THE fascinating story of how Liebherr came to set up base in Killarney and its remarkable progress and success over the past 70 years and more has been captured for posterity in a detailed audio recording.
Historian Maurice O’Keeffe of Irish Life and Lore compiled the lengthy account of the origins of the company which has had far-reaching and very positive effects on the Killarney and Kerry economy.
In 1949 in Germany, Hans Liebherr invented the tower crane and he later commissioned the first Liebherr factory outside of Germany with the intention of gaining a foothold in the British and American markets.
He had initially planned to search for a suitable site in Mallow but a group of astute Killarney businessmen, led by Michael ‘Mackey’ O’Shea, got wind of his plans, met him at the Killarney Great Southern Hotel and encouraged him to change his mind in what some people refer to as a great ambush.
A site on the outskirts of Killarney was decided upon for the facility which would manufacture tower cranes, followed by container, shipyard and special cranes.
In this superb podcast, Hans Leibherr explains the reasons why he chose Killarney and discusses the expansion of the facility over the years, the outstanding success of the business and the logistics of transporting the crane parts.
Other voices to be heard are those of Klaus Nolke, former technical director at Liebherr and his wife Christal Nolke, sales director Finian Ford, driver Brendan Griffin, administrator Brian O’Kelly and the Director of Fenit Harbour Board Michael Latchford.
Irish Life and Lore is an oral history archive involved in the compilation of audio recordings and books for educational purposes and, over many decades, thousands of Irish voices from all regions of the country have been captured and archived for the future.
All individual recordings are available for purchase by download and the purchases and your donations ensure that the work in recording and archiving oral history in Ireland will continue into the future.
The link is on the www.irishlifeandlore.com website and the podcast is also available via Apple, Spotify and the usual platforms.
