Tuam Beet and the sugar, sugar
It’s 90 years this week since Tuam’s Sugar Factory was officially opened. In a special feature, we take a look back at how it came to be.
In December 1932, a deputation of townsmen from Tuam travelled to Dublin to petition the Minister for Agriculture to look favourably on the town as a feasible option for a factory.
Two years later, Tuesday, December 4, 1934, Tuam was decked out in flags and slogans welcoming the Minister, Dr James Ryan to the official opening of the sugar factory.
A ceremonial troop of Gardai under Superintendent Pat Cronin escorted Dr Ryan to the Town Hall from the Archbishop’s Palace where he had dined with Dr. Gilmartin.
At the Town Hall, addresses of welcome in Irish were presented to him by John Burke, Chairperson of Tuam Town Commissioners, by Fr. Jennings on behalf of the local Gaelic League and by Patrick Purcell of Tuam Fianna Fáil Cumann. The party then moved on to the factory where Archbishop Gilmartin blessed the buildings in the presence of a large crowd.
Dr Ryan expressed his delight at seeing the factory in full operation just a year after the first sod was turned. Four thousand acres of beet ......
Read the feature in full in this week’s edition of The Tuam Herald, on sale in shops or buy the digital edition here