Ford in Cork completes its first motor car amid concerns about factory’s future

Cork, 25 July 1923 - The first motor car to be completely manufactured and assembled at the Ford Motor Plant at the Marina Works in Cork was last evening rolled onto the streets of Cork City.

The car, which is of the touring type, was purchased by a Mr. Slattery from Bandon and the hope is that his historic purchase will signal the start of a great manufacturing industry in the city. 

There has been much speculation as to the future of motor manufacturing at Ford’s Cork plant arising from the decision of the Free State government to impose tariffs on outside materials essential to the manufacture of tractors and motors.

Nuacht TG4, Ford 100 Years in Ireland

In a letter written on behalf of Mr. Ford and in response to inquiries from Edward J. Daly from Cork, a senior representative of the Ford Motor Company in the United States. Mr. C. T. Sorensen, has acknowledged that the new tariff regulations had imposed ‘extreme difficulties’ upon the Irish operation. Sorensen’s letter, published last week by the Cork Examiner, notes that during a recent visit to the United States by Mr. Edward Grace, General Manager of the Cork plant, there had been a ‘complete study’ of the situation arising from the new Free State  government arrangements and it was decided that the company would be try work its way through difficulties which were aggravated, Sorensen said, by the fact ‘as yet there is not a sufficient demand in Ireland for the products we intend to produce in this plant. If all the raw materials we require were available in Cork, and if the quantities were sufficient to take care of our requirements, much of the difficulty would be offset; but I think you understand that we are compelled to draw on outside sources for the major portion of our raw materials.’

Notwithstanding the added tax burden being placed on the sourcing of these raw materials, Mr. Sorensen stated that the Company still had ‘great hopes of carrying out our original intentions in so far as the Cork plant is concerned, and Mr. Ford himself is sparring us on in spite of these seemingly extreme difficulties, and will not accept anything except a good fair tryout, and I know this in itself means success eventually.’

[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]