoff; ladies’ knitwear—Dorothy Pinnock, Luxury, Highland, Duhallow and Sunbeam Wolsey; ladies’ coats—Dorene, Cater Platt, Valstar and Astor; flour (in Wexford)—Health in a bag. I could go on and on. These factories gave jobs to thousands of Irish men and women—well done Seán Lemass!—Yours etc.,
JIM JENKINS
Wexford
