When the USA was voted Country of the Century by Time magazine in 1999, it was the ultimate reward for a culmination of technological, socio-economic and business developments from the introduction of the motor car to landing an astronaut on the moon.
The case for Ireland was a little different. As a people we were on the island for over 10,000 years but we were particularly restrained as a colonial entity for the best part of 800 years. By the early 1920s we were heading out on our own again. It was a much more difficult road than that of the USA, but in spite of many obstacles we made it through to the finishing line all the same.
Shandon Hats from Cork City was founded in 1901 as the old Queen Victoria passed away and mirrors our business evolution through the growing pains of a new nation state and all of the trials and tribulations that came with it. Shandon Hats is now a long established company with a long and proud history of design, quality and manufacturing of caps and hats.
In the early 1920s when our first independent Government looked around at what they had to start with, they realized that they had very little. In the previous centuries of colonization we had become an agricultural market garden to feed Britain and its Colonies.
The Industrial Revolution was never allowed to reach us and apart from some areas in the northern part of the country there was no industrial base in the south of the country at this time.
However, with a strong innovative spirit that launched and developed projects like Ardnacrusha, Shannon Airport, Bord na Mona and the attraction of a Multinational Industrial base we have achieved a great deal in the past 100 years, and we should be very proud of this.
Shandon Hats, established in 1901 by Thomas O’Gorman, the original operating company began production 1902. This was a time when horse power was a lot safer when the horses had it. In 1933 they moved operations to Cork’s historic Butter Exchange Building based on Exchange Street and became firmly established as a quality and specialist company of caps and hats.
Ireland was certainly restrained during the colonial period but if we journey upstream a bit in time we will find an Irish people with a great economic and cultural tradition that has helped the advance of civilization in a global context. In the Monastic period we traveled extensively throughout Europe, providing the people in these areas with learning and religion. Newgrange was constructed over 5000 years ago, at the same time as the Egyptian pyramids, by an Irish race that had a knowledge of trigonometry.
We also produced intricate and priceless works such as the Book of Kells, the Ardagh Chalice and knowledge of navigation may have seen St. Brendan reach Newfoundland as early as the 6th century. We have also produced literary giants such as Swift, Yeats, Shaw, Wilde, Joyce and Heaney that are now known and respected worldwide.
Disaster struck Shandon Hats on the night of 30th December, 1976 when the factory was burned to the ground. Never a family to renege on its valued customer and employees, they set up again as quickly as possible on the Sunbeam site in Blackpool on the Northside of Cork City.
As regards the name Shandon, The Butter Exchange where the company manufactured for over 40 years is located in an area of Cork City known as Shandon, the home of St. Anne’s Church and the famous Shandon Steeple.
That trade has continued to the present day and the company is now managed by Gregory O’Gorman, a grandson of the founder Thomas O’Gorman. Being respectful of past traditions and ethos, Gregory is adapting Shandon Hats to the digital age of the 21st century and a website, e-commerce and blogs have recently been added to their arsenal. The Shandon Hats products have always been very popular in the USA, and on the accompanying advert in this newspaper you will be able to avail of an attractive discount.
Visit www.shandonhats.com for more information