The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-03 00:00:00

Enterprise in Ireland.

Peter Tait, mayor of Limerick, employer of some
1,000 hands, partner, too, in the largest drapery
house in the city, has been little more than a dozen
years in making his fortune out of three half-crowns
which were all his wealth when, a poor Scotch lad,
be took service under the firm of Arnott and Can-
nock. He began to make money by Australian
shirts. Then he got a contract for militia boots,
and he was rejoicing in his luck when all his goods
were returned on his hands. Instantly he went
to London, sought out friendly M.P., and said,
" There must be some favouritism here, for I know
my things are good, and quite up to sample." His
friend got the boots re-examined, and the contract was
confirmed. Tait was a made man. He ran the block-
ade, too, and supplied the South with something very
different from the New York shoddy. He now
makes a great deal for our own army, besides cloth-
ing the Irish constabularly, and doing odd jobs for
foreign Powers, like that which the Prussians gave
him the other day. Thus, if he is not altogether a
manufacturer—for, though he makes Limerick lace,
and uses a good deal of Irish frieze, the bulk of his
cloth is woven in Leeds—he has at any rate shown
that Irish industry may be, with common care and
perseverance, remuneratively diverted into non-
agricultural channels. Care and perseverance,
those are rare qualities everywhere ; rarer, people
say, and the state of things seems to prove the as-
sertion, in Ireland than elsewhere. The cry for
Irish manufacture has frequently been heard. It
was often in O'Connell's mouth, it was loudly raised
by the 'Young Ireland party. At one meeting,
for instance, a good deal was said about Irish pot-
tery; some good clay had been discovered, and
henceforth no true patriot would use any cups, or
plates, or basins that were not home-made. A
Staffordshire man was among the company. Out
he walked, and wrote off home, " Make a lot of
cheap things of all sorts, and put a border of shrain-
rocks, round every one, and an Irish harp in the
centre of each." This was done, and before the
Irish had thought of getting out their clay, the
markets were stocked with " patriotic" crockery,
the sale of which had made the cunning English-
man's fortune. Well, care and perseverance have made
Peter Tait the the largest employer of labour in Lime-
rick. His place is well worth a visit. The long work-
room contains 150 sewing machines, which employ
500 work girls. All goes by steam ; so that the
doctors, who cry out about the evil effects of the
machines in the London slopshops, can now point
out a remedy. The ventilation is perfect, and the
neatness and modest look of the girls contrast
strongly with what one sees in Yorkshire or Lan-
cashire mills. of course in other rooms there are
cutting machines which go through twenty-four
thicknesses of cloth as easily as you would cut
a piece of cheese, and pressing irons heated inside
with gas, and all the most modern adjuncts
of a great clothing establishment. Bat the main
point is, that these girls, who would else have been
picking up a wretched livelihood by making a little
lace and hawking it about the streets, get here from
83. to 10s. a week, and all are so good that when a
young woman of loose ways of talk gets among them
they at once send up a deputation and respectfully
insist on her being removed. People can't all be
Taits ; and, if they were, there is not room in the
world for any unlimited number of army clothiers.
But there are other businesses in which cheap,
4t natty" labour, such as Irish women (and men
too) can give when they are properly set to work,
is the main requisite. Why should not cheap
bookbinding be done in Ireland ? Messrs. Wood,
of Belfast, who show so many things in the Paris
Ex'nibition, prove that good bookbinding is as pos-
sible now as it was in the days of the old saints.
But surely at Cork, or some other southern town,
an enterprising man might bind cheaply and well for
public offices and private companies, and might make
ledgers and such like at rates with which English
houses could not compete. The trade would be
a small one ; but Ireland is not in a condition
to despise the day of small things. Before
Irishmen, however, can hope to do anything in
this way they must leave off that abominable habit
of detraction which has always been their besetting
sin. It is sickening to hear two priests—worthy,
useful men in their way, but who certainly look as
if whatever amount of self-denial is imposed on
them by their creed, agreed most admirably with
their health—discussing, for instance, the new
boat which their Mayor has brought over from
Glasgow for the good of the Limerick citizens.
He has halved the fares, doubled the speed, and
quadrupled the accommodation, and every think-
ing man believes him when he says he
does not wish to make a penny by the
venture, but only to give the people readier
access to their Brighton at Kilkee, and to attract
strangers by offering them a steamer of which any
city might be proud. Yet one clerical person
grumbles out, in his lazy Western speech, " Taaait's
no fool ;" and his companion, grinning, replies,
" Taaait's wide awake. His £5,000 at 5 per cent.
would not be bringing in so much as that boat does."
" Aye, and see his notice stuck up, Dinner on board
at half-a-crown, and the best liquors at maaderate
" prices.Taaait knows what he's about. Who'd eat half-
a-crown's worth when the boat's rolling with a fresh
wind ?" And then a lay friend chimes in, and
finds fierce fault because the steamer was not re-
christened with an Irish name. That's the way
Irishmen treat those who do for them what they
won't do for themselves; and that's all the reward
" Taaait" gets for his welldoing. No, it is not ;
for, besides wincing a fortune, he has won the re-
spect and goodwill even of those among whom he
lives; though they can't for the life of them get
quite rid of fault-finding, they do admire him
in spite of it.