When Steve Jobs and Apple first came to Ireland
Posted on Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 07:33 AM
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| Steve Jobs opened plant in Cork in 1980 |
My wife and I were going through boxes of my father-in-law's papers and pictures over the weekend. We found a treasure trove of genealogical tidbits such as dates of birth, marriage certificates, which provide lost maiden names, etc.
There were also a few old newspaper cuttings, which are always interesting. Airplane, The Blues Brothers, Brubaker and The Shining were among the movies playing that Christmas in Dublin.
There were a couple of news items that caught my eye.
Christmas, of course, was a focal point. An industrial dispute at the national electricity company threatened to leave many people in the west of Ireland with no electricity for Christmas. I don't know how that turned out. There was an article about a man spotted stealing a piece of buttered bread from the sparrows and feeding it to the ducks. They were simpler times.
There was a short item on a speech by Pope John Paul II, who was warning of the dangers that arise when political blocs "seek to assert their rights over small nations." Although he was alluding to his native Poland, Ireland in 2012 is being squeezed very hard by the political bloc that currently controls the European Union.
There was, however, one article that really stood out, that leaped off the page. An American company was opening a new factory in Cork and the the head of that company was saying some radical things. The company was Apple Computers and the man was Steven Jobs (or Stephen Jobs - the caption writer didn't agree with the journalist).
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Read More:
Bono brands Steve Jobs the Elvis of the computer world
In Cork Steve Jobs found the perfect match for Apple
Steve Jobs was a great American genius
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You can sense journalist Dick Cross is skeptical where he writes that "Irish housewives could be throwing away cookery books and taking their recipes off the screens of mini computers" and doctors will similarly store and retrieve patient histories. Cross' skepticism is tempered when he notes that Jobs has become a "millionaire in just four years."
Cross wasn't the only non-believer in attendance at the opening or at least his report indicates he wasn't. "At the Holyhill, Cork, assembly plant there is no time clock to monitor the coming and going of the workers. Many experienced trade union people lifted their eyebrows in disbelief at the concept." Jobs trusted his employees, but that was clearly not the norm in Ireland in 1980.
Nothing earth-shattering in the report, but I couldn't help wondering what those tough union folks made of Jobs and Apple over the 30 years since the Cork plant opened. Did they regale people with stories of how they were there when it all started, how they could see it in his eyes that he and Apple were going to be wildly successful and that the people of Cork were on a winner from the start? Or did they admit that they thought he was a loon and that his way of doing business would never work in Ireland?
These days "Irish housewives" don't save recipes on their "minicomputers." They call them up from the web using their iPads. Irish doctors presumably store all sorts of patient data in computer databases, although based on what I heard from the Minister for Health this morning, our hospitals have a way to go on this yet.
I don't know if other people shared Jobs' vision back in 1980, but I bet there were very few in Ireland. Possibly none, although I bet those who were the first employees of Apple in Ireland were quick converts. I can well imagine that many who read that report simply thought to themselves that they'd be happy if they could get a reliable telephone and electricity supply. They probably didn't so much disbelieve Steve Jobs as assume he was actually from "a Galaxy Far Far Away" from Ireland.
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LaurenceCuffe | Jan 28, 2012, 04:50 AM EST
Looking through the Royal Irish Academy Atlas of Ireland, 1979, which has lots of statistical maps, I find the following for Cork
61-80 Telephones per 1000 persons.
151-179 motor cars per 1000 persons,
Households with a flush toilet, about 65 %,
Households with a fixed bath or shower, about 35%
Poverty is harder to call from the data, however the personal income per capita for Cork using 1973 figures was 740 and 839 Irish pounds (per annum).
About 50% of dwellings were owner ocupied, and about 25% were council rented.
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sirpeter | Jan 18, 2012, 12:27 PM EST
Hi Yank.Bear with me so I can explain.Quote"The basics of modern life - electricity, telephones, indoor plumbing - were still relatively new in Ireland then".Unquote.That's the offending statement to me because it's a sweeping statement.It's misleading and it wasn't the case for the vast majority of people.Council houses only really started to be built in the late 40's by the government.Before that the really poor lived in rented rooms/tenements like you would see in New York as well.They shared indoor plumbing facilities(Water and a few toilets,gas for cooking as well.but no bath,taken out maybe).These 4 or 5 story tenements were the houses of the wealthy merchants before they moved to get away from the poor and inner city Before the 50's you either lived in a tenement or a private house.In Cork gas for public lighting commenced in 1826 when the United General Gas Company opened it's works at Albert Road.Then in 1859 gas was sold to the citizens by the Cork Gas Consumers Company.Many towns like Midleton(2,900 people)had their own gas works.
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sirpeter | Jan 18, 2012, 12:26 PM EST
(Cont)The private houses had gas water heaters by the sink and over the bath.If you wanted gas water heaters.The question is was the gas affordable.The answer is yes to anyone with even a very modest income.No point in setting up the Cork Gas Consumers Company if the citizens can’t buy the gas. The reason why I know this without doing some research is my Grandmother told me that British army after WW1 built small houses for the shell shocked soldiers families in 1919 to look after them because of the price they payed in the war.(fathers couldn't work much) and fitted the houses with indoor plumbing,gas heaters and a bath and toilet.But my grandmother used to joke that they didn't use the bath for washing,but used it to put coal in it instead.I'll explain why you are incorrect.The really really poor who lived in the tenement's of the cities were the people first housed by the council.They did not put in bathrooms or a bath in the council houses in the late 40s because the people didn't have them in the tenement's and washing wasn't a priority or even a daily habit.They cut costs by putting the toilet outside too.The people didn't mind not having an indoor toilet or a bath.That's the reason.
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sirpeter | Jan 18, 2012, 12:26 PM EST
(Cont) In the 1950s, the poverty rate for all Americans was 22.4%, or 39.5 million individuals.(University of Michigan) In Ireland in the 1950s it was 33%. Now considering the 1950’s were a great time in the USA because Europe was a bunch of rubble and exports and job creation were massive.The poverty rate was still nearly a quarter of the population.Ireland had 10% more proverty of 2.5 million people.But here is the surprise for me.In 20I0 in the USA the poverty rate for all persons masks considerable variation between racial/ethnic subgroups. Poverty rates for blacks and Hispanics greatly exceed the national average. In 2010, 27.4 percent of blacks and 26.6 percent of Hispanics were poor, compared to 9.9 percent of whites and 12.1 percent of Asians.There is an American tale in those figures.My point is anybody can make a sweeping statement about Ireland or the Irish but Americans and anybody should stop and think that just maybe it’s the kettle calling the pot black.And in fairness it’s pretty annoying to hear Americans point to the living conditions of the poor in Ireland’s past when millions of Americans are living in abject poverty in what can only be described as pre-fabricated shelters in trailer parks in 2012.
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TheYank | Jan 18, 2012, 04:19 AM EST
The point was not to say Ireland was (& definitely not IS) backward, but that Ireland was poor. That's inarguable. The country was pretty much 3rd world in the 50s. By the early 90s meaningful differences between Ireland and America or Britain or Germany were gone. Amazing progress.
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TheYank | Jan 18, 2012, 04:17 AM EST
sirpeter,
Maybe you and I have different definitions of "indoor plumbing?" Maybe mine's not really accurate.
I know for a fact that council houses in Dun Laoghaire built before 1950 had a cold water tap in the kitchen and that was it. No indoor toilet - it was outside - and not bath-room.
When I fist went to Dalkey, Co Dublin in the late 1980s I was amazed to learn that there were dozens of houses in the same condition. The council was then going around installing bathrooms for tenants and anyone who had bought their council house had to pay to install their own bathroom.
Maybe Dalkey was unique in Ireland by then? I kind of doubt it.
Maybe you and I have different definitions of "indoor plumbing?" Maybe mine's not really accurate.
I know for a fact that council houses in Dun Laoghaire built before 1950 had a cold water tap in the kitchen and that was it. No indoor toilet - it was outside - and not bath-room.
When I fist went to Dalkey, Co Dublin in the late 1980s I was amazed to learn that there were dozens of houses in the same condition. The council was then going around installing bathrooms for tenants and anyone who had bought their council house had to pay to install their own bathroom.
Maybe Dalkey was unique in Ireland by then? I kind of doubt it.
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TheYank | Jan 18, 2012, 04:13 AM EST
I didn't expect people to get so offended, but I stand by what I wrote. In 1960 large numbers of people still lived without telephones, "indoor plumbing" and electricity. By 1980 there were still many who did not have one of those three. "Relatively new" I said and I stand by that. Sure telephones were "available" but how many had them by 1970? By 1980? I came to Ireland in the mid 1980s and met many people who had no phone. Many were had to use a party line. And if you wanted to get a phone installed? It cost a fortune and there was something like an 18 month wait.
I probably would have figured electricity was nationwide by 1980 myself, but that article in the Evening Herald about the strike was about the workers' involved in electrifying areas in Galway, Mayo, & Roscommon. So, it wasn't universally available yet.
I probably would have figured electricity was nationwide by 1980 myself, but that article in the Evening Herald about the strike was about the workers' involved in electrifying areas in Galway, Mayo, & Roscommon. So, it wasn't universally available yet.
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sirpeter | Jan 17, 2012, 02:35 PM EST
RedBranch.There's an Achill islander here who wants to tell ya that they now have a direct link to a telecommunications satellite.But he wants to know do you still run away from the trailer park when a big wind comes?
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RedBranch | Jan 17, 2012, 01:35 PM EST
Fact: the telephone system in Achill that year required the user to turn a crank and wait for the operator. Indeed there were many towns in the west that required connection by an operator. Postal strikes could go on for months and on the main roads the hard shoulder was considered a travel lane.
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sirpeter | Jan 17, 2012, 01:20 PM EST
Yank..For FECK SAKE.What are you trying to do to us!!!The Electricity Supply Board was set up in 1927.NO Telephones,No Indoor Plumbing.Will you cop yourself on.The radio service began on January 1, 1926,while regular television broadcasts began on December 31, 1961,making it one of the oldest continuously operating public service broadcasters in the world.Yank let me educate you at bit.Every house built in and around Cork city not only had indoor plumbing but also had an indoor bath by the start of the 20th century.Even the Romans had plumbing 2000 years ago.In Ireland we had brick and tiled roof houses when Americans were in log cabins.I suggest you have a look at some 18th century paintings of the cities of Ireland.You won't see any thatched roofs either in the cities.Hail Mary full of grace,please help the stupid people on this site.Amen
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claireok | Jan 17, 2012, 11:40 AM EST
I may have been living in a different dimension but I do actually remember having perfectly-working electricity, telephones and indoor plumbing in the 1980s, and my parents never complained of having to use out-houses and the like, in previous years. The tone of this piece perpetuates a notion that Ireland is an unprogressive, slow-moving, idiot of a country and it has not been recieved well by this reader.
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I think that data supports my thesis that these things were only coming into general acceptance at the time. I didn't mean to offend anyone. In fact, I thought I was simply stating a truth.
I'd like to see the stats, but I would bet that in New York in 1980 more than 61-80 out of every thousand people living in "poverty" had a telephone. I'd also bet more than 65% had a flush toilet and a fixed bath/shower.
I honestly don't know why anything I said could be found offensive.
I also think if you had economic stats you'd find that relatively speaking Ireland was richer in 1919 than it was in 1959. War & depression took their toll and there was no Marshall Plan money for Ireland in the late 40s/early 50s.
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