Saturday 25th July at 11:00 am, Maldron Hotel, Shandon.
Speakers
Gertie O’Driscoll and John Twomey of Ringaskiddy Residents Association,
Tom MacSweeney, journalist and editor of Seascapes Maritime Monthly podcast
Derry Chambers, environmental activist.
This story began with an unobtrusive newspaper planning notice in September 1975 inserted by the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) for a four million pound factory at Ovens Co Cork located about 15 kilometers to the west of the city. Few, if any read the notice as it was placed in the Irish Independent newspaper which had a minuscule readership in Cork among the four daily Irish newspapers. Amazingly the word asbestos, which was to be used in the manufacturing process was not mentioned.
On the 22nd December 1975, Cork County Council gave planning permission for the factory. Members of the local community, preoccupied with Christmas and still completely unaware of what products were to be manufactured on the site did not lodge a planning appeal. Construction commenced.
Back in the USA, the early 70s saw the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) becoming aware of the growing carnage among workers from inhaling asbestos which increased the risk of lung, oesophageal and stomach cancers and a host of other risks. By 1975, the OSHA demanded a further lowering of exposure levels as evidence multiplied and workers died. By 1977 the US Environmental Protection Agency listed asbestos for priority attention. In Europe, Denmark and Sweden already aware of the dangers to workers working with asbestos had begun to ban it.
Yet some US manufacturers had already decided to move asbestos production to countries where enforcement of environmental regulations was either non-existent or not enforced. This was later confirmed by the publication of the ‘Castleman Report’ in 1979 following research by US scientist, Barry Castleman into the export of factories using hazardous or toxic materials.
People began to realise something was amiss when Cork County Council gave planning permission for an asbestos dump at Knockanemore in September 1976. On this occasion Ovens residents appealed the decision as controversy erupted across the area once it became known that Raybestos Manhattan was moving into the factory with the intention of manufacturing ten million brake pads per annum containing quantities of white (Chrysotile) asbestos. Following mounting controversy, the planned dump at Knockanemore was abandoned.
Several individuals commenced legal actions in court to stop the factory, however the cases by local Ovens resident Paddy McFadden and marine biologist Rory Finegan both eventually failed leaving both men with sizable legal bills. A newly formed Womens’ Action Group based in Ovens picketed the US embassy in Dublin, the banners carried by the women read ‘American Co brings Killer Dust to Cork’.
Reassurances about the factory from the IDA, the Cork County Councils, the Irish Industrial Research and Standards (IIRS), trade unions and many politicians fell on deaf ears. The frantic search for a dump for the factory waste asbestos carried on in County Cork as Sreelawn, Nad, Nohoval and Currabinny marsh were mentioned as locations, with predictable outrage in the communities which were now openly challenged the safety reassurances and data being provided. Trust in the State agencies disappeared as reliable and scientific information on the health impacts of asbestos from America and British scientists and activists began to arrive.
Finally Cork County Council sought planning for the dump for asbestos waste at a site it controlled at Barnahely, Ringaskiddy in early 1977. Ringaskiddy, then a seaside village located to the south east of the city on the shores of Cork Harbour was becoming the location for the chemical/pharmaceutical industry. The recently formed Ringaskiddy Residents Association (RRA), which in its founding minutes had stated that it was not opposed to “essential progress and overall prosperity”, objected to the plans for the dump.
The elected members of Cork County Council voted to grant permission by 27 votes to 17. An appeal to An Bord Pleanala by the RRA was rejected in September 1977. As the Raybestos factory commenced production in Ovens, residents in Ringaskiddy commenced a 24 hour picket at the entrance to the site and there were some highly charged meetings held in the local community hall.
Attempts to dump the asbestos waste grew and a violent confrontation took place on 15th May 1978 when a Willie O’Brien truck and a car driven by Ted Deane, the manager of Raybestos Manhattan along with the aid of Gardaí forced its way through dozens of local people along with school children from the nearby school.
The local newspaper, the Cork Examiner reported as follows;
“The confrontation was extremely violent, reminiscent of a street battle in Derry or Belfast and introduced an ugly new element to the asbestos row. Children were knocked to the ground screaming and crying as the guards broke through the picket lines”
The report states that women were also knocked to the ground children were injured and men engaged in hand to hand scuffles with the Gardaí. A rock was thrown and smashed the window of the Mr Deane’s car. Later that night the waste pellets which had been dumped was dug up and driven some 35 kilometers back to the factory. Emotions were at boiling point after the days events.
Now there were hostile communities at both Ringaskiddy and Ovens and total opposition in any potential dump sites, the controversy mounted in communities all across Cork. A number of activists from the Cork Anti-Nuclear movement networked with people in some of the communities involved in legal and planning actions and had learned the lessons and costs of taking on the state.
At the Carnsore Anti-Nuclear festival in 1979, the story of the asbestos war in Cork was debated at workshops and meetings as part of discussions relating to the growth of toxic industry. Subsequently a group of younger environmental and labour activists emerged and linked up in a new group known as the Noxious Industry Action Group. . These determined activists, very loosely organised concentrated on meeting the young workers at the Raybestos factory and supplying them with accurate scientific information on health and safety and the explained the many health dangers which exposure to asbestos fibres posed to their health. Trust was gradually established and the changing factory shifts were met with activists regularly handing out informational leaflets rubbishing the claims of management that risks of working with asbestos were minimal.
Through early 1980, these workers and activists were meeting and talking regularly with older men known as laggers who had worked with asbestos or had been employed to remove dangerous lagging from old pipes. Most of those men were experiencing serious health and lung issues and were adamant that asbestos would kill them. Their graphic and visual warnings made a huge impression on observers.
By the spring and summer of 1980, these health and safety issues were being openly raised with the union officials after a number of asbestos spillages within the factory and the protective clothing was unsuitable and inadequate. A series of walk outs and strikes occurred during the summer of 1980, along with workers placing a number of unofficial pickets of the plant.
More problems arose at Ringaskiddy as waste was found scattered around the temporary dump and the Ringaskiddy Residents Association threatened High Court action, while even Cork County Council took legal action. By October 1980, Raybestos Manhattan announced they were pulling out. Even in defeat, they blamed the market depression in the US and new regulations in Germany rather than acknowledging the huge impact of the total refusal of Irish communities, workers and environmentalist to believe anything they said.
Even then the lessons were not learned by the official State bodies which deliberately tried to hide the serious dangers of asbestos from the local communities and workers. Trade union activists took the issue of worker safety seriously and the establishment of the Health and Safety Authority in 1989 was the result of demands by unions. The subsequent distrust of the IDA and the Cork County Council resulted in years of environmental disputes in County Cork and Cork Harbour.
The Merrell Dow Corporation which planned a factory for Killeagh in East Cork eventually pulled out due to widespread opposition. Sandoz faced major planning difficulties over dioxin emissions and a new organisation, the Cork Environmental Alliance emerged. The three week long Sandoz Oral Hearing in July 1990 revealed major shortcomings and flaws in environmental regulation in Ireland. The IDA had also persisted with claims in the media that Cork had lost factories due to local environmental activity. The story of John Hanrahan in Tipperary and the enduring and prolonged environmental protests in Cork forced the politicians to establish the Irish Environmental Protection Agency EPA in 1993.
The residue of distrust continues to this day with the widespread opposition across Cork towards the efforts by Belgian company Indaver which has sought planning permissions to build a toxic incinerator near the village of Ringaskiddy since 2001.
Postscript.
The World Health organisation (WHO) today states “Globally more than 200,000 deaths are estimated to be caused by occupational exposure to asbestos: more than 70% of all work-related cancers. All forms of asbestos including chrysotile are carcinogenic to humans.”
Remembering the Asbestos War in County Cork 1975-1980.
Saturday 25th July 2026 at 11am at the Maldron Hotel, Shandon.
This discussion will be recorded in full for the Mother Jones Archives.
Sources:
Asbestos Killer Dust by Alan J.P. Dalton, British Society for Social Responsibility in Science. 1979.
Guests of the Nation by Robert Allen and Tara Jones 1990.
Raybestos Manhattan and the Development Plans for Cork Harbour. Case Study by Susan Baker.
Local Newspaper and media reports. Discussions with community activists.
