Ardfinnan Woollen Mills

Mulcahy Redmond was a textile and garment company at the Ardfinnan Woollen Mills that traded as Ardfinnan on the underlying banks of Ardfinnan Castle in Ardfinnan, County Tipperary, Ireland.^[1] A woollen and worsted mills, it was known for woollen Irish tweed, worsted suitings, knitting yarn, and tailoring ready-made suits on-site as the only Irish factory completing all stages of processing from sheep to clothing.^[2]

John Mulcahy established Mulcahy, Redmond & Co. woollen mills in 1869 at the watermill of Ardfinnan Castle on the River Suir.^[3]

The Suir flowed directly under the watermill, navigated by the weir and mill race, uniquely exiting under an arch of the adjoining medieval 14 arch Ardfinnan bridge itself, insuring a powerful flow. It was also along the main road from Dublin to Cork. The mill was likely in this advantageous position since the construction of the bridge, soon after the castle in 1185, as a source of milled flour for the knights, but the oldest surviving account is in the 17th century.^[4] The earliest mill here would have adjoined the monastic site before the present castle, said to be founded by Saint Finnan (for which Ardfinnan is named) in the 6th century, with the exiled Saint Carthage and his monks taking refuge here by the river bank, establishing Ardfinnan Abbey, along with Lismore Abbey 12 miles south. Strong local traditions of independent hand-weaving and spinning, provided a skilled local workforce.^[5] Traditionally the green on the opposite side of the river was used for tentering cloth and drying locally sourced wool, mostly produced by sheep in the Suir Valley, Galtee and Knockmealdown mountains. It is believed the traditions date back to the monastic settlement and cloth fulling at the mill by the Knights Templar of Ardfinnan Castle. A William le Teynturer (William the Dyer, of cloth) is recorded in the village in 1295.^[6]

Mulcahy also owned Rossmore Woollen Mills and by June 1883 took lease of Castlegrace Mills to process wool.^[7] On 1st October 1883 a fire destroyed the main six-story watermill building at Ardfinnan and Mulcahy's adjoining family home at Mill House, with 50 to 100 workers affected.^[8][9] A new double-roofed watermill was engineered by a Dublin firm to house a water turbine built in New Jersey by T.C. Alcott & Son. It was among only two other mills in Munster to employ this source of power, being Ashgrove Woollen Mills and Kerry Woollen Mills.^[4][10] It was "fitted on an extensive scale with the most improved machinery known in England or America for the manufacture of the very best Irish tweeds". A mill manager was employed from Galashiels in Scotland. By 1885 Mulcahy won competitions for the quality of his fabrics, judged by industry experts in Dublin.^[10] Mulcahy, Redmond advertised in the late 1880s as makers of Irish tweeds, friezes, blankets and railway rugs.

Workers cottages were built by the company, growing the village, with tennis courts opened in 1926 and Ardfinnan GAA founded by workers who had played football on the green.^[11] With its own gas and electrical supply predating 1921, the latter was provided to local housing and electric street lights until the ESB took over the supply in January 1953.^[12][13].

Mulcahy, Redmond was selected to represent the Irish Woollen Industry along with 12 other firms at the Cork International Exhibition of 1902.^[14]

One of the first ten car owners in Tipperary, Frank Mulcahy patented Galtee Motor Frieze in 1906, an innovative cloth combining warmth with a waterproof-breathable functionality aimed at the emerging motoring clothing market.^[15] Named after the Galtee Mountains and evoking the inclement Irish weather, it was designed to be "the warmest cloth ever made for motoring coats". It was a layered cloth of Irish frieze and merino wool woven with mohair. Slightly porous when dry, therefore breathable and thus hygienic, but when the outer surface became wet, the pores of the cloth closed due to contraction and subsequently became rainproof.^[16]

In late 1906 King Edward VII commissioned lengths of Galtee Motor Frieze for his motoring coat, at which time his was the first royal household to adopt the use of the motorcar in the world.^[17] He reputedly visited the mills in 1904, a familiar sight to him on his motor drives from his stay at Lismore Castle, the sister castle to Ardfinnan Castle, where the Dukes of Devonshire were local patrons of the mills for their estate tweeds and gamekeeper's tweeds. Irish motoring pioneer Richard J. Mecredy, remarked in 1908, "We have used one of these coats for several years, and find it perfect from every point of view", highlighting that it was waterproof not only after continuous use, but also when exposed to a water hose.^[18] In Great Britain and Ireland, the Galtee Motor Frieze became popular for bespoke tailored car coats.

Ready-made Galtee Motor Coats were first supplied by Pim Bros of Dublin and debuted at the 1907 Ballsbridge Motor Show.^[19]

For inclement weather conditions on the road, these woollen coats were superior in their multi-purpose functionality to either fur coats, rubber Mackintosh or cotton gabardine Burberry raincoats.^[16] High market demand was brief however, as the introduction of car windshields made weatherproof motoring coats obsolete. Mulcahy, Redmond continued to sell a Galtee range of travelling rugs or motoring blankets.

The British War Office signed back-to-back contracts with Mulcahy, Redmond during the First World War to produce khaki serge for their military uniforms.^[20] It was also famed that they produced cloth for the Imperial Russian Army.^[21] Following this, the mills expanded to the opposite side of the road with overhauled machinery from the late Lord Waterford’s woollen mill and had the largest boiler in the south of Ireland, imported from Glasgow.^[13] Worsted spun Ardfinnan Suitings gained prestige internationally in tailoring houses in London, Paris and New York.

John Mulcahy bought Ardfinnan Castle in 1921.^[22]

Following Irish independence in 1922, the Irish Free State commissioned Mulcahy, Redmond under the direction of W.J. Mulcahy to produce uniform cloths again, but for the new Irish civil service, including special commissions for the suits and overcoats for Éamon de Valera to wear representing Ireland at the League of Nations, including both as President of the Council of the League of Nations in 1932 and President of the Assembly of the League of Nations in 1938. W.J. Mulcahy served as President of the Industrial Development Association and was later a first director of General Textiles cotton mills, Athlone, when it was opened by Seán Lemass in 1947.

In 1947 a men's, boy's, and later a women's ready-made suit department employing over 70 female workers was operated at the mills, making Mulcahy, Redmond the only factory within the Republic of Ireland that was completing all stages of clothing manufacture from raw fleece to finished garments. Under the direction of Jack and Dick Mulcahy it was thus the most vertically-integrated woollen mills and also had a darning department for repairing customers woollens.^[2][23].

Ardfinnan House, 17 Trinity Street, Dublin 2, was the address of their store, showroom and office in the capital city. The sign "Ardfinnan House" remains on this building today. A trade showroom was on South William Street in Dublin.

In both 1961 and 1962, Ardfinnan Thornproof Tweed won the Premier London Award and Georgian Silver Cup at international level in London.^[2] The Ardfinnan brand was also known for Tipperary Tweed, Tipperary Luxury Tweed or Ardfinnan Tweed. Tweed was designed and produced for the uniforms of the airline staff of Aer Lingus. A Gold Medal of Industrial Excellence was presented to Jack Mulcahy and tweed designer Eddie O’Flynn for Mulcahy, Redmond’s bouclé tweed at the 1965 Leipzig Trade Fair in Germany, out of 350 entries from all fields of industry.^[24]

With up to 500 people dependent on the mills, the remaining workforce were laid off during state-mandated liquidation in January 1973. The firm was strangled by competitive disadvantages following the unregulated onslaught of offshore imports and synthetics, climaxing with Ireland's admission to the EEC.^[25] A large protest in Clonmel led by the directors, workers and Mulcahy family followed, as promises by the government to cover financial debt in the Irish woollen industry were not upheld.

Ardfinnan now continues to trade under sole proprietorship with the last local member of the Mulcahy family who seeks to revive various aspects of the business in 2026.^[26]

52°18′40″N 7°52′46″W / 52.311222°N 7.879583°W / 52.311222; -7.879583