Up until the 1960’s, many a local from Ringsend and Irishtown did not have far to travel to find employment.

Apart from the big guns such as The Bottle House, Bolands, etc., many small businesses thrived in the area.

One such of these was the Irish Arts Plaster Company, better know locally as the ‘Statue Factory’, an accurate title as, indeed, statues of the religious kind were their stock in trade.

Situated behind the mini-supermarket on Bath Street, at its height, the Statue Factory employed up to 70 people working three shifts at busy times.

They supplied the Irish market such as Clery’s and Veritas House and exported to Liverpool, Leeds, London and other English cities with large Irish Catholic populations.

Tommy McGowan, who hailed from a seafaring family on Pigeon House Rd, started work there as a young man back in 1942. Tommy’s brother, Des who had worked there since 1936, having got him the job.

The Irish Arts Plaster Co. was owned and ran by a German family, the Paffraths. Originally, they had brought over three German artists, who then taught their skills to locals.

John McFadden, a Donegal painter, also instructed many in the skilled work of detail painting, men such as Paddy Butler of South Lotts, Sean Nelson of City Quay, brothers Kevin and John Quinn of Oaklands Park, Tommy’s brother Liam, Albert Morley and Gerard Dolan of Stella Gardens.

Tommy tells of Gerard Dolan being an absolute genius with his hands. The statues were first refined from the moulds then dipped in shellac as a primer.

The shortages of the war years ensured the vital shellac was almost impossible to obtain and herein lies a tale!

Tommys father, William McGowan, was a seaman and cook aboard the Guinness boat S.S ‘Carrowdore’, which plied between Dublin and Liverpool. Her skipper was a Captain Semple who lived on Sandymount Rd.

As an act of neighbourliness, not profiteering, Mr. McGowan often brought back from Liverpool items in short supply such as white bread, bicycle tyres and other things neighbours and friends requested.

Knowing the plight of the Statue Factory, he managed to secure a supply of shellac from England, and so the factory remained open for business.

One night, however, as the ‘Carrowdore’ returned from Liverpool, she was circled by a German bomber. With her two guns blazing, the ‘Carrowdore’ sent out a Mayday as the German plane came in to attack.

An incendiary bomb exploded near the wheelhouse and an aerial torpedo just off the port bow. A Spitfire arrived on the scene and chased off the German raider.

Eddie Bowden a young deckhand from Ringsend was injured and on sick leave for three months. Undeterred, Eddie studied at night and later became a Captain with Guinness

It was not the first time William McGowan had escaped death at sea. Earlier in the century, with his brother Tom, he had decided to join three other brothers who had emigrated to New York.

As they made preparations for their passage from Cork, they heard on the grapevine of a freighter leaving a week earlier and decided to sail on her instead.

Their intended ship was the pride of the line, the ‘Titanic’.

As the First World War loomed, both men returned to Dublin, two of the brothers who remained became distinguished sea captains in New York.

In common with most others in the locality, the men of the Statue Factory were soccer mad, as was, their boss Joe Parffrath. He provided generous sponsorship for their team, Arts United, and time off for home internationals. Later he became a director of Shelbourne.

In 1944–45, Arts United won the A.U.L. Intermediate League. Being a man short in one of their matches, Arts drafted Tommy in under an assumed name and he managed to score the winning goal.

Tommy tells me many of his work mates were very useful players and mentions Tommy Plunkett of Ringsend, who played for Shamrock Rovers. But the most brilliant and gifted was Pat Dunne from Brendan’s Cottages.

At 21 years of age, Pat had just signed to Shamrock Rovers. He went for a swim down at Costello’s on the South Wall, suffered a heart attack and died.

Though his career was tragically cut short, he is still remembered by some as one of the best ever.
With the rise of pop and the media as the new religion, sales of statues of saints fell into decline and the Irish Arts Plaster Company closed its doors in the 1960’s.

Tommy McGowan is a quiet, unassuming, thorough gentleman. When the statue factory closed, along with brothers Des and Liam, Tommy quickly found work on the quays.
A very happy Christmas, Tommy, and many, many more of them.