13 December 2017
By Mary Bermingham
mary@TheCork.ie
Kate Lehane, Chair of Engineers Ireland, Denis McSweeney, Guest Speaker and Pádraig Leahy, Event Organiser at ‘Henry Ford The Cork Connection’ event organised by Engineers Ireland at the site of the Cork Ford Plant. Marina Commerical Park, Cork. 7th December 2017. Photo: Rob Lamb
Denis McSweeney, former Marketing Director at Henry Ford & Son delivered one of the ‘Engineers Ireland Winter Lecture Series’ on 7th December in the former Ford Factory on Cork’s Centre Park Road.
Henry Ford established a company in Ireland in 1917 and the event had an enormous impact on the region, and the country. Denis started work in the Sales & Marketing Department of Henry Ford & Son in 1971 and he spent 39 years working for the Ford Company at various locations around Europe before retiring as Marketing Director in 2010. He traced the Ford journey from Ballinscarthy to America and back to Cork. He talked about the design and construction of the factory on the site of the old Cork Racecourse. He also discussed the social impact of Ford on Cork and illustrates his presentation with historic slides.
William Cuddy, Hon. Sec. of the Irish Model T Ford Club brought a Cork Made Model T, which rolled off the assembly line in 1926
